Microsoft's unique and innovative Kin "ecosystem"

Microsoft's new Kin One and Kin Two are intriguing enough phones, if compromised in some ways. But their most interesting aspect is their Kin interface and its online manifestation, known as Kin Studio, which automatically backs up your phone content online.

Since the Kins are focused on social networking, the main purpose of the interface is to aggregate feeds from Microsoft and other providers such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, and seamlessly integrate them with your camera, contacts, e-mail, and messaging accounts.

All of this is done in a in a photo-collage-like format, which I found both fun and efficient. The Kin interface is identical on both phones, though the experience is different for each phone because of hardware differences, as we detailed earlier.

The interface isn't perfect, but overall I find it to be successful. Here are my notes, which are lengthy, because the Kin's "ecosystem" is so innovative:

Navigation is easy. Much of the action takes place on three screens: The Loop which displays all of your social-network updates and feeds; Favorites, which corrals your most-important contacts, and Apps, which provides access to all of the phone's applications and controls. Getting around to each of them is easy, involving a simple finger swipe.

It's hard to get lost. Pressing a small hard button at the base of the phone takes you back to the previous screen, and holding it down takes you to the Loop.

In the Loop. The Loop is the centerpiece of the Kins, and serves as their home screen. All your latest messages and other notifications appear in caption format, often partially covering the profile picture of the person who sent it. To read the whole comment and to send a reply, you just tap that section of the screen.

At first glance, this collage-like presentation looks a bit chaotic. For example, it's hard to distinguish a Facebook update from a Twitter tweet. Also, the networking app controls are nowhere near as robust as the ones you'll find on the iPhone and other smart phones.

However, the Loop should work well for casual users of these sites. It also has a few nifty features, such as allowing you to simultaneously broadcast updates to all of your accounts. New notifications appear inside small balloon. This busy format works better on the Kin Two's larger screen, which can show five to six updates at a time vs. the two or three that are visible on the Kin One.

A hot Spot. The Spot, a small green dot that appears on the bottom of every Kin screen, is one of the most efficient methods I've seen for sharing a wide variety of content. It works like a temporary holding cell for photos, contacts, Web pages—virtually anything on your phone that you want to share with others.

You just press on the items with your finger, and drag it over the Spot until it disappears. When you're done, tap the Spot for sharing options, which include texting, e-mail, or posting on social networks like Facebook or Twitter. One downer: you can't post Web links or any other feeds directly to social networks using this method.

The Studio offers a back-up plan. Messages, contacts, photos and videos are backed up automatically to Kin Studio, over the phone's wireless network connection. That's a significant plus over backing up, say, photos and videos in the usual way—by tethering the phone to a computer via a cord.

There wasn't much to do on that site at pre-launch except see everything that's on your phone on a larger, less cluttered screen. For example, there don't seem to be any controls for editing or even updating accounts and services. But Verizon officials told me that more is coming.

Favorites and Apps. The Favorites page is for your most-used contacts. Along with their photo, you see all of their phone numbers, e-mail addresses, Web sites, etc. To add a contact, just tap a blank box. The apps page is just like it says: Where you go to launch application such as the Web browser, e-mail, social network apps. But unlike smart phones, you can't add any apps to the phone; you're stuck with only what it comes with.

Web searches are thorough but laborious. The default search engine, Microsoft's Bing, supports location-based (GPS) searches and mapping. Starting to type a term initiates a search for that term on the phone. You can also perform the search on the Web, and on Bing's Near Me, which considers your GPS location.

These additional searches are, however, relatively labor intensive. For example, to extend your search on the Web or Near Me, you have to switch to a new screen by swiping your finger, then tap the magnifying-glass symbol next to the term to launch search. On other phones, this process is automatic, and the results are integrated. Also, you can't get step-by-step directions from your location to businesses you may find in a local search. You can get only generic directions.

We'll have more on the Kin twins after they pass through our labs. In the meantime check out our recently updated Ratings of new cell phones.

—Mike Gikas