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Comment by azim | Hacker News Reader

If this is the fabled Zune phone, I'm extremely disappointed. I'm not sure what they mean by "social slant." Maybe they mean it's a great conversation starter. Imagine busting it out at a bar, people wouldn't be able to resist commenting on how ugly it is.

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Didn't Microsoft buy the word "Social" a few years ago? Now it means whatever they want it to mean. Welcome to the Social.

Maybe their BRAND UNVEIL can educate you about why this is the most important thing ever: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/04/msft-p...

I find the quotes from their event hilarious: "So, this social generation really does have a point of view. They think it, they do it, and they have a mantra for it." "We came up with this concept of friends, friends, and friends."

Maybe I'm waaay too old to know what "kids these days" are up to, but if everybody under the age of 22 is all about FRIENDS FRIENDS FRIENDS then the world will soon collapse. No new work will get done. We'll be idiocracy within twenty years where everybody exists solely to click ads. It's ads and vapid social media consultants all the way down.

[but if everybody under the age of 22 is all about FRIENDS FRIENDS FRIENDS then the world will soon collapse]

Friends Friends Friends is the new way to network, isn't networking one of the things they preach to everyone for everything (finding a job, starting a startup...)

I don't think this is the Zune phone. It's more like the Windows Phone equivalent of the Motorola BackFlip: not quite a smart phone, but higher on the foodchain that a text+call only phone. It's designed for social stuff[1], and just social stuff (no third-party apps, no flash, no silverlight). Not surprising when you consider that it was designed by the folks who made the SideKick, I guess. Apparently some people want a phone that isn't a computer, but is really just a social networking assistant. Wouldn't do it for me, but it seems like it's a niche that companies are interested in competing over.

[1]: Where "social stuff" also means Facebook, Twitter, and email, instead of just text and calling.

I think these are aimed at people not old enough to get into bars.

I get the feeling these phones are aimed at phones that shouldn't be able to get into bars - it's a Sidekick 4.0.

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