Windows KIN is the name of a family of phones from the Microsoft corp.  Microsoft announced two Kin models, both available online on May 6, 2010 and in stores on May 13, 2010 exclusively from Verizon Wireless for the U.S.; the phones are for release in autumn of 2010 on Vodafone for Europe. The Microsoft-designed phones are manufactured by Sharp.  The new Kin platform is aimed at users of social networking.  Microsoft described the phones' target demographic as men and women between the ages of 15 and 30.

Kin One

    * Originally codenamed Turtle
    * QWERTY keyboard that slides up and lies on top of the phone
    * 2.6" TFT, QVGA (320 x 240) Display
    * Capacitive touch screen
    * 5 megapixel camera, with LED flash
    * 4GB of memory, 256MB DDR RAM
    * Mono Speaker
    * GPS
    * Accelerometer
    * Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
    * Wi-Fi
    * USB

 Kin Two

    * Originally codenamed Pure
    * Side-sliding QWERTY keyboard
    * 3.4" TFT, HVGA (480x320) pixel Display
    * Capacitive touch screen
    * 8 megapixel camera, with Lumi LED flash
    * 720p Video Recording
    * 8GB of memory, 256MB DDR RAM
    * Stereo Speaker
    * GPS
    * Accelerometer
    * Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
    * Wi-Fi
    * USB


The home screen on Kin is called Loop, and serves as an aggregator  for social networking connections from Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live, and MySpace as well as web content from web feeds.

Commentators have highlighted Loop's 15-minute delay for updates, which CNET's Ina Fried described as odd and PC World argued was at odds with Microsoft's claim that the phone is "always-connected". Users cannot adjust Kin's 15-minute interval between message updates, however the user can simply hit a refresh button on-screen or "Lock" then "Unlock" the phone.[citation needed] Microsoft cites battery life and immature social networking APIs as reasons for the delay; Engadget speculates that Microsoft may also be using the delayed messaging to encourage Verizon to offer lower-priced data plans, which would be attractive to the platform's teenage target audience.

Kin does not support uploading photos or videos to Twitter. Retweets, direct messages, viewing single person updates, and opening Twitter links from the Loop are also not supported

The Kin One features a 5 megapixel camera with standard definition video recording capabilities. The Kin Two includes an 8 megapixel camera with 720p video recording. Photos are automatically geocoded. The handset does not store photos or videos. Instead, every photo and video taken on the Kin is uploaded to Microsoft's server, known as 'Kin Studio'.  There is no photo editing software for Kin

Content from the Kin phone, like photos, videos and messages, is automatically synchronized to a cloud service called Kin Studio and is accessible through a browser. The Kin Studio website is written in Silverlight and its appearance is similar to the Kin UI, even including a Spot for sharing content

Spot is a feature that allows users to add an e-mail address or telephone number to an SMS or MMS, or to attach content eg text, URLs or photos to emails.

The Spot is represented as an omnipresent green dot near the bottom center of the screen. To add an address field, the user drags a recipient's photo to the Spot, then clicks on the Spot, and a page will open allowing the user to create a new email, SMS or MMS.

The Spot can also be used to set up e-mail attachments. However, Kin only supports email attachments, and does not support attachments to other media (like MMS). To attach content to an email, the user drags the content to the Spot, then drags the recipient's photo to the Spot, after which an email can be sent containing those attachments.

The Spot cannot be used to send content to social media sites

The Kin platform was heavily influenced by Microsoft's acquisition of Danger, which built the Danger Hiptop/T-Mobile Sidekick, and its architecture has been described as a family of mobile devices running a bespoke operating system as part of a client–server system that is then licenced to mobile carriers. The Kin is based on Windows CE and is distinct from Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7 platforms.

Kin has no app store and no 3rd party apps can be installed on Kin.  PC World described this as "baffling". Further, the Kin web browser does not support Flash  web applications., and there are no games for Kin. Microsoft has claimed that the Kin and Windows Phone 7 platforms will eventually be merged, and downloadable apps will be available for the combined platform.

For media, Kin devices sync with Zune desktop software. In addition, Kin is compatible with Zune Pass. Much like current Zune devices, Kin can also stream music over a WiFi connection in addition to a 3G on the carriers network.  For Mac users, Microsoft in collaboration with Mark/Space has provided a media syncing tool that pulls audio and video files from iTunes and photos from iPhoto.  Kin does not currently support playing video from sites such as YouTube or Hulu

In the United States, cellular telephone provider Verizon Wireless sells Kin with a voice plan costing $39.99 per month. However, this must be joined with an additional standard Verizon smartphone plan for data, costing an additional $29.99 per month.  An optional Zune Pass costs $14.99 per month for music access.

The monthly network rate $70 - $85 per month in the US for a two year contract for the Kin has drawn criticism from reviewers as being more appropriate for fully-fledged smartphones than for feature phones such as the Kin; Verizon maintains that the charge is warranted due to the large amount of network bandwidth consumed by the automatic backup of video and photos taken by the phone. ZDNet described the contract pricing as "extortionate" and Engadget called it "insulting to consumers