Kin OneM/TwoM firmware issues: Verizon/Microsoft update wishlist

[fisharefriends]

Now, before i provide any false hopes, i have to say, that this is only a wishlist. It is my hopes that Verizon and/or Microsoft will take notice, though, and sort out the firmware bugs/poor software design and make this phone behave to its maximum potential. Microsoft, it really could become the next great feature phone, and while i know you don't care much about that market, just remember that the majority of phone users don't have a data plan, and this can be the next best thing.

That said, here is a quick list it threw together. Many of them are firmware bugs, many of them are features that any other feature phone, even ones from 5 years ago, had.

***please read this before posting: before adding your bug reports, and common feature wishlists, read through what has already been posted, to avoid duplicates. Also, remember that this is just a firmware update..so do not ask for applications, windows 7 mobile, or other features that would make it a different phone altogether. Keep it simple, keep it to standard features that other feature phones have.***

I want to thank you (Microsoft/Verizon) for creating this product/providing your services, and hope that you (Microsoft/Verizon) take the time to read through this thread and take into account the requests/desires of your customers. Thanks.

* many of these comments are of features the phone does not have, and things it cannot/does not do, despite 99% of feature phones being able to, and are the desire for them to be fixed/added to the phone.

• cannot delete individual messages, nor select the individual messages, or view their info (every other phone can do this)
• cannot forward messages, resend (i use this a lot, and then add other contacts, to 'forward' a message but still being able to edit parts of it), or save as quick texts
• cannot save or use 'quick texts': it would be very, very positive to be able to send a saved quick text without opening the keyboard.
• No contact groups: its a simple fix really, every other phone that you sell has this ability. It would also be very nice to be able to add these groups to the favorites menu.
• cannot select emails to message from contacts. Any other phone, you would be able to select any of the data entries (all numbers, and emails, etc) and call, or message them. Whether it goes through or not, that would be for the user to figure out, but you should be able to select emails from the 'add recipients' menu of texting.
• Volume keys do not lock upon phone lock. Yes, this phone is used as a music player..but really, volume keys should lock when the phone is locked. In fact, they are near the most important keys you want to keep locked. perhaps make a check, if a video, or music is playing in the background, then don't have the volume keys lock, or just make it an option in settings, but 90% of us expect the volume to stay what we set it as when we lock the phone.
• Alarms cannot vibrate only. They also do not silence/vibrate when set to vibrate only.
• Cannot delete or rename ringtones. Along the same lines, cannot 'edit' ringtones, as in move them to correct categories (between melodies, alarms, and alerts). There is also no 'vibrate only' tone. Yes, there is a vibrate sound setting, but that does not allow for example, setting messages to only vibrate, but have calls still play a ringtone.
• Phone does not have access to backup assist. This is your own program, you would think that it would work..
• no back button on touch screen. would be as simple as adding a 'square' similar to the recent and time buttons, that appear over the rest of the interface. for those who wouldn't want it, just make an option to turn it on or off
• dialer sounds do not turn off, even when you turn off system sounds (contrary to what the manual says, and the general description of the setting).
• When pushing buttons when the phone is locked (see screensaver, time), you cannot see the entire time 'dashboard', unless you wait 5 seconds and have the clock minimize. I use my phone for checking the date a lot..and with such a large screen, would it really be a pain to have the entire dashboard appear by default? I would much rather check the date, time, battery, wireless connections, than see the same screensaver that  i know i put there. If anything, this should be a setting under 'screen lock', to show the dashboard, or just the mini clock like it is now.
• the linking contacts functionality doesn't quite work. When you link 2 or contacts, it removes all the linked contacts (except the main one) from the contact list. Also, when selecting the linked contacts, it does not display their names; only their numbers, and how many of you actuallly  memorize phone numbers?
• Phone cannot display messages in strictly time-order. Most phones i know of that do have threaded messages, also have the option of displaying them by time (the 'standard' way). The Kin phones cannot do this..and i do not know why.
• no vibrate settings. does not have different pulses, constant vibrates, etc. Would be nice to be able to 'feel' whether you are getting a call, message, alarm, calendar, voicemail, reminder, etc.
• A general lack of screen, sound customizations/settings. Many phones allow you to custom set the ringtones, vibrate options, and reminder options (after certain amount of time) for calls, missed calls, alerts, voicemail, etc. but this phone cannot. A simple example, look at the samsung intensity II. It is not a complex phone, but it has these basic customizations, and no 2 people like the same phone settings, so allowing customization really would help.
• inability to use FM radio without headphones. yes, the headphones act as an antenna, but instead of completely disabling the radio when no headphones are plugged in, simply add a warning box that says the signal is weak without headphones. I personally believe that the phone has enough of a reciever to pick up FM signals..but maybe it doesn't have any internal FM signal reciever, and i'm just blowing smoke.
• Cannot use flash as flashlight. A simple task, just allow the user to turn the flash on, and use it as a flashlight.. Yes, it will drain the battery, but i'd assume the user would know that before using it for that purpose.
• This is a little more complex, since it is essentially adding another 'app'..but the phone does not have notes. From my experience though, every other phone does.
• another 'more than fix': allowing the phone to reply to texts/type with the touchscreen, even if it was as simple as a regular keypad. Just add T9/iTap, and then put a keyboard button on the screen (like the clock button, or recent button, which is actually quite useless) that would pop up the numerical keypad to use without opening the phone. Not that complicated, most other touchscreen slider phones have this ability.
• cannot search contacts with touchscreen. Again, as simple as adding the dialing pad as a selectable box to pop up an on-screen dial pad to be used at any time, but this is particularly important when searching through contacts.

[soundessential]

Since it's unlikely that they'll provide any updates for this phone, it would be nice if they could unlock it and let us contribute fixes and apps for it. I know that they used this for development:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/products/windowsce/silverlightforwe.mspx

Using C++

Now if they could make this somewhat of an open source project. I would totally contribute to it. This is no Windows Phone 7 but it is a phone that's easy to fall in love with, even with it's quirks.

Thanks,

Jerry

[KeepOnSingin]

Although it's a bit annoying to do, if you record video in night mode, the flash is on and thus can be used as a flashlight.

[fisharefriends]

That would seem like the logical thing for them to do.. Microsoft, if you are indeed just letting the kin phones die out, you really should make the firmware open-source. If not, and you are trying to revitalize the phones, then its understandable that you don't release the source, but i doubt you don't know about its problems, so release an update. Most of these issues aren't too hard to solve (and thats coming from me, who knows 'scratch of the surface' amounts of programming).

As for the flashlight, i knew that worked, but that is only a workaround for them not providing a way to turn it on independently in the first place.

Perhaps they will release the source sometime in the future (about the same likelyhood that they will update it themselves, but both would make my day and add loads to the phone's quality), but no matter who would be able to make fixes, i'll still continue providing a list.

Added bugs:

• Cannot access video files from outside the zune (to see its info, send it in a message, etc). The only way to send a video via email/mms is to send a live-take video. Just make it so you can view the initial thumbnail when clicking on the video, and then have the same properties to it as you would have to photos, then a play button inside.
• cannot switch settings mid-video shoot. Say, if you want to turn off night mode/flash, you can't just pause the video, and then switch the setting, and then start again.
• No copy-paste of text. This software is fully capable of doing this...but there is not option to do so. With a browser, and messages/emails, you would think they would allow you to copy-paste text. Although it is true that most feature phones cannot copy-paste either.
• in the browser, the back button does not remain within the browser. Yes, globally the back button is used as the entire phone's back button, but it really should remain a browser 'back' function when in the browser. You can always hold it to go back to the home, which is where you go from hitting back in the browser anyways, so it should be dedicated to the same function that the back arrow has on the html address line. It is very annoying when you want to go back more than 1 page, to have to tap the bar every single time after each page has loaded, to go back another page. If anything, the back button on the html line should be a quick-history dropbox of say, the last 5 pages you visited, and then the physical back button should take over as the standard back button.

[KeepOnSingin]

I've never had a phone that has a flash you can turn out without the camera...in fact, I didn't even know that they existed! My phone's screen itself is what I've always used as a flashlight...works just fine IMO.

[fisharefriends]

well, you have a point. I've only owned 1 other phone, and it didn't have a flash/flashlight, as most feature phones don't either. I just know smartphone applications that can do this. So you're right, its not too bad, better than what i've ever used, but its also not very hard to add.

[fisharefriends]

• cannot turn off camera shutter, it only turns off when you silence the entire phone.

[Pammy]

Additional Fixes:

- No ability to change the size of the Font.  This is VERY important to a lot of people, especially those who's eyes aren't as   

  good as they used to be.    Changing the color and type of font would also be helpful.

- No acknowledgement that text has been delivered.  Also a very important feature missed. 

Thank you Microsoft for getting a LOT of things right with this phone.  Just need to fix some very basic features that you missed, that have been around for years on the vast majority of feature phones.

[salai]

Don't think I saw these-- to add on:

-Predictive text of some sort would be great

-Ability to send an MMS to an email address with a Subject Line would be great (my old feature phone allowed this, even though it didn't have an emailing function).

As for the flashlight feature, most cheap phones in Europe and Asia have built-in flashlights, though in the U.S., it seems to be a smartphone thing. The video workaround seems okay though.

I agree with the poster who suggested Verizon opened up the phone to open source updates... PLEASE???

[dstor]

Angry Birds, Just kidding

No. I'm not.

Actually I would really like to see (and forgive me if I missed this if someone else already mentioned it) a recent call log tab when you open up the phone "app" ,ie when you get to dialer screen.

Plus what everyone else already said

...and World Peace

[fisharefriends]

dstor, i don't know if you knew this, but that actually is already there. When i first got the phone, i was kind of baffled that it didn't even have a recent calls log (like it was all mashed into messaging), but a few days later i found it. Scroll right in the phone 'app', and there is the log. Like other menus in the Kin, it will remain the 'default' so long as that is the page you left the phone screen from. Sometimes, there are good, hidden surprises

[dstor]

No Way! Wow...I am a doofus. It was there the whole time.Thanks. That is awesome...You could have told me there was an update from Microsoft last nght and I would have believed you.

I am going to start scrolling every which way on every screen to make sure I am not missing something!

[fisharefriends]

Tell me about it. When i found that out, i did the same. Along with double-tapping on everything, holding down the cursor/buttons to see what they did, etc. Thats how i found out when in a text/any text box, if you hold your finger down on the text, it pops out a blow-up and you can move your finger to 'scroll' around in the text.  Its things like this, that every user wishes were in the manual, the little details that are device-specific, not functions like how to make a phone call. I tried to address as many of these that i knew in my FAQ/review post/thread (I believe i mentioned the call log, but i may have missed it), give it a read through when you get the time, and feel free to add anything i did not mention/make corrections to anything not accurate.

http://community.vzw.com/t5/KIN/Kin-TwoM-Review-FAQ-Q-amp-A-troubleshooting-etc/td-p/347662

[customeyes]

More features to add to wish list:

1. Memo/Notepad. There are other places to put text (messages, draft emails) but they don't appear to be searchable.

2. Document viewer for email attachments. A Microsoft operating system can't view Microsoft documents? A standalone document viewer would be a bonus.

[fisharefriends]

• lack of EMS (enhanced messaging system). feature phones that are much older than the Kin phones have EMS, which is responsible for why the Kins can't play animated messages, etc etc. It is true the Kin was much delayed even for its initial release (i read up to 3 years)..but functions that are missing like this really make the phone feel outdated in some aspects. They're not new features, they're not 'smartphone' features, they're not features that would be hard to incorporate, but for some reason when the kins were refurbished to the m models, things like this weren't addressed. After all, isn't this a messaging phone to begin with?
• Bluetooth: cannot connect to other phones. This phone will not discover other phone devices, and other phones can discover the kin, but you do not know the 4-digit passkey to connect to it. The phone's bluetooth, to my knowledge, can only connect to devices like headsets, and that like. No transferring of contact cards, or even of a 'mass storage' effect.

For real, microsoft and verizon, did you really have to inhibit the phone's bluetooth to this very basic full-capacity bluetooth feature? Every feature phone has this ability to connect to other phones, why did you leave this out on the Kin phones? I thought it was a few years back that you finally stopped this ridiculous locking of your phones. Except this isn't a Verizon lock, this is a simple Microsoft firmware 'did not include' the feature.

[gkamieneski]

Is FTP on this list yet?

[melzywi]

I wish there was a way to add games like on the Zune music player.  That would be nice if you could add applications to the phone through Zune Market Place.  I mean the Zune player was created to compete with Apples iPod.  And The Kin was designed to compete with Apples iPhone. Like iPod and iPhone are the same except you can't make calls on the iPod. Why can't they make the Kin the same as the Zune except for it can make calls.  They could make the marketplace only available through WIFI or connected to your computer.  It would still not be a smart phone.  Because you can't access any of Verizon's games and applications they need to make those available another way. Even their non smartphones have access to Verizon's games and apps.

Mel

[uberpatsfan]

Thanks, fish for this very comprehensive list.  Here are a few more from my perspective:

  - I second the request for a soft "back" button. 

  - I also have to complain about the volume buttons.  I continue to miss calls because the volume turns down in my pocket or when I handle the phone!

  - The Recent button is worthless for me, too, and gets in the way.

  - I'm falling in like with the Zune player.  But, it cannot take DRM protected audiobooks (even though real zune players say they can).  This is a crucial feature for me. Please make the Kin show as an MTP device on my computer like most other MP3 players and I can work around it (I've poked at the registry settings with no luck).

   - I can't say this enough: CONTACTS, CONTACTS, CONTACTS.  I need to sync my contacts to the phone and back them up when I add more.

    -Really?  A Microsoft product with calendar and contacts that can't sync to Outlook calendar or contacts or any calendar for that matter? Really?

Two wishes:  1) Microsoft or VZW please acknowledge these posts whether you intend to do anything or not.  2) Microsoft, write a little computer program that allows me to sync contacts, mail, with my computer (something to replace Kin studio).

[dmellor]

The calendar has two big problems that need to be fixed.

First, you can't create a repeat event with an end date.  Anything repeated is repeated into eternity.  At the other end of the process, you can't delete repeated events, "from now on."  The create and delete options are "just this one," or "all occurrences."

Second, there are no categories options.  Come on!  This can't be more elementary.  Both the contacts list and the calendar HAVE to allow for sub-categories.

[Edited to comply with Terms of Service] I'm just interested in working on this important tool which I use many times each day for both personal and professional communications.

Thanks for your great forum.

[minmaster]

yahoo email cannot be sent from within the email app

it'd be nice to get an Instant Messaging app, similar in the way how the email app is.

[tweak42]

I second the need for Notes,a IM app, and contacts backup.

Also wish wifi supported PEAP authentication because my school uses that for campus wide wifi thus my Kin cannot connect.