Monday Microsoft announced KIN. A new Windows^®Phone with emphasis on the social user. The phone are a made in partnership with Verizon, Vodafone and Sharp. It will be available via Verizon in the US next month and via Vodafone in Europe in the fall.

The KIN reminds me of the Sidekick. It has a very basic interface. The phone is not cluttered by application and icons. It has a interface which allows you to create your own interactions with others in your social networks.

KIN 1 is a Clam Shell, KIN 2 is a slider they have a 5 and 8 megapixel camera, respectively, and each has a bright LumiLED flash. They have touch screens with a slide-out keyboards.

Social interaction is the focus of these phones. The user interface is unique in how it allows you to use the KIN SPOT (a small circle in the bottom center of the screen) to drag things you want to share. First you select the people you want to share with and drag their icons to the SPOT, you then drag the Video, photos, web pages, text messages, etc which you want to share to the SPOT and it send off your transmission.

An interesting aspect of the services on this device is the “Timeline”. There is companion software (Website??) which allows you to look back at your entire history and all the interactions and communication you have had, laid out as a timeline.

I’m interested to see the plans on these phones. One challenge for Tweens, or their parents (I know, I have two of them), is the monthly cost of a data plan. If these phones require a $25+ data plan, I think they are dead.

There has been some confusion around the fact that these are Windows Phones. People were looking for Windows Phone 7 and this is what was presented. The Windows Phone 7 (Series) phones will be available later this fall. This is another version of Windows Phone OS, based on Windows CE and the Zune platform. This phone will ship with all of it’s software in the ROM. There will be no applications to download, similar to a Zune.

I’ll post more once I actually get my hands on one of these devices, that is, if I can get it away from my daughters.

Well according to George Michael he’s the Devil. I’m referring to Rupert Murdoch and Microsoft’s recent venture with News Corp. It seems they have formed a joint venture in an attempt to control what the public gets on the web. In a nutshell, Microsoft wants to control the search space and News Corp wants to control the News and Newspapers.

Many say the deal is flawed. There is talk of Murdoch pulling all of his news feeds from Google and giving exclusive access to Bing which if you don’t know is Microsoft’s latest attempt at search. This in an attempt to increase the use of Bing since you won’t find the news you are looking for through Google. I’m sure if taken too far this could raise the attention of a few on Capital Hill.

I had just began to think Microsoft was turning a new leaf. I thought they learned the lessons of the Anti-Trust case against them and were going to play nice with others. Instead we get Dr. Evil.

Some are looking at the de-indexing of content from Google. Murdoch want you to pay for news. And he says you will. “We intend to charge for all our news websites … If we’re successful, we’ll be followed by all media.”

I really don’t think this pig has wings. It will be interesting to watch this unfold. Google could loose all of their news content, I still would not use Bing. It is not as good as Google. Perhaps as time goes on and it grows as a search engine, it will improve. But I don’t care for the practices Microsoft and New Corp are using here. Instead of using this as an opportunity to take advantage of a new method of delivering news and changing the world. They are going to play hard and dirty and try to force themselves on the market.

I will always have this vision of Steve Balmer etched in my memory. I suppose it’s better than these.