Microsoft's new Kin mobile phone is yet another device threatening my career that's not a camcorder yet promises high definition video capture. There are two versions of the Kin phone and Version 2, pictured here, delivers an 8-megapixel digital still camera with a flash and 720p video capture. Those are impressive specs for a phone. What's more, it has 8GB of internal memory, which is enough to store over an hour or two of video, depending on the compression.
I'll reserve final judgment on the video quality of the Kin until I've had a chance to see it in action personally, but while I suspect it won't surpass the Flip or other top-notch pocket camcorders, it does something they can't do. First, the images and videos are uploaded automatically to an online storage service which you can access from any Web-browser. So if you drop or lose your Kin, at least your digital memories are safe. But the big pitch, at least from Microsoft, is the ease with which you can upload movies and stills to social networking sites like Facebook. As easy as it is to move videos to the Web from a growing number of camcorders, you'll still need to work through a computer to do so.
Which leads to the obvious question: why not a Flip phone?
(Image courtesy Microsoft)
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