Ever since Apple unleashed the iPod and then the hiPhone on the world, spotting the words "Microsoft" and "cool" in the same sentence has been an extremely rare occasion.
But I feel I must do so right now.
The software giant last week began selling the KIN 1 and KIN 2 china cell phones through Verizon Wireless. These (here it comes) Microsoft phones are really cool, both in design and concept.
The KINs aren't smartphones. They're social media phones, with software out of the box that gives its full attention to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and their ilk.
Plug in all the proper info for your accounts, and tiles of photos of your friends with their corresponding status updates and tweets will appear on the home screen. If you subscribe to any RSS feeds, news updates from those will show up, too. They call it the KIN Loop, as in keeping you in the loop.
Scroll to the right, and you create a photo-tiled wall of your favorite contacts for easy access to their e-mail addresses, social media accounts and phone numbers.
Scroll to the left, and you'll see a tile of icons for access to the Web, camera, text messages, e-mail accounts and more.
The result probably is unlike anything you've seen before. And that takes some adjustment.
Yet, in many ways, the odd-looking operating system on the KIN 1 and KIN 2 is a lot like the one on Microsoft's Zune HD digital music player. The tiles look the same. There's also a Zune app on each KIN.
The KIN phones also serve as a preview of things to come with Windows Phone 7.
Windows Phone 7, of course, is Microsoft's totally revamped smart phone operating system that's due out later this year. It will replace the clunky, stylus-craving Windows Mobile 6.5 that's on phones now. It, like the KIN 1 and KIN 2, will have tiles for finger-friendly navigation.
The sooner that happens, the better, I say.
The KIN 1 and KIN 2 are similar.
The KIN 1, which I reviewed, is just smaller, fitting in the palm of the hand with a QWERTY keyboard and slide-up touch screen. The KIN 2 is bigger, closer to the size of an iPhone, with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that's more appropriate for folks with bigger fingers.
The software giant last week began selling the KIN 1 and KIN 2 china mobile phones through Verizon Wireless. These (here it comes) Microsoft phones are really cool, both in design and concept.
The KINs aren't smartphones. They're social media phones, with software out of the box that gives its full attention to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and their ilk.
Plug in all the proper info for your accounts, and tiles of photos of your friends with their corresponding status updates and tweets will appear on the home screen. If you subscribe to any RSS feeds, news updates from those will show up, too. They call it the KIN Loop, as in keeping you in the loop.
Scroll to the right, and you create a photo-tiled wall of your favorite contacts for easy access to their e-mail addresses, social media accounts and phone numbers.
Scroll to the left, and you'll see a tile of icons for access to the Web, camera, text messages, e-mail accounts and more.
The result probably is unlike anything you've seen before. And that takes some adjustment.
Yet, in many ways, the odd-looking operating system on the KIN 1 and KIN 2 is a lot like the one on Microsoft's Zune HD digital music player. The tiles look the same. There's also a Zune app on each KIN.
The KIN phones also serve as a preview of things to come with Windows Phone 7.
Windows Phone 7, of course, is Microsoft's totally revamped smartphone operating system that's due out later this year. It will replace the clunky, stylus-craving Windows Mobile 6.5 that's on phones now. It, like the KIN 1 and KIN 2, will have tiles for finger-friendly navigation.
The sooner that happens, the better, I say.
The KIN 1 and KIN 2 are similar.
The KIN 1, which I reviewed, is just smaller, fitting in the palm of the hand with a QWERTY keyboard and slide-up touch screen. The KIN 2 is bigger, closer to the size of an iPhone, with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that's more appropriate for folks with bigger fingers.
Also, there's the aforementioned Zune app. Click on the "Music & More" icon, and you can listen to the radio, or play music and videos via the Zune Pass subscription service.
The coolest feature, though, has to be the KIN Studio. If you log into your phone with a Windows Live or Hotmail account, the KIN phones will automatically back up everything you do to the Web. Photos, videos, texts and your contacts all will stay there even if you erase the phone. So don't hand out your password.
The KIN 2 also has an 8 megapixel camera and shoots high-def video.
Both phones are for sale at www.verizonwireless.com, and on Thursday, they hit stores. The KIN 1 is $49.99 and the KIN 2 is $99.99, both after a $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year contract.
