Microsoft Announces Two New Microsoft-Branded Phones

The big news is that at a press event yesterday Microsoft announced two new phones that will be out soon, confirming ongoing rumors — and marking Microsoft’s entry into the hardware market. This week I’ll give you some details of these two phones, plus point you to a giveaway.

Microsoft’s Kin One and Kin Two Phones

Rumors have long held that Microsoft’s “Project Pink†was working on two Microsoft self-branded phones, codenamed Turtle and Pure. And yesterday the rumors proved true, as Microsoft held a press event to announce the Kin One and Kin Two.

Both have capacitive touch screens (like the iPhone), a slideout QWERTY keyboard, and a nonstandard interface. (That is, they’re not Windows Mobile phones.) Manufactured by Sharp, they’ll be available in stores in May from Verizon and worldwide via Vodafone. No prices were announced.

“Turtle†was an apt codename, since the Kin One looks a bit like a baby turtle, with its small, roundish shape. It has a 320x240 screen and is unlike anything I’ve seen. The Kin Two phone has a more familiar form factor, reminiscent of the Touch Pro2, with an iPhone-like shape and 480x320 screen, but with a slideout QWERTY keyboard.

The Kin One has a 5-megapixel camera and the Kin Two 8-megapixel, both designed to be used in low light, with image stabilization and a LumiLED flash.

You can learn more and see images and video on Verizon’s Kin website.

Microsoft’s “Social Phoneâ€

Instead of being a general-user phone, apparently these phones are intended to be feature-phones for a highly specific market segment — one that’s technologically savvy and focused on social networking. Microsoft refers to it as “the next generation of the social phone.â€

The emphasis on social networking includes realtime status updates, and easy and convenient access to social networking functions such as commenting and posting photos. And the interface makes it easy to share your photos on the social networking sites.

Use of Hubs

The interface reminds me of the hub approach of Windows Phone 7. The special features are organized around three hubs:

1) Kin Spot, which lets you share videos, photos, text messages, Web pages, location, and status updates just by dragging them to a single place on the phone called the Spot.

2) Kin Studio, which lets you seamlessly store your photos and videos online (in “the cloudâ€) so that they don’t fill up the memory on your phone, while also automatically backing up your content.

3) Kin Loop, which is the feature that gives you real-time access to your social media updates.

They ship with Zune services, such that users will be able to access the Zune Marketplace and stream music via Zune Pass. It’s interesting to see this coming out in advance of Windows Phone 7. And

Early articles reporting on the news include CNet, Engadget (includes video demo from the press event), a hands-on article and video from Engadget, and Mcrosoft’s press release.

Overall, I'm really impressed by these concept phones.

Giveaway: 10 Free Copies of WMWifiRouter

A writeup on Simplemobile Review about WMWifiRouter garnered a lot of attention, so the developer has given the site 10 copies to give away. If you’d like to try to win one, they’ll announce how to enter on their podcast. They post their podcasts Thursday morning at 6 a,m. Eastern Time. Read more here.