Microsoft Kin UI walkthrough
By Paul Miller 
posted April 12th 2010 2:32PM
posted April 12th 2010 2:32PM
Kin Spot is a little hot spot at the bottom of the screen almost akin the virtual "binding" in Courier. You can drag pictures, addresses, web pages, and other media into it, and then drag the faces of friends who you want to send the stack of stuff to. Once you tap the spot you can preview your message, add some text, and choose from MMS or email to send it out.
Haven't had enough? Check out our hands-on and the official announce post! Videos and the rest of the features are after the break.
Kin Loop
Kin Loop is the home screen, which shares much in common with the Windows Phone 7 home, except for its primary focus on people. You can see updates from news sites, people, and photo sites, and update your own Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter from a little widget up top.
Kin Camera
It's a camera, but of course it's also social. You can upload to social sites right from the app, and it mixes between video and stills pretty freely. There's also a pinch-to-zoom gesture for cropping photos while you're taking them.
Kin Studio
Perhaps the biggest surprise or outside-the-box feature is Kin Studio. Basically, it lets you do everything you can do on your phone, like share your photos, update your status, etc. (even using a Kin Spot UI to do it), but it also acts as cloud storage for all your media -- including a scrubbable timeline for checking out your own archives. You can also do contact management from here, another nice perk.
What a cluttered mess.
@Kid Red
'Kin mess
@Kid Red
Can you elaborate? I'm seriously trying to find this "cluttered mess" people keep talking about.
@Kid Red Oh, I love this UI. Simple, fast, just what you need. All your social networks in one place. Cool. No more "Twitter apps" or "FB apps". And you can share everything. Oh, yeah.
@Kid Red yeah it's a bit more complicated that static icons on your iPhone. I'm surprised you were able to send a post, well you know engadget site is complicated
@LAY
What are you blind?
@Kid Red
@CJisohsocool
No, really. Where is it?
@Kid Red
wat about the mytouch slide
@Kid Red Kinda looks like the cluttered mess that is the "Top Stories" bit at the top of engadget's front page.
@CJisohsocool We're all by now used to seeing 4x4 icons. Things all lined up and neat and across from each other. Lol, doesn't that seem a little obsessive-compulsive?
@okh fast? seriously? its sluggish.
@Kid Red
how does the phone distinguish between moving through the UI and dragging something into the kin-spot or what the name was...
@Kid Red let me guess you have stickers on you car's back window in symmetry, one on either lower corner of the window, and it's probably a boring car like a camry or an accord
@okh are you a commercial?
@Kid Red That was my initial thought. What a 'kin mess! Who the feck designed this? There is no flow, no structure, no 'kin sense
@grapeDrank
Get to know some hipsters. Yes they do live like that.
http://www.latfh.com/
@LAY
I think he's confused because the interface is not a 4x4 grid of square icons with rounded edges.
@Kid Red: Wow, sexting just got more organized. :)
...Whats up my Kin-Folk! (I said it first..WHAT!?)
@Kwame Nkrumah
I want to know how many checks Apple sends out on a daily basis to engadget apple fanbabies....
@grapeDrank
Ok...everyone gets it, you hate the Kin. Now go away or talk about something constructive.
@NIMBUS It's magic!
@NIMBUS Seems to be long-press.
@Kid Red Totally disagree. The various sizing creates a montage that is easier to process by the brain. This is why scrapbooking isn't just cutting out every picture into a perfect square and then putting them in a perfect grid.
The fact is the Android, iPhone, etc... interfaces with rows upon rows of icons are uninspired and dull to look at. It can also be a pain when one icon gets out of place. Paging through rows of icons to find that missing one.
I am very interested in this new WinPho7 general direction. It has potential. The Spot is a cool idea. I already could see the value of it on my iPhone. I also like the hub "Kin Studio". The timeline aspect is cool. Especially if you are a person who uploads a lot of picture updates every day.
I think MS did the young market a solid with this phone. Most parents are not going to drop $$$ on an iPhone for their kid. Kids loose phones and break them constantly. If this type of phone ends up free with a plan, well, I see them appearing in young hands everywhere.
@Kid Red
my head is starting to hurt, i cannot believe this is coming out of MSFT.
good job ballmer, kinda glad that gates left you his spot
if it wasn't for him, we'd probably be waiting for 6.5.4 right about now
@Kid Red
It's a clusterf*ck of information, in a stuttering UI. It blows.
@NIMBUS probably Press & Hold vs Quick Swipe.
@NIMBUS probably because you must tap-and-hold to drag to the spot.
@Anatidae
Finally a constructive comment
+1 couldn't agree more.
@Kid Red
At least it's not as boring as your grid of icons... Creds to M$ for acutally trying something different. Next? Courier!
Never thought Engadget would have this "coverage" of this actually.
@blindfromthesun
As many checks as Microsoft sends to the commentors that deride anything Apple here, regardless of how superior it is to what they are defending. Windows 7, WINMO7, anything Zune, these here joke phones, the non-existent Courier, and the massive Surface, which I am sure will be in every livingroom soon, these guys will defend til the end while calling everyone who disagrees a 'fanboy' Oh the irony!
Hello LAY, Mark Anderson, N900 & others - downrank away, it is all you've got@
@Anatidae
Well Said. I could't have said it any better
@Kid Red I agree.
Just because kids are expert multi-taskers doesn't mean they enjoy a cluttered mess of a collage-style phone screen. If that were the case dry-erase and cork boards would be the highest selling room accessory at Target - they're not.
Definition for "cluttered mess" = when a UI doesn't offer any visual or intuitive indication off how to access information or features, or offers the same indicators for different information. On the Kins there's never any clear visual indication of whether you need to slide down, up, left or right for a particular screen/option. There's never any progress indication of how much of a photo has been uploaded. I'd hate to see what the error messages on this UI look like. Especially since this UI is designed by the Redmond masters of error screens. And that's just a few examples of "cluttered mess".
@grapeDrank seriously yes people do stuff like that. especially people in generation y and z. if you are not into social networking either you are not part of that age group of people or been in a cave. like there is so much people on Facebook alone that if it was a country it would be the 4th largest population.
not everyone is a gadget enthusiast and need all stuff in their phone. People just want to use their phone to connect with social network, take picture and listen music and call people. Normal people don't show off how this UI or GUI is so cool and pwn your phone GUI or UI. They just want something that is easy to use and easy to use is not a list with icons.
@okh
I agree. Thought id hate it. Simple. Very glossy UI. Really creative. Innovative. It's what ms needs.
Hell this UI is so clean it could be a social networking site on its own.
Not enough to kill my hero's sense UI. But enough for me to skin my itouch with this.
Two claps, ms finally gets it.
@LAY One should know that the purpose of this phone is for social-networking. So if you're planning to buy this phone and your plans are to use it for other purposes, then you might as well want to sleep over it first. Opinions: http://bit.ly/microsoft-kin-impressions
@Joao Cagao How did my name end up in that diatribe?
@Anatidae
5. Good design is unobtrusive
10. Good design is as little design as possible.
@Kid Red
The Hardware is not bad but the OS is NOT AT ALL pretty and feels ugly and unorganized. I like my nicely separated icons.
I will have to get some hands on before fully judging but so far windows mobile 7 is not something that I would seek out. At least not in any form I have seen thus far.
@TareG
On a dumbphone... scheduled intentionally a few days after Apple released iPhone OS 4 to developers...
*facepalm
@Kid Red
What was wrong with metro? :(
@LAY Look at the screen shot. If you don't see clutter, then enjoy your mess, er, phone.
That's a whole lot of clutter you got there.
@CJisohsocool MS just waved their ass at the nerd community, but at the same time opened their wallets to the people who these phones are targeted at. And I have a feeling thats a lot of people..
People of the Empire: I have made a new video, In it I, the greatest Sith Lord of Engadget preview Microsoft Kin One and Kin Two, which the force says is a highly respectable phone. Be sure to watch now minions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK2tWVj6lXw&feature=fvst
@Lord Vader It seems like the Rebels at Youtube got Sony Music Entertainment to block the incoming transmission. Any workarounds?
@Lord Vader
"This video contains content from Sony Music Entertainment, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."
Please unleash the Death Star on Canada's bureaucracy.
@Lord Vader
Correct me if I am wrong, but Vader never acts like he is full of himself. In fact, after you fall from Anakin-grace, you become much more humble and modest when it comes to your superiority. And you never look down on your servants except when they do wrong, so calling us "minions" really isn't right.
Please don't force choke me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0 The force is strong with this video
@Lord Vader
Big V you have angered the great lords of Sony Entertainment. They have banned your great video. Does this act of defiance call for war?
Your Engadget fleet is ready to dispatch on your command.