Microsoft Kin phones head for the UK

The Gadget Show  Tuesday 13 April 2010

Microsoft Kin – Next-gen Windows Mobile

Microsoft has unveiled a pair of new Windows phones, names the Kin One and Kin Two, and both are headed to the UK in Autumn. Both feature a homescreen called Kin Loop that automatically updates all your Facebook, Twitter and MySpace details, so you’re never out of the social networking loop.

Both Microsoft Kin handsets have been designed with Sharp and both feature a touchscreen and slide-out keyboard. The Kin One is a small, pocket-sized handset with a 5-megapixel camera, while the Kin Two is larger, has an 8-megapixel camera, more storage and the ability to capture HD video.

Both feature Loop – just choose your favourite people and their status updates, messages, feeds and photos will be updated on your homescreen.

Another neat new service is Kin Spot, which lets you share share stuff like photos, text messages, web pages and status updates by dragging them to a single place on the Kin called the Spot. You then drag the people with which you want to share onto the spot, and you can broadcast the info in your chosen way.

Kin Studio is like an online vault of everything that gets created on the phone. It then gets beamed up into the cloud, so you can open any web browser and access (and then share) photos, videos, texts, call history and contacts.

The Microsoft Kin phones will also feature Zune music sevice, meaning they’re geared up for music, video, FM radio and podcasts. Get a Zune Pass subscription and you can listen to millions of tracks from Zune Marketplace on your phone.

There’s no word on pricing yet, but both Kins are headed our way in Autumn.