Look what I found today. The first official pics of the Mysto from Helio. The CDMA version of the U600, of course. Ain’t she a beaut? No word on specs or release date, but it’ll run $150. Can’t wait for this slick slider to make its way into my hands. Wondering where I found this gem? I’ll never tell.
As if I need another reason to not leave the couch this winter other than it being cold. Helio has gone and added a TV Guide app and I feel myself getting squishier. A 30-day rental is $2.99 and you can even forward TV listings to a friend in case you think they’re interested in watching ___________ (Some dumb show only you like. Heh.). A few more screen shots after the jump. Thanks, Helio. Will you pay for my Weight Watchers in the Spring?
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I told you about File Viewer a few months ago. I’ve been patiently waiting and it was worth it. It’s now here and it’s free, but only for the Ocean. File Viewer works in conjunction with MME and allows you to view all Microsoft Office documents as well as HTML, PDF, TXT and an array of images. You can even check files from your microSD card. I haven’t tested it all out, but so far so good.
Image ganked from Heliocity because I’m too lazy to get screen caps from my Ocean.
Well, lookie lookie at what AT&T did for all you crazed iFones owners. They’ve given you the option to drop your data plan down to $0, which is nice, though, you lose Visual Voicemail, SMS text messaging and unlimited data (re: no more e-mail and Web). Now, I don’t own an iPhone nor do I really know what the data plans are so this could all be old news, so I implore the CG audience to fill in any gaps.
AT&T Quietly Adds Option to Drop iPhone Data Plan [iPod Observer]
As if the refreshed Oceans and $99 all-in-one plan weren’t enough, the MVNO of choice has slashed $50 off all handsets for new members. That means a brand new Ocean is $199, the thinnest flip on the market, Fin, is $79 and the Heat is FREE. Need I say more?
I love my Ocean. Matt lives and dies by the Ocean. It’s a great phone and does everything one needs. Well, not everything. It doesn’t get Matt laid or anything, but I think you know where I’m going. Maybe you’re already with Helio and you want some friends to migrate over because you’re a greedy bastard and want the free months of service. I wouldn’t blame you. Their plans are cheap and Sprint has great coverage (from my experience) so what more could you ask for? The newly refreshed Ocean’s are a mere $99 and unlimited minutes and data is currently $99. That’s cheap. Way cheap and you know it. It makes for a perfect gift for the holidays, parental units. Your kids will love you for it and they’ll certainly use it more than they will that ugly sweater you have hidden in the closet, which they’ve already found.
Helio Refreshed [via Heliocity]
During my stay in Korea, I was privy to visit one of Samsung’s manufacturing plants in Gumi, which is referred to as the Gumi complex (the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world) and ranks as the sixth largest company if it were its own entity. The Gumi Complex is large, I don’t remember the exact acreage, but it’s massive. There are onsite apartment buildings for employees in addition to the wellness center that houses a grocery store, movie theater, daycare, and other amenities that make life peachy keen. Gumi employees can also earn college degrees through the post-graduate level without ever leaving the complex.
I wasn’t able to snap any pictures while in the factory so you’ll have to take my word on how it all went down. I witnessed the U600’s (Ultra Edition II 10.9) assembly from the chipset to the final product. The process by which the chips are manufactured was impressive and the speed with which they were produced was staggering. From start to finish a U600 was done within six minutes or so. The shiny housing is outsourced, which reduces quite a bit of time for the handset to be assembled.
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The Helio Drift has been wiped from the site, which means there’s room for another device and it means you can swoop up a Drift for cheap. A new Samsung device passed through the FCC that was branded Helio and it appears that Helio Mysto has been trademarked. But…but…I love my Ocean. I may have to put it away if the Mysto is the Samsung pictured above.
Drift Retired, New device name unveiled. [Helio City]
What’s the old saying, ‘thin is in’? Yeah, that sounds about right. Who likes a fatty, anyways? And who the h-e-double hockey sticks wants a clamshell? I need QWERTY like a crack whore needs, well, crack. I wasn’t too thrilled when I found out about Helio’s Fin a few weeks back. A clamshell? Seriously WTF? Was someone freebasing over at the Helio House? You’ve got one of the coolest UIs on the market, you just released one of the freshest smartphones the world has seen and you follow that up with a clamshell? Do I sound disappointed? You bet, but not anymore.
I’ve never owned a flip phone in my entire life. They’ve always been candy bar form factors. It’s a waste of energy to have to flip open your phone when you could just start typing away at it, right? This holds true for a number of reasons. Everyone has their beef with clamshells, so ponder that for a moment and then throw them out the window. The Fin will change your mind because of its simplistic design and Helio’s bitchin suite of apps.
Updates after the jump.
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To continue with today’s Finstivities (Haha!), here’s the forthcoming commercial you’ll see everywhere for the Helio Fin. Returned are the robots from the Ocean ad, but unlike the Ocean ad the Fin’s feature the phones features, like YouTube and Flickr uploading, very good things indeed.
Yah, the Fin is HOT. I’ve been using it for about two hours, and the only skinnier thing to turn heads is Paris Hilton when she’s dressed: people think it’s not possible, but there it is.
Here’s the Fin unboxed. I have to say, Helio has taken care to make the unboxing process a nice one. Everything’s organized well, you can tell what everything’s for, and it’s presented in a satisfying way. Not many companies get this concept, they’re up there with Apple on this.
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A quick look at the Helio Fin. It’s really hot in the basement so I’m fairly non-plussed in the video, but the phone is very cool. It’s very slim and has all of the messaging features of the Ocean in a much more compact package.
We’ve been hearing rumors, and today we find they’re true: Helio’s got a new phone, it’s called the Fin. Which rhymes with thin, as in what the phone is. Read More
Two of Samsung’s anorexic offspring are saying hello to the world a little prematurely, but we’re ok with that. The Gleam aka SCH-U700 will launch on VZW covered in gold. All we know other than network are the camera and external music controls and display. Hooray!
The skinnier of the two Samsungs is the SPH-A513 aka Fin. It will be the thinnest clamshell on the market with a 3-megapixel camera. It’s called the Fin and it’s thin, get it? Hahaha. It will be available on Helio with the full suite of apps and features some of us at CrunchGear have come to love. Can’t wait to get my hands on this baby.
Samsung U700 Gleam for Verizon and A513 for Helio [Phone Arena]
We love it when a device has an enthusiastic following. We love it more when that following comes up with badass ways to hack said device. And we love it when said enthusiastic following hacks said favored device and the results are fantastic.
We love the Ocean by Helio, one of the most amazing and overlooked handsets on the market. If you haven’t seriously looked at this thing yet, you should.
We love Opera Mini, short of the iPhone’s implementation of Safari, it’s the best mobile Web browser, hands down.
And now we love the hacking community at Heliocity, as they’ve bunged up a way to run Opera Mini on the Helio Ocean. Read More
Oh happy day! Helio officially released Mail for MS Exchange last night into beta, so all the business-user-haters can quit their griping. All Ocean owners with an All-in account will be privy to the beta for the next 60 days. You’ll be able to sync your Contacts, Calendar and E-mail from the MS Exchange Server OTA. At the end of the beta period, the final release of Mail for MS Exchange will launch for $9.99 a month for All-in members. To get started you need to sync with your corporate Exchange Server that’s set up for Exchange ActiveSync protocol, which is compatible with Exchange Server 2003 SP2+ or ES 2007.
Helio File Viewer will also launch in 30 days, so you’ll be able to check out Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF attachments on your Ocean and it’s free for all subscribers. I told you some hot new stuff would be coming from Helio.
Verizon may be able to call themselves the most reliable voice and data network in the country, but they’re certainly not the first to allow users to upload videos to YouTube via MMS. The fact that they’re releasing a press release touting such a feat is pretty ridiculous and embarrassing.
Verizon, pay close attention to what I’m about to say. Helio was the first provider in the US to give users the ability to upload videos directly to YouTube via MMS more than a month ago. HelioUP is the coolest feature I’ve seen on any service provider hands down. You can upload pictures to Flickr and videos to YouTube within a matter of minutes. Pull your head out, Verizon. Get your facts straight before you go running your mouth.
Earlier today I hinted that Helio might be releasing some mind blowing new features in the coming weeks and lookie lookie what I found while tinkering with my Ocean. MySpace Mobile 2.0 has been released and it’s made the MySpace experience on a mobile so simple that even a monkey could use it. A stupid monkey!
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We may or may not see a new phone device from Helio this year, but rest assured what you see above is definitely not it in any way, shape or form a new Helio. It’s a terrible Photoshop job to begin with and anyone thinking it’s real has a screw loose. Look for a few changes in the coming weeks that will rock your world and 2008 will blow you out of the water. Helio isn’t going anywhere, in fact, they’re going to turn the industry on its head.
Helio’s New Ocean [via Giz]
Loopt has announced their partnership with Sprint to bring the first social mapping service to the US of A. For those unfamiliar with Loopt you need only to look at Boost Mobile and their “Where you at?” campaign. It essentially keeps tabs on your friends in your Loopt network and shows you where they are via GPS. Helio has a similar service with Buddy Beacon. Sprint customers will now be alerted when friends are near as well as viewing geo-tagged content while on-the-move. The hot new service will be available on more than 25 Sprint and Nextel phones for $2.99/month in the coming weeks.
