This Week in Phones #2 - The KIN Phones

Microsoft’s newest entries into the cell phone market are the KIN phones: Kin 1 and Kin 2. Today these phones became available on Verizon Wireless’s online store only, but will soon be available in their retail stores. When these phones were announced, many bloggers criticized the KIN, saying this phone would fail soon after it came out. In this article, I would like to share with you some of the specs of the KIN.

First off, Microsoft makes two KINs: One with a vertical sliding QWERTY keyboard and one with a vertical sliding keyboard. Both phones have a touchscreen and an impressive camera. The Kin 1 has a 2.6” inch touchscreen and the Kin 2 has a 3.4” inch touchscreen. The Kin 1 has a 5 megapixel camera and the Kin 2 has an 8 megapixel camera. Both phones have Wi-Fi and a custom Windows OS. On paper that sounds like a good phone, but the phone does have some short comings.

Both Kins have 8GB of unexpandable memory, which is unfortunate. The second short coming is the price. The phones are technically “smart phones” and are priced competitively. Microsoft claims these phones are smart phones, but are aimed at teens and early 20’s users. That means you need to have a data plan, which starts at $30 per month. So if you’re a teen buying this phone, convincing your parents to pay $30 per month for data might be kind of tough for some people.

In conclusion, this phone should really be marketed as a multimedia phone since they’re trying to go after young people. I am interested to see where this phone goes. I think it has an interesting design and feature set, so I’m really interested to see what owners do with their Kins and whether they’ll like it or not.

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iPad Wi-Fi Issues?

Recently it has become apparent that new iPad owners have started to complain about connectivity issues surrounding their recently purchased iPads. This was a concern held by many before the iPad's release, and now as the forums fill up, could this be the major downfall of the beautiful all aluminium backing of the iPad?

Perhaps.

The obvious resolution to this problem is the iPad 3G version set to hit the shops later this month, being that the 3G version incorporates a plastic backing at the top to allow for 3G connectivity, this could increase wifi-connectivity, therefore resolving any issues. However I'm not sure that this is what current iPad owners want to hear. Many have speculated that Apple may quietly release a software update for the device to address the issue, and let's hope so!

This could indeed be a lesson to Apple about connectivity issues, however it is highly unlikely that Apple didn't rigorously test the iPad before it's release, and so I suspect that this could just be down to a software issue.

What is also interesting though, is that new owners are required to connect the device to iTunes before it's first use, could this perhaps hint as towards a quiet software update? Maybe, maybe not.

Lastly could the forthcoming iPhone OS 4.0 solve these issues? Given that the iPad OS is based on a newer version of the OS than the iPhone, it could be the case that Apple is just working around the bugs, and has scheduled a conference regarding this update so soon, so that it is able to get the software out to all the affected devices to stop the many frustrated owners.

What's your opinion on the subject? Are you an iPad owner, and if so have you experienced any issues like those mentioned above? If so, let me know your thoughts, I'd be interested to know if this, widespread, issue is one of unbearable conditions.

How to Connect Ethernet Devices to the Internet with a Mac Notebook

Even today, in our technologically advanced society, some devices actually…don't use WiFi. Shocker, right? Well this video shows you how to use your Mac Notebook to connect these devices to the internet. Note, your notebook will need to be connected to WiFi.