For this holiday season, when family members visit next of kin, they can now get the formerly out of touch KIN phones from Microsoft. The KIN One and KIN Two from Microsoft, designed for teens who text and use social networks, are back but this time without the data plan requirement from Verizon.
When they were introduced in April, Verizon Wireless required a $29.99 a month data plan, which seemed like a lot of feature phones. The prices have also been discounted. The KIN One is $19.99, and the KIN Two is $49.99 - both with contracts and rebates. Choices of data options include using Wi-Fi, paying $1.99 per MB, the $15 150MB option or unlimited data for $29.99 a month.
The KIN One is a round compact slider with a QWERTY keyboard that
is very usable. It also features a a 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, FM radio and Zune music
player, along with a bunch of Microsoft features, the KIN Loop, KIN
Studio and KIN Spot.
The KIN Two is a landscape slider with a 8MP camera, Wi-Fi, Microsoft Zune player built-in along with KIN Loop, KIN Spot, KIN Studio
and KIN Camera with photo-editing and sharing features. KINs have a
full web browser, and the operating system is based on the new Windows
Phone OS with an FM radio and email access to Web-based mail, POP/IMAP
services, as well as Exchange for business email and contact sync.
The KIN Two also qualifies for Verizon's "buy one, get up to 3 select phones free" promotion.
The only change in the features of the KIN phones is that the Zune streaming music service will now only work over Wi-Fi and not 3G.
Don't forget that you can avoid
waiting for a rebate when you use the
Wireless and Mobile News' online coupon-link Instant
Phone Rebate Only Available with Online Purchase.
KIN Spot lets users share texts and web pages - with almost anyone. Drop
stuff into the Spot and send by text, email or social network update.
KIN Loop combines latest updates/feeds from favorite websites and
social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
KIN Studio back-up messages, contacts, photos and videos are to a
private cloud service.