Included in the theme are customizable buttons for Messages, Phone, Email, Browser, Music, Camera, Settings, Alarm Clock, Recent and The Spot.  Unlike the Kin, however, the tiles are not dynamically updating in this version, although that may be added in the future.

For now, it’s more about achieving the Kin’s look and feel, not its functionality. As Engadget explains, it’s a “Kin-esque homescreen, but not much else.” That’s as the developer intended, though. But now that he realizes the demand for this, he replies on the thread, “apparently there's a market for such, so I'll work on some improvements, such as message notifications, the Loop, Facebook links, etc.”

While the ads themselves are funny (or perhaps disturbing?) riffs on what visiting ex-boyfriends and online stalkers would be like, the truth is that in real life, most people don’t friend creepy strangers on Facebook. (That was what MySpace was for!) Also, the correct protocol, as everyone knows, is that you “unfriend” your ex upon breakup. Those who don’t do so learn the hard way when the ex takes to posting nasty things on your wall. Believe me, I’ve seen it. So take the ads with a grain of salt, they’re not intended to be taken seriously.

However, I think this is an interesting idea for a contest and one that will likely appeal to the youth demographic on the social network. Facebook, unlike Twitter, MySpace and others, is a site where most people connect only with actual friends and family members instead of with random strangers who share their interests, or, as mentioned above, those who virtually stalk them.

With Facebook’s built-in networks that help you find high school and college friends as well as former colleagues, it’s easy to reconnect via Facebook with those friends you may have lost touch with over the years. How nice would it be to actually get to go see them in person? I know I’d love the opportunity to catch up with my hometown friends and college buddies, who now live all over the U.S. That would be a great roadtrip! I wonder if I’m eligible for this contest? Hmm…

KIN Media Sync for Mac lets owners sync music, including playlists built in iTunes, photos like those stored in iPhoto, and videos, too between Mac and KIN.  This is not a Mac version of the Zune software, though, it’s specially designed to move music from iTunes to the KIN phone. It won’t work with copy-protected music, but iTunes has a lot of unprotected content as do other music shops like Amazon (and Zune itself, of course).

Mac users have to be running OS X 10.5.6 or higher in order to use this software and will need iPhone, QuickTime and iTunes in order to sync their media. 

Considering that these phones are somewhat of a new category of device – something a step up from a feature phone, but a step data from a smartphone, the price points seem appropriate. The phones themselves are certainly affordable and the data plan isn’t anywhere near the awful amount I pay now for a smartphone whose total bill is regularly over $100 every month. (In fact, my last bill was closer to $150. Ouch!).

The Wall St. Journal has posted an early review of the phones, which sounds promising, noting that the phone (the KIN ONE was reviewed) had “several fun features,” but the real “wow factor” is the KIN Studio service, the site where all your activities and media are backed up to and laid out in a timeline format. “The first time I opened Kin Studio felt like magic,” notes the reviewer, Katherine Boehret.

Michael Gartenberg, a partner with Altimeter Group, also points to a review from SlashGear guest columnist Chaim Gartenberg For his take on KIN, since he’s someone from the target demographic.

According to this review, “a flat fee that teens won’t have to worry about paying extra for going over a limit, and unlimited space on Studio to store everything is exactly what needed…to make this appealing enough for teens at the price.” As for the phones themselves, they “may not offer everything that can possibly be stuffed into a phone – but sometimes, the thing doesn’t do everything may just do exactly what the user – in this case, teenagers, want.”