Pick a few photos, add the details worth keeping, proof every line, then keep the issue private in your verified inbox during closed testing. Turn the small changes, funny lines, and firsts into one proofed issue before the month disappears. During closed testing, it goes only to your verified inbox. For the child whose month keeps changing: choose a few photos, add your words, proof the issue, and keep it private while broader delivery finishes QA.
Kino borrows its shape from print. Each month, you edit one issue about someone you love — a cover photo, a few short sections, your words. You are the editor. Kino is only the typesetter: it drafts from approved text you wrote, dictated, captioned, or accepted from photo help, and nothing ships without your approval.
By December you're holding a collection — twelve issues, a whole year pulled out of the camera roll and set in order.
During closed testing, it arrives in your own inbox, not as an app notification. Family delivery comes later, after hosted entitlement QA.
Who this issue is about, and which month. Two questions, thirty seconds.
Pick up to ten photos and answer one quick prompt or write your own note. Optional photo help can draft one editable starter note from small temporary copies, but the issue drafts only from text you approve.
Choose a voice — warm, funny, concise — then read the proof and edit every line. Nothing ships until you approve it.
Link a verified account, then keep the approved private issue in your own inbox during closed testing.
Every issue begins with one question — who is this about? Kino's closed test is focused on one parent making one private child issue at a time, then sending it to their own verified inbox.
Each issue is properly typeset — masthead, numbered sections, a colophon — and lands in your own inbox during closed testing.
Fourteen months in, and the approved note kept returning to a few real May details: walking practice, the first beach trip, the washing machine wave, a new tooth, and two naps with the spatula.
The note said six steps on Tuesday and eleven by Friday. The issue keeps that detail intact instead of turning it into a milestone claim.
The approved beach line was simple: first time at the beach, sat by the waterline, not impressed by the ocean.
· Waves "bye" to the washing machine, every cycle.
· New tooth, top left, very proud.
· Fell asleep holding a spatula. Twice.
Written only from approved editor text. Sent privately to one inbox. Reply to this email and it reaches the editor, not a company.
Kino sees exactly what you hand it — nothing more. That's not a setting. It's the design.
Kino typesets; you author. Drafts are assembled only from approved text: notes, captions, voice transcripts, or a photo starter note you choose to add. Photo help can prepare that starter from small temporary copies, and never sends an issue without your proof.
During closed testing, your own verified inbox and no one else by default. Private links are opt-in and revocable; there is no public feed or follower graph.
Guest drafts keep selected photos on this device until you link or send. Linked accounts can privately back up the photos you hand-pick, resized and stored in account-scoped private buckets. Export the whole collection as a ZIP whenever you like; deleting your account removes everything Kino can remove.
Android first, with iOS to follow. Issues themselves are email; during closed testing, delivery is limited to your own inbox.
Ten minutes now. In a year, twelve issues nobody else could have made.