There's no denying that Microsoft's new
Kin phones are a next-gen riff on the Sidekick, and just like the Sidekick, everything that happens on the phone will be backed up to a Microsoft service, called Kin Studio. Text messages, photos, videos, music, other content -- it's all instantly synced to the Studio, which is obviously accessible from any browser. Of course, it's sort of funny for Microsoft to be saying that it'll back up all your data for you, since it just had a
major Sidekick data loss incident, but hey -- the kids don't know that, right? They're off skateboarding, or hanging out watching fat people eat burritos*, or whatever they do.
Update: Video for the "upload generation" now available to stream after the break. Think you can handle that?
*Actual line from teen testimonial video shown during Microsoft event. We are not kidding.
posted April 12th 2010 1:40PM
Now we can be tracked even more, thanks Microsoft I always wanted you as a big brother.
@mentalchaos
You don't have to use it.
@GON I'm actually thinking about getting a kin 2 now. I need a new phone.
@mentalchaos
Actually Microsoft generally tries to take the approach of data privacy, in contrast to Google which stores your every thought.
@mentalchaos Do you have an actual citation of wrong-doing by Microsoft as it relates to personal information and privacy? It seems like Microsoft errs more on the side of privacy in contrast to Google who wants to open up every single bit of information it can to the world.
Really, what drove that comment? Or is it just that it's MSFT and "they are evil"?
@mentalchaos @alex
Ahh, shut up.
No one is saying you have to use these services, and if you are then it's just part of the deal. Stop whinging, if you're so paranoid you need to stop using the internet and get off the fucking 'grid' where I don't have to listen to you whine.
@Alex 'you don't have to use it'
@mentalchaos I wonder if you'll have to call to reauthorize the operating system when you change the battery.... (now that the snark is out of my system...)
I like the idea of constant backup. And I'd guess that MS has fixed the issues they had (read: catastrophic data loss) when migrating the Sidekick data onto their servers.
I like the way Palm first, then Android, and now Microsoft are all integrating all of your various address books and communications into one stream. Hopefully Apple will do their traditional "we're not first, but we're best" implementation of this on the iDevices soon.
@lamerz I made that comment because that how corporations work these day they monitor our actions. Its a marketing tool I take a picture of me wearing some brand name clothing at a Linkin Park Concert, and if 500 other people do something smiler they now have a idea of what is popular.
@lamerz: Other than the fact they lose your data after mining it for all its worth, none whatsoever.
@Ariel Bender
They got it back, chief.
@Alex Agreed but there is little point in data privacy if the phone is geared towards 'sharing' to entities like Facebook who have shown again and again that they will do whatever they want with the data you put up there.
@mentalchaos do you think that information is not available from point of sales?
Very nice!
@hdawggy
Not!
Um. I suppose i don't like random squares on the screen.
@barac I sort of like the interface there actually. Kind of a cool real-time scrapbook. Not bad at all. If it has the Apple name on it, it would get 10 articles on Engadget and weighed in detail by thousands of comments.
@barac I guess you are more than 16, if you don't like myspace then this phone is not for you
@hdawggy My eyes hurt.
Very sexy, so bad you won't be able to open and edit the side from your phone due to missing flash/silverlight ]:->
@Niklasnick
I LOVE the UI just not the phones. Could be a great upgrade from the shit OS Verizon puts on their phones( obviously with somewhat of a hardware upgrade).
@Jimbojones myspace eh? the 200x called they want their social networking back.
That's what I always did with my friends. Went to Taco Bell and watched the fatties eat burritos.
@MarcusMaximus When that guy said that in the video, it made me think, "Holy shit, the future generation are going to doom us."
@kdilkington The future generation *is going to doom us.
or
The future *generations are going to doom us.
Ordinarily, I'd let that pass, given the subject matter at hand, though....
@MarcusMaximus It's perfectly fine as "are" in British English, so speak for yourself.
@MarcusMaximus Seriously, I can't believe MSFT marketing allowed that comment in the video.
I won't be surprised, though, if the FAT (Fat Americans for Technology) or some agenda-driven organization comes out against Microsoft as being biased against the tubby people of the world and calls for a boycott of the Kin as being a phone "only for skinny people".
Remember, people are not fat, they are weight-endowed. They just have "more to love".
@lamerz
Please dont tell me that FAT is a true organization... i may pee my pants. ha ha
@kdilkington
you can only use "are" for a collective noun if its members are not acting in agreement, in unison, or generally together. it's incorrect above.
They should of made the phones look like the sidekicks lol.
@CJisohsocool
*should have
Come on, guys...
(See the importance of grammar in my sentence?)
EPIC FAIL!
I don't think I have enough hipster friends to use a Kin, per these marketing materials.
No one ever accused Microsoft of not being a great panderer. I don't think the kids these days are into being pandered though...
I have to say, MS have blown me away. If they market the hell out of this it has a chance... as I expected, its kinda a limited feature win phone 7...
@eko2
I'm sure Verizon will do their own marketing too. This should turn out pretty decently. I wonder how this affects Sharps and Microsoft's Danger relationship with T-Mobile...
@WixosTrix
if Verizon markets this thing half as well as it did the Droid, youll be seeing these everywhere.
Ironically Greg Kihn was in the studio and could not be reached for comment...
@stridermt2k ...baby...
HEY.
What kind of burritos were the fat people eating? I could go for one right about now...
@shizbgby. My sources are telling me it was a turtle Burrito
@shizbgby
Just use the "burrito finder" app, I'm sure it comes with the phone.
Nah, any smart kid (with smart parents) wouldn't suggest this phone to their kids. I wouldn't want any of my info all accessible by Microsoft. There should at least be some way to export everything from that data-cloud Microsoft has created for this phone series.
@Plazmic Flame
so any smart kid also wouldn't have an email account, a facebook, twitter, myspace, any type of outside internet contact information at all?
Maybe that kid isn't so smart.
@Plazmic Flame
I bet you'd have oh... NO problems with Mobileme.
You get zero empathy here.
@Mikeo - MobileMe is a POS, what's your point?
@3rdman - Nothing wrong with using those services but now they're all interconnected through one company. Not a good thing IMO...
@Plazmic Flame
Sad as it sounds, Gen-Y isnt all that into saving what they do offline, nor do they care where the info ends up.
Im sometime appalled at how little my Gen-Y brother backs up, while I have CDs and disks going back to 1997.
kind of a cool feature -- web-page-ify your phone stuff... plus they can content-based advertise the hell out of it on the interwebs.
that said...the phone sucks and this looks like a definition of why everyone ditched myspace
@Smkmn13
Agreed. Stuff purposefully marketed to young people rarely interests them.
I am not sure if I want to max out 500mb (in canada) to upload and download to view pictures.
@mps 10:1 this will get unlimited plan or they won't charge you for photos, but web only
@mps
You assumed that Microsoft was going to release this in Canada.