|
|
Microsoft release a 'Kin phone
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: UKland
Status:
Offline
|
|
I mean seriously are these people mad or just stupid?
|
This space for Hire! Reasonable rates. Reach an audience of literally dozens!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status:
Offline
|
|
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.
Winnar
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.
Well now, if even M$ doesn't think Flash is needed...
-t
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Games Meister
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Eternity
Status:
Offline
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Union County, NJ
Status:
Offline
|
|
Our phone's in jeopardy.. Baby... Oooooooooooooooooooh
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Washington, DC
Status:
Offline
|
|
It looks like their target audience is the people who are already extremely annoying with their cell phone usage in public. Kill me now.
|
"One ticket to Washington, please. I have a date with destiny."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
Status:
Offline
|
|
There are some pretty cool features built in. As far as social networking goes, this is pretty advance for a feature phone. Unfortunately it's butt-ugly (both the UI and the devices). Also, it's gonna have to be dirt cheap, with full feature smartphones like the Droid Eris running for $79. I have the feeling that the price will be jacked up though because of the high mp camera and internal storage though I'm not really sure why Microsoft felt the need to do this, especially after they announced Windows Phone 7.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status:
Offline
|
|
So Microsoft, as predicted, just killed their own market and any incentive anybody might have had to partner with them on Windows Phone 7, by bringing out their own phone, the Kin, which will pre-empt Windows 7 and NOT RUN WINDOWS 7.
And we all thought it wouldn't get any dumber than rallying the industry behind PlaysForSure and then ****ing them all over by having their own Zune player not support it.
What the HOLY **** are those guys thinking? Oh yeah, it's all internal department politics.
Background, from last year and the year before:
AppleInsider | Exclusive: Pink Danger leaks from Microsoft's Windows Phone
Why Microsoft Will Slaughter Its Windows Mobile and PC Partners, and What it Means for Apple and Google — RoughlyDrafted Magazine
Microsoft’s Zune, Vista, and Windows Mobile 7 Strategy vs the iPhone — RoughlyDrafted Magazine
After the good reception Windows Phone 7 got, I'm AMAZED that they're dumb enough to have followed through on this.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
Status:
Offline
|
|
"Pink Danger" sounds like some sort of deadly nanovirus.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status:
Offline
|
|
Yeah, it's an iPhone Killer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: UK
Status:
Offline
|
|
Yesss! MS do keep finding new levels of stupid. The Windows Phone 7 OS or whatever its called was redesigned to look all cool with the kids with the square tile icons and big words, and then they bring out a completely separate OS and phone aimed at being all cool with the kids.
I would do the Picard facepalm pic, but Ballmers coming
|
It'll be much easier if you just comply.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
Status:
Offline
|
|
When I read your post, Doc HM, I thought it was a know. Now I know it's a joke
|
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Your Anus
Status:
Offline
|
|
I wonder how Mr. Sprinkes is going to feel about this phone.
|
My sig is 1 pixel too big.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
Status:
Offline
|
|
He'll love it as much as a root canal.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by OreoCookie
When I read your post, Doc HM, I thought it was a know. Now I know it's a joke
@ your sentence.
-t
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
Status:
Offline
|
|
|
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Status:
Offline
|
|
The Kin? What kind of name is that for a phone?
"Well the first thing you know old Jed's a millionaire. Kin folk said Jed move away from there. Said California is the place you oughta be. . ."
|
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Vacation.
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot
And we all thought it wouldn't get any dumber
Now there's a chap who hasn't really been paying attention to how the world works.
|
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
That's where there's thunder... and the wind shouts back.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Big Mac
The Kin? What kind of name is that for a phone?
"Well the first thing you know old Jed's a millionaire. Kin folk said Jed move away from there. Said California is the place you oughta be. . ."
When Roz Ho left the Mac BU to head the recently acquired Danger/Hiptop unit, she christened that "Project Pink".
PINK --> KIN Phone
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Status:
Offline
|
|
Ah, I see. Heck of a marketing name.
|
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: UKland
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Big Mac
The Kin? What kind of name is that for a phone?
"Well the first thing you know old Jed's a millionaire. Kin folk said Jed move away from there. Said California is the place you oughta be. . ."
Here in the UK we frequently abbreviate f**king to 'kin hence (when searching for lost phone) "Where the hell is my 'kin phone"?
I guess MS are just helping with the name.
|
This space for Hire! Reasonable rates. Reach an audience of literally dozens!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Vacation.
Status:
Offline
|
|
..in the same way that we abbreviate "shit" to "it". As in "IT Department".
|
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
That's where there's thunder... and the wind shouts back.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Status:
Offline
|
|
Kin is a dumbphone/featurephone. Heavy on social, clearly aiming for the Sidekick crowd.
Windows Phone 7 is for smartphones.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by mduell
Kin is a dumbphone/featurephone. Heavy on social, clearly aiming for the Sidekick crowd.
According to T-Mobile, this is not a result of Microsoft's purchase of Danger and isn't a Sidekick replacement.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Status:
Offline
|
|
Of course not, they still want to sell Sidekicks until this turd ships.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
Status:
Offline
|
|
T-Mobile won't carry this phone so I don't think it's affecting them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status:
Offline
|
|
Project Pink is what Roz Ho turned Danger into after MS bought it.
Read the links I posted above.
That wasn't WinMo-based, though; I'm curious what politics happened since then.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status:
Offline
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
Status:
Offline
|
|
You guys should read engadget's review of the Kin phones. If you don't want to bother reading the whole thing, just read the conclusion:
Originally Posted by engadget
In the end, we're left with two orphan devices -- phones that feel like they should have been killed before they made it to market, but somehow slipped through. It's clear to us from conversations we've had with Microsoft that there are people at the company with good ideas about what phones should and shouldn't do, but we don't feel the Kin is representative of those ideas. The execution (or lack thereof) on these products makes us legitimately concerned about what the company will do with Windows Phone 7. We can only hope that the similarities between those devices and the Kin handsets don't stretch much further than the "Windows Phone" label, because in our estimation, Kin is one side of the family that needs to be disowned... quickly.
The main criticism beyond stupid UI and half-arsed implementation of basic functionality such as taking and making calls is that you have to get a full-blown smartphone data and voice plan, i. e. you have to shell out the same money for a Kin One or Kin Two than for a Palm Pre or so. This is failblog material
|
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mac Elite
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Toronto, Canada
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot
Add to this that most teens are added on to family plans and the data plan requirement makes even less sense. This sounds like some idiot in marketing was running wild.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: T •
Status:
Offline
|
|
This idea would have made sense in 2006.
Long story short they are trying to make a smartphone but sell it as a dumbphone to teens no social network all day.
All MS did to make it "dumb" is to take out a calendar app and any other useful smartphone apps by crippling it by software to cater to a very small niche.
This normally would be all good and fine if we are talking cheap phones, cheap plans unfortunately when all high end smartphones can be had for $99-200 why would someone want to pay the same for the Kin but get less? The monthly plans are also no cheaper than typical plans.
If the market was still dealing with $500-1000 smartphones they would clean up at $200. Reality is everything is cheap now and hardware all relatively the same. You have to set yourself apart with a total package of services like Apple has done to make your product appealing and make money.
These phones will be canceled in no time or just features merged into future windows 7 phones.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
Status:
Offline
|
|
These phones would be acceptable for free for the Kin 1 and $50 for the Kin 2. But $99, and then a $29 a month data plan? No parent is going to do that! And I'm sorry, but for $99, there is a HUGE elephant in the room, and that's the iPhone 3G. If you don't want AT&T, then they Droid Eris or Motorola Droid would be a much better alternative. A lot more phone for about the same money (or cheaper in the case of the Eris).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA
Status:
Offline
|
|
This phone's introduction and crappy data plan really reinforces the fact that Microsoft doesn't understand the mobile market at all, even when they target a specific segment.
Makes me think the new WinCE/Windows Phone, whatever its called, will not be half as impressive as the Android and iPhone OSes are today.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: T •
Status:
Offline
|
|
The interface is typical MS disaster. If you are in the twitter app and want to post something clicking POST launches the terrible web browser and takes you to twitter.com.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: BFE
Status:
Offline
|
|
Is it me or does putting the apostrophe in front of KIN ('Kin) mean that the OP implied there is a word-segment missing.
Like f-u-c maybe?
|
I'm a bird. I am the 1% (of pets).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: inside 128, north of 90
Status:
Offline
|
|
according to the OP, yes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES
The interface is typical MS disaster. If you are in the twitter app and want to post something clicking POST launches the terrible web browser and takes you to twitter.com.
That's what happens when you won't allow apps
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Winnipeg, MB
Status:
Offline
|
|
These phones are quite the joke, though I have to wonder what Apple would do if they tried to make an iPhone express... I have to think it would still be a hell of a lot better than this thing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: T •
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Salty
T I have to wonder what Apple would do if they tried to make an iPhone express...
Ya it's called the iPhone 3G at $99. Can do almost everything all the other damn iphones can do.
Or do they need to make the screen 1 inch smaller and price it at $49 if they want to get every last tiny market out there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status:
Offline
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Copenhagen
Status:
Offline
|
|
This entire thread (specifically the very last post) has sustained a hearty chortle on my part for a good five minutes.
Brilliant.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Winnipeg, MB
Status:
Offline
|
|
I can't believe they've sold so few... then again... I kinda can. That's insane though... sorry Roz...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
Status:
Offline
|
|
I spoke to the manager of my Verizon store a few days ago and said that since the KIN came out, they've not even sold one, and as a result, Pre Plus sales have gone up (same price, true smartphone [compared to the KIN]).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: UKland
Status:
Offline
|
|
Should be a collectors item in a few years then. Mint example of biggest phone failure ever. Still boxed. Got to be worth something.
|
This space for Hire! Reasonable rates. Reach an audience of literally dozens!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot
Worst link ever. Glad my speakers were turned down.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: T •
Status:
Offline
|
|
What does this ad even mean? I don't get it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Copenhagen
Status:
Offline
|
|
^ It means, “Welcome to the social”, obviously.
(Am I the only one who keeps reading the “KIN” logo as “KILL”?)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot
I'm sure Roz is gonna be promoted over that.
-t
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Senior User
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: petting the refrigerator.
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot
Holy a:hover {}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: T •
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Oisín
(Am I the only one who keeps reading the “KIN” logo as “KILL”?)
I see the Nine Inch Nails logo. No worries, product will be canned in a couple months with some PR "A valuable lesson and successful product with its innovative key features being integrated into windows 7 series phones" or some crap.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Status:
Offline
|
|
It's funny how Microsoft product groups usually go through several laughably unsuccessful iterations before they get any place with consumers. Microsoft first releases crap, then slightly less crappy crap, and so on. Apple, in contrast, releases an initially high priced, limited but very polished and appealing device that then gains more features and sheds cost.
And on that subject, I wonder how the Zune is doing.
|
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Rules
|
|
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
|
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|