We teased you a bit the other day with video of the latest version of Kinoma Play (albeit in Japanese), but now it's ready for the rest of us, in English.
This is a major upgrade for Kinoma Play that they're dubbing a "Social Media Browser," and new features include customizable Kinoma home pages, Facebook integration, direct access to the Mobihand app store, Twitter integration, Last.fm, a built-in RSS reader, a free gigabyte of space from Box.net, the already outstanding Yoututbe player and support for Flickr and Picasa.
Another new feature (to Kinoma at least) is support for the AVRCP Bluetooth protocol, aka the ability control playback from a Bluetooth device. Huzzah!
For those of you already rocking the full version of Kinoma Play (watch our original review here), the update should be available the next time you launch the app. (Or you can get it manually with the "Check for update" function.) If you're looking to buy, it'll run you $29.99. That's definitely not cheap for a Windows Mobile app, but, in our opinion, you get what you pay for here. (And for those of you wondering, Kinoma FreePlay will get an update, too.)
Learn more over at Kinoma.com, and the full presser's after the break.
Update: After applying the upgrade, you'll have to re-save all of your "favorites" within Kinoma Play. I could find most of mine in the Kinoma Guide, but you may want to track down some of your lesser-known links in advance. But this also gives you the opportunity to add the to the home screen and try that out. But be forewarned.
Kinoma Introduces World’s First Mobile “Social Media Browser”
New Kinoma Play brings together leading media services and social networks
like Twitter and Facebook for the first time on a mobile phone
PALO ALTO, Calif. – May 28, 2009 – With today’s release of Kinoma Play, the best way to find, play and share media on a mobile phone is now also the best way to find, play and share media across social networks and media services like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Picasa.
The new release of Kinoma Play for Windows Mobile builds on its leading, touch-optimized media experience to provide a social media experience that’s faster, more fun and more connected.
“The new Kinoma Play connects your media and your social networks with power and simplicity unavailable anywhere else,” said Peter Hoddie, CEO of Kinoma, “It’s not just that we’ve added hundreds of new features — it’s how naturally they work together, and how easily they work together on the new Kinoma Play home screen.”
This new Kinoma Play release includes:
- Cross-social sharing — Kinoma Play’s unique approach to supporting social media services and social networks breaks down the barriers between them and is key to its “share everything with everybody” approach. Users can share YouTube videos on Facebook, share Facebook photos on Twitter, share tunes via SMS, and more — because everything’s a first-class citizen, they can do it in a way that would otherwise be clumsy or impossible.
- Your mobile media home — Users can now create personal Home screens for fast access to their favorite stuff. Exclusive ZoomLinks let users jump instantly to almost anything — individual items, entire albums, even to specific features of any Kinoma Play application. They can make pages that collect friends’ Flickr photostreams, YouTube favorites and Twitter tweets, pages of “presets” to live radio streams and podcasts — the possibilities are infinite.
- Twitter — Allows users to tweet about the music, videos and podcasts they love on the world’s largest microblogging site. They can update their status, and photo-blog their day for friends, family and followers all around the world with built-in TwitPic integration. There’s even built-in search so users can see what the world’s saying about breaking news, or about themselves.
- Facebook — The world’s largest social network is also the world’s largest photo sharing site, and Kinoma Play is now the easiest, most convenient way for users to update their status and instantly share the pictures that tell the story of their life.
- App stores — Kinoma Play’s built-in store allows users to download and update their Kinoma Play apps. With two clicks they can install the Mobihand Store app to buy Windows Mobile apps for their phone, check out screenshots and YouTube video demos before they buy, and even download free trials.
- YouTube — Kinoma Play is now the world’s most comprehensive mobile application for YouTube, the world’s largest social video site. There’s an all-new user interface and tons of features — upload, browse, search, play, favorite, rate, comment, share and lots more.
- Last.fm — It’s the music service that “learns what you love” and now Kinoma Play lets users share their love of music with the world. Users can automatically “scrobble” while they listen, see and read about favorite bands and artists, find more artists like the ones they love and connect with what their friends are listening to as well.
- News Reader — Kinoma Play’s new built-in news reader application lets users read their favorite blogs and other news right within Kinoma Play, and play associated video, music, podcasts and pictures as well. By subscribing, they’ll automatically be notified about new posts as they become available.
- Cloud media playback and management — Kinoma Play users get 1GB of free space from cloud storage and sharing pioneer Box.net when they sign up within Kinoma Play — that’s enough space for over 250 songs. That lets users easily move media between their phone and PC, stream their own music, pictures and video without using valuable space on their phone, and share files and folders with friends.
- Flickr and Picasa — They’re two of the world’s largest photo-sharing sites, and they’re built right in. With Kinoma Play, the phone is an “infinite photo album” of personal photos, photos from friends and family and the most interesting photos taken by people around the world. Even upload new photos on the fly in just seconds.
Pricing and availability
This new release of Kinoma Play is available immediately for Windows Mobile users (Q3 for Symbian S60). The retail price remains just $29.99, and this update is free for all Kinoma Play customers.
About Kinoma Play
Since its acclaimed debut as the first mobile media browser, Kinoma Play has changed the mobile media landscape. Lauded as “the cure for iPhone envy”, Kinoma Play is considered a must-have for Windows Mobile phones, and delivers the primary media experience on flagship phones from leading mobile operators including Sprint, SOFTBANK MOBILE and NTT DOCOMO.
About Kinoma
Kinoma is a privately-held company formed in May 2002 to design and build mobile media products. Kinoma creates innovative, leading-edge products that are fun and easy to use while providing rich functionality.
Kinoma is a registered trademark of Kinoma, Inc. For further information, visit kinoma.com. Follow @Kinoma on Twitter (twitter.com/Kinoma) to get the latest news first. Kinoma will be posting “feature focus” articles with more detail to blog.kinoma.com, and posting daily tips for the new features to @KinomaTips on Twitter.
