In the age of the iPhone and other smart phone devices like Blackberries and the Android platform it’s easy to gloss over the significance of the recently announced phones from Microsoft called Kin One and Kin Two. The entrance of the Kin phones and ecosystem is a surprising move considering Microsoft also just announced their other new phone platform called Windows Phone 7, a completely new experience and platform which essentially replaces the old Windows Mobile platform.

I have seen a lot of blogs/bloggers exclaiming that the Kin devices will fail, they just can’t seem to understand who would buy these phones, especially when there are so many smart phones on the market which can do so much more.

Personally I think this is a brilliant move by Microsoft.

1. Target Audience
Microsoft has a very specific market they are aiming for with these phones, it’s not aiming for the business person or the people who want a lot of power and applications and who have money to throw around on expensive devices and service/data plans.

Instead these devices are aimed directly at young adults, kids in middle school, high school who are heavy into social interactions with their friends, who use Facebook and text message a 100+ times a day. Kids who have part time jobs and have limited budgets, big into music, photos, videos and social networks.

2. Devices
The Kin devices are not smart phones, most people would probably call them dumb phones. I however, refer to them as “dumb smart phones”.

Dumb phones are basically your standard, cheap and basic functionality phones that you can find in every phone store. Dumb phones can’t really do much, they can make calls, send text messages, maybe have a calendar, calculator and a few low level games. The interfaces are lists of text menus.

Smart phones like the iPhone are much more expensive, come with a service plan and a data plan in many cases, They have internet access, music, high quality games, thousands of applications for just about anything you can imagine. The interface has nice icons, smooth transitions/animations and sometimes customizable.

Dumb smart phones such as the Kin falls somewhere in the middle, which is one reason I think it will be highly successful. The interface is something we have never seen before (even on a smart phone and especially not on a dumb phone), it has slick animations, vibrant images, and a dynamic/interactive experience which makes the phone “fun” to use again.

3. Experience
I touched just briefly on the user experience in bullet two but I feel it needs more explanation since I think it’s the experience which is really going to drive the sales of these devices.

The user experience on the Kin devices is crucial to the success of these phones, all these kids who want a “cool” phone at an affordable price and still does everything they need it to do will jump at the chance to get a Kin. Think about it, would you get a phone with static boring list based navigation system or something with fluid, dynamic animations/effects, dynamic content and a unique interface? I’d choose the latter of the two in a heartbeat, which is exactly why the iPhone has been so successful.

The Kin is a “step up” in the phone experience while staying within a price point (I expect) that young adults can afford with little hesitation.

In addition to the phone itself having a great experience, you also will have a great experience with it on the web. You’ll be able to view all your photos, your profile, various information in a structured, fun, interactive and dynamic and unique environment.

4. Price
Price will play an important role as well, I expect these phones will be priced between $75-$200 plus a small monthly service fee. Personally I think the phones should be priced between $50-$125 with a small monthly fee.

My guess is that Microsoft won’t make a lot of money on these devices anyway, so if they price them as low as possible, make it so that kids won’t have to hesitate because of price. A low price also makes it an affordable second phone to people with iPhones or other smart phones who want something small and easy to use when they go out to a party, or someplace where they are afraid their smart phone may get damaged or even stolen.

Low price often times means a lot of sales, if they go for quantity of users instead of high profit then they have quickly and easily guided people into their ecosystem, 1-3 years later when the kids are ready for a something more powerful they will likely consider other Microsoft phones since they are familiar with the experience and all their data is already in that system, I expect it will be quite hard to port over the data to some other system like the iPhone.

Final Thoughts
Microsoft has of blindsided the dumb phone competition, they re-evaluated the dumb phone experience and made it into something that is fun and cool. So many companies are focused on building smart phones while ignoring the huge potential of lower cost, lesser functionality phones which still outsell smart phones and will continue to outsell for a while yet. Dumb phone companies are so focused on low cost that the experience gets even worse for the end user. The Kin should provides both a great experience and a great price.

What are your thoughts, will you get a Kin? Do you know someone who would fit the Kin target audience? Will it be successful?

I dropped the ball last week on upcoming events, but I have a great list for you this week, feel free to suggest other area events in the comment area.

Cold Start Happy Hour (Free)

Monday, April 19, 2010 from 7pm to 9pm

Start practicing your elevator pitch, for the second Cold Start Happy Hour, we’re meeting in The Happy Gnome’s back patio in St. Paul.

We want to hear about the projects you’re working on, share with you what we’ve been working on, and both leave with new local projects to evangelize.

The Happy Gnome
498 Selby Ave
Saint Paul, MN 55102

http://coldstart.eventbrite.com/

Bootstrappers Breakfast

Join Other Entrepreneurs Who
Eat Problems For Breakfast.

* Compare Notes
* Exchange Ideas
* Learn from Others’ Mistakes
* Brainstorm with Peers
* Find Partners
* Small Group Atmosphere
* Serious Conversation

Bootstrappers Breakfasts® are for founders of early stage technology startups. It is a chance to compare notes on operational, development, and business issues with peers. These breakfasts were designed for entrepreneurs to share ideas and leverage thoughts with other folks who are serious about growing their business.

Our focus is on issues for growing a business, not on VC fundraising. We promote the bootstrap business model.

http://www.bootstrappersbreakfast.com/
http://www.meetup.com/Bootstrappers-Breakfast-Minneapolis/

MIMA Event: CATFOA 2010: HASHEM BAJWA, (DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL STRATEGY, DROGA5) (Free)

Monday, April 19, 2010
Doors at 5:00 p.m. Event starts at 6:00 p.m.

Welcome to the third installment of the third year of Conversations About The Future Of Advertising, co-sponsored by MCAD+MIMA.

Fine Line Music Cafe
318 First Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55401

http://www.mima.org/mimaevts/

Twin Cities Silverlight Group (Free)

Windows Phone 7 and Silverlight – Don’t Make Any Assumptions
4/20/2010 12:00 – 1:30 pm

At MIX10 there were a number of announcements and a lot of buzz around Windows Phone 7 and one of its development platforms, Silverlight. While it is undoubtedly tempting to download the CTP bits and start coding, it would be wise to take a step back and come to an understanding of the differences between developing in Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 and developing for traditional (i.e. browser hosted) Silverlight applications.In this session we’ll examine the differences and similarities between the two platforms as well as some other gotchas that come along with developing for Windows Phone 7.

Meeting will be held at the Microsoft Office. 8300 Norman Center Dr., Suite 950, Bloomington, MN 55437

http://www.tcslug.com/

Minnesota Visual Studio User Group

3rd Wed of Every Month @ 5pm

A walkthrough of some the the exciting new features of .NET 4.0.

Microsoft
8300 Norman Center Dr., Suite 950 Bloomington, MN 55437

http://www.vstsmn.com/

Become a LinkedIn Expert – Jobseeker Edition ($99 – $119)

Weekly Event – Every Thursday: 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM (CT)

Maybe you’ve received an e-mail with this message in the Subject line.

Did you ask, “what’s a LinkedIn” or did you just blindly sign up and accept the invitation?

Regardless of which road you took, you need to learn more about the latest trend in job search, social networking. In this presentation you’ll discover what the LinkedIn buzz is all about and how you can leverage this powerful tool to that new job – even in today’s challenging economy.

400 Hwy 169 S
Suite 100 (outside entrance on north side)
Minneapolis, MN 55426

http://linkedinexpertjobseeker.eventbrite.com/

As a web designer I am frequently required to embed a Google or possibly Bing map onto the contact page of a new website. Often times the client or the allotted area for the map can be fairly small making it hard to see the “Pop-up” window which contains the address information and such on the map. Frequently the window will get cut off on the top or it simply is aligned oddly for the size of the map.

The issue:

Notice how the window is cut off and you can’t really see much.

How it should look:

Now you can see the full Pop-up window, yet without having to change the allotted width and height of the map area.

The Solution:

HTML:
<div class="mapContainer">
<iframe width="400" height="550" src="”></div>
</div>

*Note that most of the map code is removed for ease of reading.

CSS:
.mapContainer
{
width:400px;
height: 300px;
overflow: hidden;
}

If you look at the code above you will see a few key elements to make this work.

First, you need to wrap your iFrame in a simple div with a class or id attached to it, in this case it’s just a class called “mapContainer”.

Secondly, in the css code you need to define your height and width, specifically the height. As you will notice I have set the css height to only 300 pixels (my allotted space on my site), but the iFrame height is 550 pixels. (more on this in a bit)

Thirdly, you will notice I have a css attribute: overflow: hidden; – this is important as it allows us to hide anything that may fall outside of our div container.

Now back to the height settings, if you look at the iFrame you will notice it is set to 550px and not the 300px that we have in our css. What we are doing is making the map “extra tall” which in return pull our location marker and pop-up down further inside of the div, thus lining it up the way we want need it to be while not extending outside of our div container since we have the overflow: hidden value set. (You need to fiddle with the height values until you get the desired vertical placement)

And that is all there is to it, pretty simple but very effective.

I have never actually tried it, but I would expect you can have the same results if you need to adjust the horizontal placement as well, just set your iFrame width larger than the css width.

You will only be able to pull the pop-up down and/or right with this technique.

Has anyone else had a similar issue? How did you solve it? Is there a better way? Let me know your thoughts.

I’ve decided that at the beginning of each week I will post about some of the upcoming local web design/development, startups and other technology  events happening in Minnesota/Minneapolis area. My goal is to focus on events for that particular week (this week is an exception).

If you know of any other web related events, please let me know so I can add it to the list.

Minneapolis CrowdPitch – (Free)

This event will bring entrepreneurs, innovators, mentors, support providers, and investors together in an informal and energetic setting.

Think ´America Idol´ — selected entrepreneurs will have 4 minutes to pitch their company to both a panel of experts & a live audience, followed immediately by a 3-minute Q&A session with the panel.

A free networking lunch will follow the formal pitch…

Monday April 12, 2010 from 11:30AM – 1:30PM

Hilton Minneapolis/Bloomington
3900 American Blvd West
Bloomington MN 55437

Learn more…

MinneWebCon 2010 – ($200)

MinneWebCon 2010 (web • twitter • facebook) is less than three weeks away! Join Minnov8 (we’re the media group covering the event) and hundreds of your fellow netizens at this fantastic get-together focused on next generation internet, web and social media creation and delivery…

April 12, 2010

Continuing Education and Conference Center, University of Minnesota
1890 Buford Avenue
St. Paul MN 55108

Learn more…

MN Lean Startup Group – (Free)

We are excited to announce that Lisa Foote of MixMobi will be the guest speaker for our April meetup. Lisa Foote co-founded http://mixmobi.com, Software as a Service that allows clients to create offers and promotions that work on any web-capable mobile phone, in 2009…

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 from 7:00PM – 9:00PM

Refactr Offices
11 Fourth Street NE
Minneapolis MN 55413

Learn more…

UIE Web App Masters Tour – ($895)

Join us for two days chock full of the latest thinking about building awesome web-based applications from our team of world-renowned experts. An event loaded with inspirational ideas and actionable insights for just $895…

Tuesday April 27, 2010 at 8:00AM – April 28, 2010 at 5:AM

Radisson Plaza Hotel
35 South Seventh Street
Minneapolis MN 55402

Learn more…

Great collection of some stone/brick walkways to use in your projects. Click here to download the zip file and use as you wish. Texture are 2592px by 1944px.

Many more textures over on TextureArchive.com

What’s included in the zip:

I have collected 10 of my favorite rusty metal textures that shot and use within some of my work, thought you might like to use them as well. Click Here to download the zip file and use as you wish! Most textures are 2592px by 1944px.

There are many more textures located over on our site TextureArchive.com.

What’s included in the zip:

Recently I ordered some business cards for my new service:
http://homeimprovement.krazier.com and debated on whether I should go matte or glossy for the finish. I’ve never really cared for glossy except on postcards, glossy on business cards has always seemed “cheap” to me for some reason.

I’m trying to think back to all the cards I have purchased for myself and can’t think of a time where I chose to go with glossy, however this time was different. Yesterday I got my cards in the mail and have to say that they look really nice and I’m glad I decided to try something new.

What is your preference? Do you prefer Glossy or Matte on your business cards?

Thank you,
Krazier Designs

If you own or manage an Apartment, Bed & Breakfast, Condo, Duplex or Townhouse we encourage you to visit our site and sign up to be notified as a “Property Manager”, from there we will send you an email with a link providing additional information on listing your properties with us. Or you can simply send us a Direct Message on our twitter account over here:
http://twitter.com/SuperiorApts and we’ll get you the link.

Our primary goal right now is getting managers to list their properties so that when we open the site to the public we will have listings available to search for. Please spread the word to as many property managers as possible, the more we have the sooner we can open up the public beta.

Pricing & Promotions

• Each new property listing will receive 60 days absolutely free!
• If you purchase at least 30 additional days you will be entered in to win one of five ZuneHDs we are giving away (Limited to first 1000 managers to list at least one paid listing)
• For each day you purchase we will give you another half day free (up to 365 days free), so if you buy 50 days you would get an additional 25 days free, if you bought 730 days you would get an additional 365 days free.
• We charge just $1 per day, per listing. You can purchase anywhere from 30 days up to 730 days.

Note: All start and end dates for any listing you add will be adjusted according to the official public launch day which has yet to be determined.

Some Features

• Full Manager Details
• Management Name
• Logo
• Contact Information
• Website
• Description
• Link to Twitter, FriendFeed & Facebook Accounts
• Displayed on your Property Listing
• Displays all your Properties in Listing
• Quick Contact Request in Listing
• Full Property Details
• Full Description
• Contact Information
• Website
• Office Hours
• Up to 50 Photos per Listing
• Add 5 Photosynths
• Add Floor plans with Images
• Apartment Amenities
• Community Amenities
• Pet Information
• Parking Information
• Local Neighborhood Information
• Interactive Map
• Easily create Craigslist Ads

Thank you

We would like to thank you for evaluating our services and hope you will take advantage of our 60 day free listing promotion.

We are excited and look forward to working with you.

Thank you,
Micah

Here at Krazier Designs we feel that art plays an important role in all of our lives whether people realize it or not, we hope that we can help your organization promote your art services to the community.

If your organization falls into the visual or performing arts and are in need of a new website, please send us an email at: info@krazier.com with at least the information listed below:

• Organization Name
• Art Category involved with
• Current Website
• Your Name and relation to the organization
• Email Address
• Phone Number
• Description of your services
• Description of how a new site would benefit you and the community
• Description of the features you would like on your website that do not already exist on your current site
• Any other useful information about your organization so we can get a better level of understand as to what you do and what you offer

We are looking to get started on a site soon and so we are setting a short deadline to get your requests in. We will accept requests up through Sunday September 20th 2009. At that point we will pick one organization to work with on a new website.

Please note:

• Websites will be static only, no database driven sites will be allowed
• Websites will be built using the ASP.NET framework or basic HTML depending on the features of the site
• Domain Name expenses are to be handled by the organization
• Hosting can be provided if requested
• Due to limitations in our own time we are limiting our free services to 40 hours

Please pass on this article to anyone who you feel might be interested in our offer, we look forward to all your requests and we hope we are able to help out a great organization.

Thank you,
Krazier Designs