jhickman, i'm sorry to hear this but i don't use the zune player often so i couldn't comment on if this happens to me or not. If you could share if this problem worsens, or is consistently a bug, i'm sure many other readers would appreciate it.
RenaRay:
Yes, i will say that the cases do help out in preventing the volume buttons from being pushed. Also, i'm sure you've read this, but i filed down my volume buttons to stick out about half of what they do when you buy the phone, and i will say i haven't accidentally bumped them since. Regarding the case, this is the one i bought and can verify it prevents the volume button from being pushed:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Rubber-Protector-Verizon-Microsoft/dp/B003R1E9LA/ref=pd_bxgy_cps_img_c
Regarding large bugs/inconveniences/flaws: i will combine 2 separate lists into 1: the ones that are biggest to me (some of them may be small, but they are ones that bug me because of how i use my phone), and the ones that i've read around that would be the biggest, assuming i used every function of the phone (which i don't; when was the last time i needed to forward a text?)
My list:
-volume buttons don't lock
-alarms do not vibrate-only; had to use a work-around of turning system vibrate on and adding a 'silence' ringtone which would in turn only vibrate.
-somewhat slow navigation; the hardware is definitely fast enough to run a phone like this; however, microsoft decided to add very poor coding and navigation to the phone, so it has delays here and there. When not in a rush, it is fine and isn't too slow, but when you are trying to go quickly, especially with using the camera and changing settings quickly, this problem propogates everywhere and can quickly get on your nerves if you are coming from a faster phone. If your old phone was slow like mine, you may actually feel this is an improvement and it won't bug you.
-no contact groups; if you want to send mass texts, good luck. you have to add the contacts one at a time.
-doesn't show how many text characters; while it automatically breaks texts into multimessages if it is over 160 characters, i still think it should show the # characters, if you don't want to go over and send multiple texts, you can't really know. It is the worst when you send a message, just to have the period (.) create a 2nd text that is sent.
-the 'shift' and 'caps' keys register a bit slower than all the other keys. All the letters and such register as soon as you push them, but if you text quickly and use caps and shift, you may have to slow down when pushing them cause if you go quickly, it won't register that you pushed the button.
-there is no on-screen keypad; i don't need an onscreen full keyboard, cause that defeats the purpose of having the slide-out one, but to not include at least the traditional keypad to text with is pretty lame. Even for quick texts, you have to open up the phone to type the message. Along the same lines, there is no predicative texting of any sort, which may be why they skimped out and didn't add the feature of having the on-screen keypad for texting. They already have the interface and all, the keypad when dialing numbers, they just made it so it only works when dialing out a call.
-font color: on some of the screens, the font color ends up being dark red on black (i have the red color theme selected; there are blue, red, pink, and green background settings); you can imagine how hard that is in sunlight. I wonder why they didn't jsut stick with white text on black, or dark on light colors, vice versa.
-poor form-factor design; the reverse-fillet design on the back of the phone makes it want to slide out of your hand, not stay in it; apparently they didn't try the design before finalizing the design. it is comfortable in the hand, however; the trouble is getting it to stay there. if you apply a skin, or add a case, or some other solution to give it a more tactile texture, then it should be fine.
-does not have many of the 'general' features and settings that most feature phones of verizon's do. It can't give alerts to missed calls/texts, doesn't have many customizeable settings, etc.
-no on-screen back button; it is kind of a stretch to reach the back button at the bottom of the phone while trying ot balance it and not drop it; i will admit though, i have adjusted by now so this is quite a bit of a smaller problem than it used to be.
-when the phone is locked, on that lock screen: while the time is displayed in the lower right corner, it does not display the date. Very annoying! I used to always quick-check the date on my phone by just pushing a button, but now to check the date you have to unlock the phone, and then click on the dashboard. Actually, you can wait for the clock portion to minimize and then still click on the 'dashboard' while the phone is still locked and see the date/other things displayed in the dashboard (battery, volume, signal, etc), but the problem with this is it takes about 5 seconds for it to minimize. That is a very long time to wait just to be able to check the date. It doesn't sound long and makes me seem impatient, but once you try it, you will notice you don't want to wait 5 secs so you will just unlock the phone to be able to tap on the dashboard instantly. I wish there was a setting to always have the entire dashboard displayed upon the lock screen, but microsoft didn't make it very user friendly, certainly not letting the phone settings be customizable.
-crowded interface/ugly favorites screen; i wish the favorites page was all the same sized boxes; instead, they decided to jumble them around the place, with different shape and sizes of boxes.
Overall list
-slippery texture of the battery case; it is very hard to hold. I applied the skinomi skin to it, and if you have a case it also eliminates the problem, but if you use it just as-is, you may find yourself dropping it.
-somewhat spotty wifi connection; i personally haven't had problems, but i've read around that some people have been having issues connecting to certain networks. The Kin phones are not very compatible when it comes to connecting to all routers.
-Zune has issues with the headphones and recognizing when they are actually in or when you disconnect; people have had it still think headphones are in tehre, and no sounds play because the phone still thinks headphones are plugged in.
-can't re-send texts/select individual texts; this is the same problem as not being able to forward them (although i don't forward texts much) and delete them individually
-not all texts are time-stamped. If you send/recieve texts in close proximity to the last one sent/recieved, it won't show when it was. So if you have a long-standing quickly-replied (0-15 min between texts is my guess), the only one that is time-stamped is the one that started the convo.
-no way to directly turn off 3G directly; workarounds are present, by blocking data in various forms, but there is no direct 'wi-fi only' setting or something of hte sort.
-browser is somewhat limited; however, you have to keep it in perspective. Compared to smartphones, it is very primitive and can't run most things that smartphone browsers can. Compared to other feature phone browsers, this one is top of the line.
-no backup assist
-no apps or downloading games or ringtones, etc; can't connect to vcast, or whatever else verizon has default to other feature phones. (ringtones can be added, but only through sending a MMS to yourself)
I don't want to make this too long, since you are looking for a quick list, so i'll stop here. I'm sure i forgot something and left something out, simply because many of these types of issues are ones i grow to live with, or find workarounds to, so hopefully they won't be too big of cons to you. I would suggest this phone for you, especially if you are limited to a non-data plan phone (feature phone). If you are getting data, i would say stay away from this phone; by getting a data plan, you are eligible to get 'smartphones', which are far better than any feature phone, including the Kin. But i think the Kin is much much better than any other feature phone out there. If you have any other specific questions, ask away and i'll try to answer them. Good luck!
for the Kin TwoM, do you think there's any hope that this is actually going to happen?