Every effort will be made to ensure complete transparency in the event the product has any connection at all to any one who has a relationship with Michigan Women's Forum or Michigan Women's Media, Inc.
Read more about the Kin 1 phone:
For Kin specs, visit http://www.kin.comReview highlights:
- Nice wide screen, a slide-out keyboard, large QWERTY keys
- Feed lists all of my information streams (Facebook, Twitter, blogs via RSS)
- KIN Loop lists all of my favorites, putting my most important contacts front and center
- Studio provides a password-protected, on-line back up, storing contacts, photos, videos, etc. and has important applications for parents who want to monitor their child's phone activity
- KIN is Mac compatible, but wasn't with my Mac
- Using support on the phone and web was a challenge
- No apps. I mean NO apps.
- Zune-driven music/video/pics
- Easy to organize favorite web sites
- KIN Spot makes sharing anything - video, pictures, web sites, contacts - very easy, although you can't upload images or video to Twitter
- Overall, Twitter is lacking on KIN.
- Awesome 5MP camera takes great stills with camera settings, zoom and flash, plus clear, good quality video. Buttons on the camera are a little awkward.
I took delivery of the phone this morning. I may not be KIN's precise target market, but I spend a lot of time with social media. And college students. Right off the bat, I think lots of people will appreciate the packaging, which is minimal and biodegradable. The phone looks and feels solid - square with rounded corners, nice wide screen, a slide-out keyboard, large QWERTY keys (including one for special characters and emoticons).
Friday, March 14, 2010 7 p.m.
I checked the phone off and on during the day, trying to familiarize myself with the navigation. It helps that certain screens are tied together. For instance, when I go to the Feed, which lists all of my information streams (Facebook, Twitter, blogs via RSS) I can swipe across to my Favorites - so I can go directly to all the contacts and sites I value most.
When I swipe away from the apps menu (or click and hold the "back" key), the latest updates from my favorite contacts appear in a collage of text and images called the Kin Loop. Posts are identified with a time and site stamp, so I can tell from whence they came. I like seeing everybody's faces.
Friday, May 14, 2010 10:30 p.m.
My first KIN problem. The Refresh button has one of those little circles with the line through it, and I have spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out why. I've clicked the sad-face Help button on the phone, I've read the instructions (an accordion-fold brochure with the basics). I even visited KIN.com's Help section, but when I typed in "Couldn't refresh", which is what the phone says, the result is "Sorry, we didn't find any articles. Call me crazy, I think if the phone gives me a message when there's a problem, that message should be searchable in the Help section, with a few suggestions as to what might be wrong. I tried searching under "Refresh," still no dice.
After poking through the settings, I re-entered my password, and the Refresh button was happy again.
Another issue arose when I tried to get to the Studio via our G-4 PowerBook. Studio is a fantastic feature - it basically backs up everything you do on the KIN to a Web site. This is incredibly valuable for several reasons. First and foremost, if your phone is ever lost, stolen or destroyed, everything on it can be retrieved. You can download photos, video, contacts, etc. to any computer from the Web site. So, for instance, when I go to visit my mother, I can show her the photos I've taken of her great-grandchildren on a screen that she can actually see and download them right to her computer.
For parents, this feature has an interesting application, one I think Verizon would do well to emphasize. Imagine giving your child a phone that you could monitor 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through a Studio account. Every text, every photo - need I say more?
But back to the Macbook. In order to use Studio, I was required to install Microsoft Silverlight 3 or higher. I clicked to install, and the next screen informed me only version 1.0 is available for my computer. Now, I don't think of a G-4 PowerBook as "old", but I suppose in many respects, it is. That's not the KIN's fault, and the Studio worked just fine on our new ASUS Netbook.
Saturday, May 15, 2010 11:30 a.m.
I spent the morning taking photos and video at the Farmington Farmers & Artisans Market. (See the KIN-generated video and photos) The 5 megapixel camera is awesome. It's very easy to caption and then upload photos to Facebook or SMS/e-mail them through the KIN Spot, a little green button at the bottom of the screen that allows you to drop in just about anything you want to share. The camera settings - including one for night photography - and flash helped me take better shots. The outside camera button position feels odd, as did the zoom (also the volume control buttons). You can also tap the little camera on the screen to take a picture.
Friday, March 14, 2010 7 p.m.
I checked the phone off and on during the day, trying to familiarize myself with the navigation. It helps that certain screens are tied together. For instance, when I go to the Feed, which lists all of my information streams (Facebook, Twitter, blogs via RSS) I can swipe across to my Favorites - so I can go directly to all the contacts and sites I value most.
Friday, May 14, 2010 10:30 p.m.
My first KIN problem. The Refresh button has one of those little circles with the line through it, and I have spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out why. I've clicked the sad-face Help button on the phone, I've read the instructions (an accordion-fold brochure with the basics). I even visited KIN.com's Help section, but when I typed in "Couldn't refresh", which is what the phone says, the result is "Sorry, we didn't find any articles. Call me crazy, I think if the phone gives me a message when there's a problem, that message should be searchable in the Help section, with a few suggestions as to what might be wrong. I tried searching under "Refresh," still no dice.
After poking through the settings, I re-entered my password, and the Refresh button was happy again.
Another issue arose when I tried to get to the Studio via our G-4 PowerBook. Studio is a fantastic feature - it basically backs up everything you do on the KIN to a Web site. This is incredibly valuable for several reasons. First and foremost, if your phone is ever lost, stolen or destroyed, everything on it can be retrieved. You can download photos, video, contacts, etc. to any computer from the Web site. So, for instance, when I go to visit my mother, I can show her the photos I've taken of her great-grandchildren on a screen that she can actually see and download them right to her computer.
For parents, this feature has an interesting application, one I think Verizon would do well to emphasize. Imagine giving your child a phone that you could monitor 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through a Studio account. Every text, every photo - need I say more?
But back to the Macbook. In order to use Studio, I was required to install Microsoft Silverlight 3 or higher. I clicked to install, and the next screen informed me only version 1.0 is available for my computer. Now, I don't think of a G-4 PowerBook as "old", but I suppose in many respects, it is. That's not the KIN's fault, and the Studio worked just fine on our new ASUS Netbook.
Saturday, May 15, 2010 11:30 a.m.
I spent the morning taking photos and video at the Farmington Farmers & Artisans Market. (See the KIN-generated video and photos) The 5 megapixel camera is awesome. It's very easy to caption and then upload photos to Facebook or SMS/e-mail them through the KIN Spot, a little green button at the bottom of the screen that allows you to drop in just about anything you want to share. The camera settings - including one for night photography - and flash helped me take better shots. The outside camera button position feels odd, as did the zoom (also the volume control buttons). You can also tap the little camera on the screen to take a picture.
Saturday, March 15, 2010 4 p.m.
A video I'm trying to get to iMovie is trapped on the phone. It's 7.34 MG and I can only send/share files smaller than 7 MG. Thanks to Studio, I was able to download the photo to my Netbook and Gmail it. Pretty cool.
Sunday, May 16, 2010 3:30 p.m.
Let's talk apps.
There are none. No apps store, nothing. I tried to download Google Maps - no dice. I have also not been able to find a way to effectively interact with Twitter. While I can use the "social" part of Facebook (i.e. commenting on posts), I can't find any way to reply to a Twitter post, no way to re-tweet, not even when I open a post in the Web browser. When a web site has a mobile option, that's where the phone goes - and Twitter's mobile site isn't particularly useful. It seems odd that there's no way to easily interact with a social media site on a social media phone.
Zune adds music and video to the Kin, and the sound is solid, even without earphones. Zune also makes it easy to view and organize photos, video, favorite radio stations. I'm not a big music person, but there's plenty of storage - 4 gigs, enough for about 1,000 songs. If you have more than that - well, I think you're nuts, but the Kin 2 has 8 gigs.
Monday, May 17, 2010 9 p.m.
I discovered something I've been doing that I had no idea I was doing. One of the KIN's useful features is being able to "Favorite" web sites. I click on a star, and two options pop up. "Favorite" drops the link in at the top of the screen, above the web page window. I hit "Pin to Apps," but I had no idea where the page would show up. Turns out, it's at the bottom of the apps list on the main menu. It's just amazing to be able to scroll down on one screen that includes access to the phone, contacts, social media, the camera, the Web browser - and my very favorite web sites. I can also add those with RSS to the "Feed" list.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 11 p.m.
The KIN is a mixed bag for me. I love, love, love the camera and being able to easily post or send pictures and video. However, I can only upload to Facebook or send via email or SMS. No Twitter.
Because I have a bunch of contacts, it's very helpful to select Favorites, so I'm not having to scroll through lists of names. I love the Feed and could add tons more of my favorite Internet spots to it. Almost all news sites and blogs have RSS, it's so easy to create a tailor-made reader, which could be a real time-saver.
The lack of a good Twitter app would probably be a deal breaker for me. I don't understand why the Facebook interface is fairly robust, while Twitter is not.
All in all, I like the KIN. For parents, it seems like a good option for a child's first cell phone. You'll have access to everything on it from a web browser. For photo and video, this is an awesome little workhorse. Install a good Twitter app, I'd take a serious look at it. With Google calendar on the Web (which I was able to easily access) having a phone calendar isn't as critical for me as it used to be. And with everything I do on social media, having on-line back-up IS.
Not to mention, the KIN is just cute as a bug's ear. --Joni Hubred-Golden
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