Not Apple, and, oddly enough, not Google, but Microsoft.
Gizmodo’s article says that while the Kin, Microsoft’s “smart” phone aimed at the teenage texter, is not a good product, it contains a bit of software, Studio, that is something greater than the sum of its parts. The networking phone uploads everything created with it (photos, videos, texts, etc.) and displays them simply, beautifully, and chronologically on the internet. This Studio can be accessed from anywhere.
Kin Studio bears all the hallmarks of a pilot program, with a limited scope of ambition—there’s no outgoing email or SMS component, nor is it particularly powerful as a photo management tool—as well as a severely limited deployment. If the Kin sells at all, it’ll be to a narrow slice of the population. A sample group, basically. This sample group will glimpse the future of Microsoft, and without knowing it, the future of how we use gadgets.
As a geek, a writer, and a connected person, the day when all of my stuff; which currently ranges across three computers, a cell phone, and an iPod; could be accessible in one interface, from any computer, anywhere that I can get on the internet will be a good one.
Microsoft has confirmed that it would eventually like to merge the Kin’s operating system with Windows Phone 7, which Gizmodo says would probably mean that each OS would get the good bits from the other, and shows that Microsoft already understands this trend in internet use.
Google, Apple and Microsoft are all run by people who understand, to varying degrees, that our data is moving online, and all of the companies want to be there when this finally happens, dutifully archiving, repurposing and serving all of your information. Microsoft is just two steps ahead.
You can read the entire article here.
(via Techmeme.)
