14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday, Redmond-based Microsoft Corp. officially announced a new Windows Phone, aimed mainly at those users who are actively using social networks, namely KIN. Two devices were unveiled to the world, namely Kin One and Kin Two, both previously spotted as Turtle and Pure, the two Pink phones from the company. They are the result of a partnership with Verizon Wireless, Vodafone and Sharp Corporation, and both of them are running a new OS, which will remind everyone of Windows Phone 7.
[admark=1]According to Microsoft, KIN is expected to become available for purchase in the United States exclusively via Verizon Wireless starting the next month. European users will also be able to enjoy KIN, as Vodafone is set to launch the handsets sometime during fall in Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. The two handsets come to the market with a totally new UI, heavily focused on social networking, a new browser, capacitive touchscreen displays with multi-touch, but without support for third-party apps.
When it comes to the specs of the two devices, one might want to know that Kin One (formerly known as Turtle), includes a QVGA display, slide-out full QWERTY keyboard, a square form factor, 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, and 4GB of internal storage. Kin Two (which leaked on the web as Pure) boasts an HVGA display, a sliding landscape QWERTY keyboard, an 8-megapixel photo snapper, and 8GB of internal storage. On the connectivity side, the handsets include support for 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth.
“Working closely with our partners, we saw an opportunity to design a mobile experience just for this social generation - a phone that makes it easy to share your life moment to moment,” said Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. KIN comes with a fun, simple interface and with enhanced social networking features. The UI includes KIN Loop, which is basically the homescreen, KIN Spot, a simple sharing solution, and KIN Studio, which seamlessly syncs all data on the device into the cloud. The camera on these phones includes sharing capabilities as well so that one can easily upload to social sites.
One other interesting feature is that KIN is the first Windows Phone to feature a Zune experience. Music, video, FM radio or podcast playback, they are all available for KIN users as long as they have a Zune Pass subscription. Other features of the two devices include Exchange connectivity, dedicated Bing search buttons and connectivity to the Kin service (with access to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Kin Studio). More details on the new devices, as well as on the new KIN UI they will land on the market with, are available here.
