Accurately predicting the swift failure of a handset — as we did to a T with the Kin — is bittersweet. On one hand, being right is always nice; on the other, knowing that people worked hard on something only to have it canned due to mismanagement and a confused vision is disheartening. (Fortunately, we know for a fact that a good chunk of those people are off on bigger, better projects now.) As of this morning, the last lingering trace of the Kin was thrown into a shallow grave with the rest of the project. → Read More
Want to know why Blackberry launches are so exciting to so many? Because it means those chained to RIM because of their IT departments dependence on Blackberry mail services will get new phones. So what is this inexplicable Blackberry Torch and what does it mean for the brave folks in RIMs Canadian mountain fortress? First off, office drones, don’t expect to get the Torch with all its security breaching social media razzmatazz. You’ll probably get a toned down version with much of the functionality locked down. That’s the first problem. The second problem, as Matt noted before, RIM isn’t very good at consumer grade products. While I’ll agree that Blackberries are, bar none, the best email devices out there, they have all the sexiness of a road accident. → Read More
The Kin One and Kin Two are about as dead as can be. 22 days after they hit the shelves, Microsoft stopped making them, and Verizon stopped selling them. All in all, it’s said that about 10,000 of these things managed to get into people’s pockets before the axe got dropped — but if you’re one of those 10,000: Surprise! You’ve got a software update waiting for you. → Read More
Perhaps you heard, Microsoft has killed the Kin, its mobile device that was all of six weeks old. Some people were upset by this. Now they have a place to let our their grief, and pay their respects: KinRIP.com.
As the site notes, the Kin lived from 2010 to 2010 — it died at the ripe old age of 0. “She” was botn on May 13, 2010 and died on June 30, 2010. “We will remember her forever,” the site notes. Visitors are asked to light a candle in remembrance of the device, and already dozens have. You can also add your favorite photos of the Kin to the page. → Read More
Well, there goes that. The Microsoft Kins seemed like a good system. Online reviews are somewhat positive, at least most say the Kin shows potential. But it doesn’t matter. Kin One and Kin Two are likely going to be the only ones of their kind and will only be around for a short while. Verizon killed the platform when it decided that these feature phones need an expensive smartphone data plans. → Read More
Looks like the Verizon/Vodafone exclusivity on the Kin 1 and Kin 2 might be short-lived — or at least, someone at Microsoft is already prepping for the day when it’s over.
Days before the Kin 1 and 2 were made official, a ROM hacker known only to the internets as Conflipper published screenshots pulled from an early copy of the Kin OS. After a bit more digging, Conflipper just stumbled upon some more goodies: Kin system provisioning files for other carriers. Lots.. and lots of other carriers. → Read More
We got our first good look at Microsoft’s upcoming smart feature phones — the Kin 1 and Kin 2 — a week back. While the company let us man-handle the phones, Microsoft was quiet about the actual specs. But Microsoft Germany apparently thought that was silly and just released all the technical info on the two phones via its Facebook Fan Page. How nice. → Read More
We found it pretty ridiculous when Consumer Reports made a big deal about a pretty tame reference to playful, romantic MMSing. Really, now. Microsoft is the last thing making kids send naughty pictures to one another. But I guess Microsoft didn’t want the drama, so they’ve apologized. They deleted the offending portion of the video, but if you’ll be so kind as to click the following YouTube thing you can still see the uncut version put up by CR. → Read More
When a man loves a woman very, very much and he’s not really thinking of repercussions and the state their relationship might be in a few months down the road, he sends her pictures of his netherparts via his cell phone. This act, friends, has come into the mainstream lately with its very own buzzword: sexting. Sexting can be a pretty bad thing, primarily because it’s purportedly becoming more common amongst the highschool crowd, where relationships move fast and end faster. Today, Consumer Reports is calling out Microsoft, saying one of their ads for the Kin “comes uncomfortably close to advocating sexting.” → Read More
I just popped into a local pub and ran smack into into a variant of the just-announced (but long-rumored) Kin 2 being tested by a Microsoft associate of mine. It’s not really major news, but I have to say that I think it looks a lot better with this red-and-white keyboard — it helps set it apart from all the other sliders out there. I don’t know, maybe it attracts dirt or something, so they went all-black. Although I grilled the man, he had nothing to add RE secret specs and unannounced features. Curse you, Microsoft, and your corporate compartmentalization! → Read More
Here’s a little smidgen of info that escaped the announcements and hands-on today. The specs page at kin.com is a bit… non-literal, so there’s not a lot of information on what model of CPU it’s running, what amount of RAM, and so on. But we do now know that they’re Tegra-based and likely share a fair amount of hardware DNA with the Zune HD. That doesn’t mean you can expect Zune apps and games on there — but it does mean decent graphics acceleration. And it also means they know the hardware and can tune it however they like — to enhance battery life, for instance. → Read More
After years of rumors, hearsay, and leaks, we’ve finally gotten the opportunity to play with the final product of Project Pink. These are the first real products of Microsoft’s 2008 acquisition of Danger, creators of the sidekick. So how are they? Read on for our impressions Update: Now with video of the Kin 2 in action – check it out after the jump. → Read More
Whatd’ya know! I didn’t expect to find a Kin 2 box laying around right after we did our Kin 1 unboxing, but sure enough: there it was, prepped and ready to be torn apart. → Read More
Sure, they may have just announced the Kin 1 and Kin 2 (previously known as Project Pink) — and sure, they may not have release dates or pricing for them yet. But we had the good fortune of stumbling across a Kin 1 in its crazy greeen-ish recyclable packaging, and decided to strip it apart real quick. Check out our ultra hasty gallery after the jump. → Read More
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