Kin
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Kin firmware torn apart, reveals provisioning for AT&T, T-Mobile, Fido?
In public, Microsoft has been adamant about its relationship with Verizon in bringing the Kin to market, even saying that the research and development process involved regular trips to Big Red's New Jersey offices -- but how strong is that bond behind the scenes? Well-established WinMo hacker Conflipper seems to have stumbled across a Kin ROM in recent days, tearing it apart in search of interesting tidbits, and here's a doozy: the firmware appears to be ready for provisioning on a variety of North American, European, and Asian carriers, including T-Mobile and AT&T in the US, Fido (a Rogers subsidiary) in Canada, O2, 3, TeliaSonera, China Mobile, China Unicom, Bharti Airtel for India, and both NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank in Japan. Amusingly, launch partner Vodafone is misspelled as "Vodaphone" in the files, but seriously, we're wondering how close any of these deals are to actually going down. Fido would make a lot of sense since Microsoft has yet to announce a Canadian partner, but we've previously heard that Microsoft has no intention of taking the phone to Asia -- so this could be a completely meaningless list after all.
Microsoft Kin specs update: 600MHz processors, ambient sensors
Surfing Facebook for Kin info? That's so last year. The cool kids are members of the "upload generation" -- meaning they wait at gdgt for Microsoft employees to upload the specs. This week, social marketing director John Starkweather did just that, and now we know that both Kin One and Kin Two will sport a 600MHz processor and EV-DO Rev. A when they come to market in May, as well as light and proximity sensors. Bluetooth remote and headset profiles are to be had alongside Microsoft Exchange, and there's support for H.264, MPEG-4 and WMV video files. Last and assuredly least, the phones aren't technically Verizon-exclusive in the US; the last remaining customers of Alltel will also get their chance to show off tragic, angst-filled lives.
Microsoft Germany's Facebook page solidifies Kin specs
Nothing here we didn't already know, but it's nice to have some final, official confirmation: Microsoft Germany's just posted the specs for the Kin One and Kin Two on its Facebook page, and they line right up with that original, Google cached leak. As originally foretold, the Kin One will sport a 2.6-inch capacitive TFT LCD screen at 320 x 240 resolution, a 5 megapixel CMOS camera, 4GB of flash memory and a 1240 mAh battery, while the Kin Two ups its game with a 3.4-inch 480 x 320 screen, an 8 megapixel CMOS HDR shooter by Omnivision with a LumiLED flash, 8GB of solid state memory and 1390 mAh of juice. Both get 256MB of DDR, Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11 b/g WiFi, GPS, FM radio and an accelerometer; neither will own up to the Tegra they hide inside their svelte plastic frames. Not a fan of specs? Find out what Kin's really all about in our full guide.
Microsoft changes naughty 'sexting' Kin ad, camera to be used for clothed chests only
As a card-carrying member of the Upload Generation, your Kin is about a lot of things: chilling with your peeps and BFFs, taking pictures and video of all of life's most awesome moments, keeping tabs on your MySpace pals, and documenting the fascinating story of your nipples without a pesky American Apparel V-neck getting in the way. Or wait... maybe not? Microsoft has just pulled a Kin ad briefly featuring a young gentleman snapping shots of his PG-rated parts underneath his t-shirt in response to Consumer Reports' concerns that the move encourages "sexting" -- a growing problem amongst the world's technologically-savvy (and hormone-riddled) youth -- saying that it "takes the issue of sexting very seriously and it was never our intent to promote it in any way." It looks like Microsoft has kept the commercial around on the Kin site and just removed the offending portion -- it was only about a second long -- so hanging out in underground speakeasies with fake hipsters is still okay, apparently. Follow the break for the original, unedited video.
Switched On: Kin dread spirit
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. When deciding how to bring technologies to market, companies face the decision of whether to offer them in its own products, pursuing a strategy of vertical integration, or license constituent elements for inclusion in others' products. In the wireless operating system space, Apple, RIM and Palm (since Web OS) have chosen the former strategy while Symbian, Google (via Android and Chrome OS) and Microsoft have generally pursued the latter. It is difficult, if not unwise, for a licensing company to compete with its partners. Attempting to avoid this dynamic led to the disastrous split of Palm, Inc. into the PalmSource software company and PalmOne hardware company back in 2003. With the imminent release of its teen-targeted, social networking handset, though, Microsoft is seeking to have its Kin and eat it, too.
Microsoft Kin: everything you ever wanted to know
For as long as Windows Mobile 6.x overstayed its welcome, Microsoft seems to be doing what it can to launch a full-out assault on the mobile battlefield -- first with Windows Phone 7, and now less than a month later with Kin. As we were reminded ad nauseam at the unveiling, the pair of devices -- dubbed Kin One and Kin Two -- aren't for the tech enthusiasts in the crowd, but rather for a younger audience Microsoft is calling "generation upload." That's apparently a group whose life is focused around capturing memories and updating Facebook, without any care or concern whatsoever for apps. Will Microsoft's gamble for control of the feature phone market prove successful? That remains to be seen, but for everything we know so far, read on!%Gallery-90313%
Editorial: Engadget on Microsoft Kin
If you've been following our reports, you know that Microsoft's Kin aren't your average smartphones. They don't have a big, bright screen, a particularly fast processor or a robust app store filled with thousands of third-party programs. They're just a pair of interestingly-designed phones with high-res cameras, running a MOTOBLUR-like OS that aggregates your social networks into a neat stream, while smartly documenting every picture, video and status update in cloud storage for future reference. What does that juxtaposition mean for the cellphone market? Honestly, we can't quite agree -- so we're going to let the roving, mobile minds at Engadget HQ speak for themselves.
Entelligence: Think Pink - First take on Microsoft's Kin
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide. It has been a project shrouded in mystery and speculation that sparked imaginations about just what Microsoft was doing. Its codename was Pink, referring to the premium mobile experience group, and yesterday Microsoft finally revealed its Pink story. It's called Kin and it's pretty impressive. At its heart, Kin is centered around two devices called Kin One and Kin Two. Both the hardware and software were designed by Microsoft, and while Kin is a Microsoft brand, Microsoft is still not getting into the phone business. Built in conjunction with carrier partner Verizon, Pink is an extension of the company's mobile strategy, something that complements and co-exists with its larger ambitions with Windows Phone 7. In many ways, Kin is the extension and spiritual descendant of the Sidekick (which was a product of Danger, founded by the father of Android, Andy Rubin, and later acquired by Microsoft). At its core, the Kin philosophy is guided by the proposition that one size device doesn't fit all, and specific demographics have different mobile needs.
Day in the Life: Kin-less
If you were near an internet display terminal yesterday, you might've tragically stumbled upon one of Microsoft's Kin promo videos. Sure, the product might be slightly condescending to its supposed target market, but the promotional videos are outright MTV-gone-bad, full of hipster shorthand and fake "reality" bits. The "Day in the Life" videos are particularly egregious, featuring a guy on a road trip to burn a box of mementos from his ex while accompanied by his two new girlfriends, a terrifying parade comprised of facial hair and Williamsburg-esque terror, and a tragically-near-30 couch surfer trying to remember a drunken night of excess through pictures. Strikes a bit close to home, we must say. So, in case you missed the spots you can check a couple out after the break, but to wash the palate we've also provided our very own "Kin-less" spin on the concept, with the help of a Windows Mobile 6.5 handset we just happened to have lying around.
Microsoft Kin notifications have up to fifteen minute delay
Microsoft's new Kin phones promise to let "Generation Upload" stay in touch with their friends via integrated, streamlined social networking. It's the main draw, the big selling point, the reason why teens, tweens and those who want to share pictures of huge fat men eating Chipotle burritos will get one. But unless you hit a manual refresh button, Microsoft says Kin will only let you stay in touch in fifteen-minute intervals. That's how often the company's servers will ping Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Windows Live to grab info from the cloud. "We didn't want the device always pulling data from the network," said one engineer, citing battery life and immature social network APIs as primary reasons why. Our take? This might be how Microsoft intends to leverage cheaper data plans out of Verizon -- by subtly throttling data usage -- providing an always-on 3G experience at a tween-affordable price. We'll just have to see if "Heather M." appreciates that, when her clothing recommendation is subject to a quarter-hour delay.
Protip: Microsoft Kin not compatible with microSD
Dear SanDisk, The Kin does not have a microSD slot. We checked. Love, Engadget.
Microsoft: Kin and Windows Phone 7 will share more technology over time
Sure, Nokia's already proven that it's possible to commercially support multiple mobile platforms at a time, but is it really a great idea? Even Nokia ultimately ended up collapsing Series 80 and 90 in to S60 over the years, but Microsoft's going in a distinctly different direction by rolling out Kin and Windows Phone 7 at nearly the same time (plus the spectre of WinMo 6.x, which'll undoubtedly soldier on in some niche markets for years to come). While both products share common underpinnings, they're different enough so that there's really no user-facing commonality beyond some shared compatibility with services like Zune and Windows Live, and frankly, we don't get it -- why not start from a generic, extensible platform like Windows Phone 7 and work outwards to create Kin as a specialized sub-product? We chatted with Microsoft GM Matt Bencke today to get a feel for why there isn't more technical synergy between two products that obviously share the overwhelming majority of their DNA, and basically, the Reader's Digest version of the conversation is that they intend to get there eventually. "We're going to share more and more in terms of code," he said -- though we weren't able to nail him down to a timeline for making that happen -- ultimately agreeing that it was fair to say you'd start to see the platforms converge over time. If we had to guess, Kin's suffering from the fact that it was approved and set in stone before Windows Phone 7 even existed in its current incarnation, and it's going to take Redmond a little while to get the projects synced. See the critical portion of the talk on video after the break.
Kin is basically a Zune HD inside, can go for a weekend on a charge
In a discussion with Kin product manager Derek Snyder this afternoon, we've confirmed that both the Kin One and Kin Two are built on the same foundation as the Zune HD -- in other words, they're running NVIDIA Tegra silicon, and there's no reason that anything you see on a Zune HD couldn't run just as well on a Kin. Of course, that's a purely theoretical statement at this point since Zune apps don't work on Kin as it stands -- the platform's completely closed, though Microsoft has been insistent that we should keep a close eye on its over-the-air updates after launch as features evolve. Either way, that's a marked (and curious) departure from Windows Phone 7, where Microsoft's been taking an all-Qualcomm, all-the-time approach. Realistically, we've gotten the impression today that Kin doesn't come close to tapping out a Tegra's horsepower, but that might be by design: Snyder also mentioned that a key goal of the development phase was to make sure that the phones could go a whole weekend without a charge. Running a Tegra at full bore 24 / 7 doesn't lend itself to miserly power consumption, so the overall simplicity of the UI -- and the lack of 3D gaming -- might play a role there.
Microsoft Kin One and Kin Two first hands-on!
We've just spent some time handling Microsoft's just-announced Kin One and Kin Two, and we're not sure what to think; the keyboards have surprisingly good feel, particularly the One (think Palm Pre levels of usability on the One, for example -- we wouldn't be surprised if it was their benchmark) and the phones generally feel pretty solid. In fact, we'd go so far to say that this is a marked improvement in hardware quality for Sharp than any of its Sidekicks ever offered. Problem is, we just can't get over the fact that the software is extremely limited in its scope -- yes, we understand that it's by design, but does this so-called "upload generation" of socially-connected teens and twentysomethings really want a phone that they can't download games to? That's the million-dollar question that Verizon will be answering over the next few months, it seems. We know that the One is positioned as the slightly lower-end device on account of its 5 megapixel cam (the Two has 8) and half the internal storage, but we actually came away liking it more -- it's the only one of the two that looks truly unique, because the Two just looks like any old landscape slider smartphone (not to say that's necessarily a bad thing). The front of both devices is graced with a single metallic button to offset an otherwise clean glossy black bezel -- this button functions as Back, not Home, so if you're multiple levels deep into the UI you'll only be taken back one. You can still hold the button down to get back to the home screen, fortunately, and both the One and Two have dedicated camera buttons -- Microsoft's making no secret of the fact that image and video capture are a huge push for these devices. Follow the break for more thoughts, shots, and video! %Gallery-90327%
Microsoft Kin UI walkthrough
If you've managed to pull your eyes away from our no-holds-barred liveblog of Microsoft's Kin announcement, you might've noticed that there are videos up on the official Kin site depicting the UI in all its hipster-lite, storytelling glory. Still, in case you're not a 20 something living in Brooklyn on your parents' money while pursuing a career in the arts, we've turned those motion video picture things into regular stills for your staid perusal. We even added little descriptors below the galleries, which due to your acute lack of ADD you might even find time to read. We upped the videos after the break as well, just in case you wanted to try your hand at the young-and-hip life. %Gallery-90321% 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.
Microsoft Kin Studio saves all your phone content to the web (update: video!)
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.
Microsoft Kin One and Kin Two announced: Windows Phone roots with a social slant (updated with video)
It's finally official: Microsoft Pink -- the product of Redmond's acquisition of Danger -- has just been unveiled as a pair of handsets sourced from Sharp (which made most of Danger's Sidekicks) known as the Kin One and Kin Two. The devices are being marketed as Windows Phones, and while they're ultimately based on most of the same underpinnings of Windows Phone 7, it's a distinctly and totally different experience -- the entire user interface is custom to Kin with a heavy social media slant, a custom browser (we're told it's based on the Zune's browser), and surprisingly, zero support for third-party apps. The displays are capacitive with support for multitouch (yes, you can pinch and zoom in the browser), but there's no support for in-browser Flash or Silverlight. Kin One -- the phone we'd seen rumored as "Turtle" -- is basically a curved square slider with a QVGA display, 4GB of internal storage, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, and a full QWERTY keyboard. Kin Two, meanwhile, is the phone leaked as the "Pure," upping the ante with a HVGA display and a more traditional landscape QWERTY slide form factor. It also moves up to an 8 megapixel cam and 8GB of internal storage, but otherwise, the experience is roughly the same as what you get on the One; both phones have WiFi and Bluetooth in addition to their 3G cellular radios. For what it's worth, Microsoft is emphasizing that internal storage really isn't a big deal with the Kin phones, because your entire photo and video collection that you capture using the onboard camera is synced seamlessly with your bottomless online storage; you can access the entire collection from your phone at any time by browsing thumbnails, and if you want the full content, you can download it. Kin comes bundled with a desktop web experience that's entirely based on Silverlight for viewing and sorting just about all of the major stuff that you can see on your phone -- contacts, social network status updates, images, and so on -- and we've got to admit, it looks pretty slick. Keep reading after the break for a lot more info and video! %Gallery-90314%
Live from Microsoft's 'It's Time To Share' event!
We've been ushered out to lovely San Francisco today (well, actually, not so lovely -- the weather is uncharacteristically yucky) to learn all about this mysterious "It's Time To Share" thing that Microsoft has been cooking up. The popular rumor is that a new line of handsets (Pink? Kin?) are en route. Stay tuned!
Get your Kinship into the LotRO lorebook
A post has been made on the Lord of the Rings Online forums with the intent of raising awareness of the Kinship facilities of the Lorebook. Not many Kinships have made use of this feature yet, but the number should dramatically increase following this reminder, and the fact that Kinship listings will no longer be stickied on the forums. A Kinship page can be filled with everything that interested applicants need to know, and you can slot yourself into categories like server, type or theme. Logos can be uploaded, and there is an external links section which can lead to an official Kinship website. Visit the base Kinship page to get started with creating, and scroll down to see the categories of existing pages. The forum post also contains some quick links to server-specific Kinship listings on the Lorebook.
