Microsoft Kin One and Kin Two announced: Windows Phone roots with a social slant | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft Kin One and Kin Two announced: Windows Phone roots with a social slant

engadget.com

35 pointsniravs17 comments

If the price point is right I think these are going to be smash hits with the younger crowd.

To me they seem quite underwhelming, but if I look at how my younger sisters & cousins use their phones then all those boxes are checked and in a very visually pleasing way.

The 'spot' seems like an interesting piece of ui. I'm interested to see how effective it is in real world use.

It also reminds me of the courier video, where users could clip out random parts of a webpage.

edit: here's more of the ui, if anyone is interested: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/12/microsoft-kin-ui-walkthro...

Phones with a social slant have been around since the 1870's.

Yes. Previously, phones such as the "tin can with no string" only enabled conversations with oneself. The addition of "talk to someone else" technology was truly a revolution in social networking.

Yeah, but those cause brain tumors I hear.

I wonder how long it will take for these phones to get support for 3rd party apps. While it would really be great to see more affordable (think non-luxury) smart phones, the iphone and nexus one both demonstrate that people need and want apps to enrich the experience.

Why bother having a camera and browser if you can't take that data (pictures, web pages, etc) and send it via email or twitter, or an edit it with an app?

"and it looks like the Zune HD UI we're accustomed to"

all three of us, that is.

(no, actually not me. I have an iPod)

If this is the fabled Zune phone, I'm extremely disappointed. I'm not sure what they mean by "social slant." Maybe they mean it's a great conversation starter. Imagine busting it out at a bar, people wouldn't be able to resist commenting on how ugly it is.

Didn't Microsoft buy the word "Social" a few years ago? Now it means whatever they want it to mean. Welcome to the Social.

Maybe their BRAND UNVEIL can educate you about why this is the most important thing ever: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/04/msft-p...

I find the quotes from their event hilarious: "So, this social generation really does have a point of view. They think it, they do it, and they have a mantra for it." "We came up with this concept of friends, friends, and friends."

Maybe I'm waaay too old to know what "kids these days" are up to, but if everybody under the age of 22 is all about FRIENDS FRIENDS FRIENDS then the world will soon collapse. No new work will get done. We'll be idiocracy within twenty years where everybody exists solely to click ads. It's ads and vapid social media consultants all the way down.

[but if everybody under the age of 22 is all about FRIENDS FRIENDS FRIENDS then the world will soon collapse]

Friends Friends Friends is the new way to network, isn't networking one of the things they preach to everyone for everything (finding a job, starting a startup...)

I don't think this is the Zune phone. It's more like the Windows Phone equivalent of the Motorola BackFlip: not quite a smart phone, but higher on the foodchain that a text+call only phone. It's designed for social stuff[1], and just social stuff (no third-party apps, no flash, no silverlight). Not surprising when you consider that it was designed by the folks who made the SideKick, I guess. Apparently some people want a phone that isn't a computer, but is really just a social networking assistant. Wouldn't do it for me, but it seems like it's a niche that companies are interested in competing over.

[1]: Where "social stuff" also means Facebook, Twitter, and email, instead of just text and calling.

I think these are aimed at people not old enough to get into bars.

I get the feeling these phones are aimed at phones that shouldn't be able to get into bars - it's a Sidekick 4.0.

I'm sorry I don't get it. Microsoft isn't a hardware company, so there's no reason to start "diversifying" and "segmenting". Windows Phone 7 seems absolutely awesome. They need to just stick to that. As a 15 year old girl, this still ranks way way below an iPhone, Droid, or even gasp a palm pre. They should have just saved this type hardware (which seems pretty decent) for when they launch the Windows Phone 7 stuff. So now MSFT has:

-winmo 6.5 (which they're keeping) and is horrible -KinOS (I don't know what this is supposed to do) -Win Phone Series 7 Series Seventh Windows Phone- Which looks awesome, has developers excited, and will require OEMs to ship quality hardware.

Just concentrate on the last one please.

I took this as a follow-up to the Sidekick, which is one of those devices that is way more popular than I'd ever realized.

I think there is a real market here, that's distinct from iPhone-like smartphones. As to whether or not Microsoft should be in this market, I'd have to agree with you that it seems like a distraction.

Are you an 15yr old girl??? Your website shows a much older guy :P

Microsoft has made a point to make this phone totally unlike iPhone with the Physical keyboard and Smaller form-factor and even going with Verizon rather than AT&T and the first two might attract the younger crowd.

The gods of moderation seem to have it in for you!

Microsoft has been a hardware company ever since they produced the apple IIe z80 soft card, followed by mice, keyboards, mp3 players game consoles and so on.

For the most part their hardware showings have been sub-par but every now and then they get it right.

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