Microsoft's KIN: A Eulogy
by Brian Klug on July 13, 2010 3:42 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Microsoft
- KIN
- Mobile
KIN Studio
Now for the real cloud data link - KIN Studio. If there's one thing the KIN did that was truly different, it's this kind of totally radical web integration. You're not explicitly told so, but the KIN constantly syncs all text messages, call logs, photos, standard resolution videos, contacts, and other data back up to the Windows Live servers on an automatic sync schedule. You can manually invoke a sync anytime you like, but it takes a while and honestly didn't always seem to force a complete sync. Letting it happen on its own actually produced more consistent results. If your phone isn't completely synced up, you'll be told with a crossed out sync near the time in the status box at the bottom right. I encountered a failed sync only twice, the first time it solved itself on the next sync, and another with an impatient reboot. The rest of my problems hinged on my ill conceived plans to log both phones into the same live account - again, I'm sure nobody ever tried logging both phones into one account.
The KIN studio is silverlight based, which is a minor caveat since access always requires the plugin, but the upside is that the studio presents the exact same UI the KINs do. It's the same style, buttons, and even has the KIN spot for sharing things. You can view photos and videos, messages, contacts, and things from the feed reader through this interface. With the exception of making calls and sending text messages, virtually everything you can do on the phone, you can do here.
All the messages on the device from a given day, month, or week.
That includes editing contacts, publishing photos to Facebook, updating your statuses, whatever. Essentially everything on the phone gets backed up and is visible through the Studio, which itself is pretty impressive.
Think about that for a second - nearly everything you do on the phone gets backed up, synced, and made available on a web interface. It's awesome. Why hasn't anyone done this before? In both messages and photos & videos, you're given a timeline you can scrub along to see relevant information as it happened. For example, what day you took photos, when messages were sent, when you placed calls. It gives you a pseudo snapshot of a given day, week, or month.
Creating and editing contact cards - from KIN Studio
It's an interesting notion - accessing your phone from the web - and there's so much about this which is really the way things should be across every smartphone platform. To some extent, you can already hack some of this together using services like Google Sync (which behaves like Exchange to mobile devices) or MobileMe, and then photos and videos using other services, but KIN does an excellent job mashing it all up under one account. It's truly Apple-like in that the Studio works without the frustration of managing a million different services. Throw one live account at it, and you're done - and it doesn't cost extra. The result is that there's no need to sync anything to the desktop, because it's already being done up to the cloud.
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brokensoul - Thursday, July 15, 2010 - link
One thing people seem to forget (too...), is the constant sync on android devices with your google services (mails, talk,...), along for most devices with a sync with facebook, flickr and twitter. The iPhone doesn't come close to that (even with the last iOS4), and WM is a laugh in that perspective. Deactivate those syncing (or slow them down), and android devices last much longer, easily one day and a half for my legend.notposting - Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - link
The Motorola Devour had that Sidekick form factor as well, really liked it quite a bit.I had it for about a month and a half...the keyboard on it, the general build quality, most everything about it was phenomenal, except for:
the shitty camera--3MP supposedly, no flash, no auto-focus, just crap.
lousy reception--the reason I traded it in for a Droid
of course it still hasn't been rooted (or updated past 1.6) so that's pretty disappointing as well. And it looks like Motorola is hellbent on locking down their new phones to completely take the mod/hack/customizing communities out of play.
mcnabney - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 - link
The metal case and internal antenna really hurt the Devour. Running a slow chip and old Android OS didn't help either.DigitalFreak - Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - link
Android has captured the market for "open" phones (i.e.: open app store, etc.). Apple has the fanboy and zealot market cornered. I can't see very many people choosing WP7 over either of those two.FATCamaro - Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - link
The arstechnica article from a week or two ago is far better on the topic. This article is written from a fanboy perspective and ignores reality completely. The reality of MS essentially killing Danger after buying them for a few hundred million.Stuka87 - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 - link
I had the same feeling. This article is missing a lot of details, which isn't the norm for this site.strikeback03 - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 - link
What, a fanboi of a disappearing OS? I personally didn't feel all the internal microsoft bickering had to be included here (it is documented elsewhere) and instead this article was written from a perspective of "Is there anything positive to pull out of this?" And I thought it did that well instead of focusing on the specifics of the phones as not many will be buying them anyway.inspire - Friday, July 16, 2010 - link
So an article about the phone and its features, pros, and cons, but sans-drama is fanboyish? Ars always finds a way to inject drama. All their self-righteous treaties on the ethics of video game reviews, and such.The article is titled 'a eulogy'. If you want the TMZ version - stick with Ars.
s1ugh34d - Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - link
WinMo really does take all those points, and put them in a more business approached user interface, while taking notes from classic IT user requirements.My TyTn II definitely does everything the KIN, iOS, WebOS, and android phones can, just it's been able to since before them...
Now I can't say it has the flare, GUI or app style. The Microsoft app store is the worst software I ever thought to install. The graphics are something HTC has been holding back forever. Otherwise functionality speaking, I can do anything you can do, just it may take me a day to figure it out.
What it comes down to is what YOU do. I read about 75 RSS feeds daily(long commute.) I also listen to Pandora the whole time. Meanwhile between my feed reader, the browser or browsers I may be running, Pandora, and typically word/excel/foxit, I still make it 5-8 hours constant usage(which translates into a day adding in time I actually have to do stuff IRL) oh and Wifi is on for at least three of those hours.
I upload pictures directly after taking them via email, which is one click from the after-shot menu. Facebook conveniently is on my homescreen(I don't use the other sites so much) as well as my favorite feature, contacts stay as is, until I open them click, the Facebook link, and from the UI I can pick any info I want synced.
Wifi syncing on Activesuck, works(only because there isn't any good open source alternative.) and Google sync keeps my online calendar up to date with stuff I have to do, as well as backs up my contacts. Since I don't text(yea smartphone user so long I've replaced SMS with POP...)backing up messages is my gmail. Plus my backup for microSD is Wifi at home(yea networking try that iOS and android playaz) When I connect to my network, bam my SD is ghosted(as real files) and sync occurs with my file server.
I like the KIN's web app. I really hope that transfers into the WP7 features. Danger definitely had something going for them, hope M$ uses a few hint from there world. The Dell mini 5 is on my next list, but the HD2 is my very next.
Darth_Bob - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 - link
I would have to agree to a certain point. I have a LG Incite, Winmo 6.1. I havent seen enough from Android or iOS to switch yet. Ive been multi-tasking for well over a year, can go 2 days without charging with moderate use. I can VPN to my home network via Hamachi, use remote desktop to connect to any computer on the network.Have had SPB Mobile Shell since 3.0.1, recently updated to 3.5.5 - great features, totally customizable UI.
WinMo was really great for the IT/professional aspect, but not so great for the average consumer aspect - which is where the money is.
Although I have AT&T, that HD2 is next on my list as well, as soon as my contract is up (shortly).
As for the KIN, they were aiming for a demographic already covered. Im surprised someone OK'd the release.