PhoneBlip

"Helio announced their smallest phone to date. The Heat is a slider with touch-sensitive, electrostatic controls on the face. Like the original Chocolate or Sony Ericsson W950, the Heat has two sets of touch controls - one for navigation and a second for media playback. The Heat features a QVGA screen, stereo Bluetooth, a 1.3 MP camera and 136 MB of built-in memory. However it has no memory card slot. It also features access to Helio's GPS and music services like the Drift. Heat is available today in Black or Gold for $150."

Article Courtesy of Mobiledtracker

Posted by Peter at 07:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"This sleek and compact slider packs exceptional power and optimized access to the high speed 3G network into a slim, elegant shape. Produced by Samsung and exclusively available to Helio members, the Drift launches in two colors: gunmetal black and frost white. The Drift features a 2.12 inch high-resolution QVGA display, stereo Bluetooth®, 128MB internal memory expandable via microSD™, 2.0 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and flash for shooting photos and video, and MP3, MPEG-4 and VOD support for a wide variety of entertainment options. Drift is also complete with GPS capabilities to support innovative new Helio services in addition to existing custom services like Helio On Top (H.O.T.). With Drift, blogging, downloading music videos, playing games and streaming video is faster and easier than before.

Read the whole Press Release (click for full Article)

Posted by Peter at 06:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Helio is eliminating the early termination fee to try to improve sales of its two headsets. The prices are staying the same, but users won't be locked into a two year agreement anymore.

Read about it at Helio

Posted by Peter at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Editor's Rating: 6.7 Good

The good: The Helio Hero has a 2-megapixel camera, EV-DO support, tight MySpace integration, a great display, a beautiful user interface, and excellent audio quality. It also features Helio On Top, a dynamic newsfeed aggregator.

The bad: The Helio Hero suffers from a bulky design, and it lacks Bluetooth and instant-messaging options. Plus, its store doesn't offer music downloads at this time, and the Helio On Top aggregator doesn't allow the manual addition of feeds. It also has a hefty price tag.

Review courtesy of ABC News (click for full review)

Posted by Peter at 07:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Bottom Line:
The Helio Kickflip isn't ready for retail sale yet. Wait until they fix the bugs.

Pros:
Beautiful. Solid construction.

Cons:
Poor voice quality. No way to get photos off camera. HOT app disables phone function. Several other bugs...

Review Courtesy of PCMag (click for full Review)

Posted by Peter at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"The Helio Hero ($275 list) is the first MySpace phone. If you spend your life on the popular social-networking site, that should be enough to send you running for your credit card. If MySpace isn't YourSpace, though, Helio might be a tougher sell right now.

Helio is a new mobile-phone carrier, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) like Amp'd, Mobile ESPN and Virgin, that buys time from one of the four national networks (in this case, Sprint) and sells services under its own name. Helio is trying to appeal to The O.C. and Laguna Beach wannabes—teens and twentysomethings with cash to burn and who aren't too technical, but who value gaming, media, and social networking....

Review courtesy of ABC (click for full review)

Posted by Peter at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Well, Helio sent us our Kickflip in the mail today, and we can't really stop playing with it. The EV-DO is the usual walled garden media business; H.O.T. isn't bad, but won't let you add feeds; generally the apps work well and are easy on the eyes, even if they aren't always incredibly flexible. We'll go more into the software later (anything you want to know?) though, it's the hardware where the Kickflip really shines. We freaking can't stop flipping the thing open. It's like tactile crack, and we have to put it away under some papers to free our hands and get any work done, instead of engaging in the idle addictive sensation of nudging the screen and flipping it open, then closing it again with that little click.

Review courtesy of Engadget (click for full review)

Posted by Peter at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"U.S. mobile phones are pretty staid affairs compared to what's available in Asia and Europe, but a phone service launching Tuesday aims to bring cutting-edge features from South Korea to a U.S. audience.

Helio Inc. is a joint venture of Internet service provider EarthLink Inc. and Korea's SK Telecom. It will start selling two phones Tuesday that it's positioning primarily as blogging tools for a mobile generation and only secondarily as phones.

Article Courtesy of MSNBC (click for full article)

Posted by Peter at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is in addition to their announced partnership with myspace. Now all they need to do is release one of their phones. -Ed.

"HELIO LLC, a new mobile service built for young, connected consumers, and Yahoo!(R) Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today announced a relationship to give Helio members access to one of the most extensive suites of Yahoo! services available from any mobile brand. Through this relationship, Helio members will stay connected to their favorite Yahoo! services such as Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports and more on Helio's 3G services....

From the Yahoo Press Release (click for full Press Release)

Posted by Peter at 08:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The second of two new handsets announced for the launch of US MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) Helio, the VK Mobile Kickflip is a spinner style device with a very Apple-like look to it due to its pearlescent white cover and minimalist style.

The Kickflip shares the same features as its brother for Helio's launch, the Hero, including a 2.0 megapixel camera, 262k color QVGA screen, 70MB of on board memory, and microSD expansion slot. The VK Mobile Kickflip swings open in either direction with a semi-automatic mechanism that requires only a slight nudge, or 'kick,' with your finger to open the handset.

Review Courtesy of the MobileBurn (click for full Review)

Posted by Peter at 06:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Helio LLC, a youth-oriented mobile phone service created by SK Telecom (017670.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) and EarthLink Inc. (ELNK.O: Quote, Profile, Research), said on Wednesday it will launch in the spring with two branded handsets and a mobile partnership with networking Web site MySpace.

The company's first two handsets are based on popular high-end models from Korea. They are the Hero from Pantech (063350.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) and the Kickflip from VK Mobile.

Article Courtesy of Reuters (click for full article)

Posted by Peter at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It is getting clear which handsets Helio, the joint venture company established by SK Telecom and Earth-Link in the US will choose for the MVNO service that the company will start in March or April this year.

The most prominent is Pantech Group’s Hero which SK Teletech has worked on for the use of Helio even before it was taken over by Pantech. The code name “Hero” reflects the great interest in the undisclosed model.

Article Courtesy of Telecom Korea (click for full Article)

Posted by Peter at 07:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

... a feature-packed slider phone with EV-DO, a 2-megapixel camera, microSD memory card slot, music player, and speakerphone. Given that the 8300 is actually made by Pantech's SK Teletech division, which is related to SK Telecom, part-owner of soon-to-launch MVNO Helio, we expect this to be a Helio phone....

The Phonescoop article goes on to talk about other new Pantech phones including the PN-E240 and the PG-C300. -Ed.

Article courtesy of Phone Scoop (click for full article)

Posted by Peter at 08:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From Gizmodo.com -

I would really like to see SK Telecom's new cell phones for kids with antennas that look like human ears, so if you happen to catch a picture (I couldn't find any on the SK English site), send that puppy in. The new phones have a built-in GPS unit that will allow parents to track down the location of their kids, even when the phone is turned off. As reader Mike Palazz notes, that seems like a pretty fair compromise for people kids begging for a cellphone of their own.

This is much better than the North Korean kids' GPS cell phone, which uses real human ears and doesn't allow you to make any calls

Article courtesy of gizmodo (click for full article)

Posted by Peter at 02:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From Korea’s VK Mobile, it’s the VK600C, a CDMA spinner with a 2 megapixel camera, EV-DO, 240 x 320 2.2-inch display and USB syncing. It’s available in 7 colors, too, though we’ve only seen pics of the white version (that’s your cue, iPod fanboys!). Not too shabby, and available in all the right places — if you’re in Asia, Russia, Spain or Mexico, that is.

Article courtesy of Engadget (click for full article)

Ed note - Until Helio starts selling this model here in the US hopefully later this year.

Posted by Peter at 08:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

VK Mobile today announced it will be shipping Helio’s first phone for a US launch. The VK Mobile 650c is a stylish spinner EV-DO phone based on the 600c, which is launching in Korea now. It features a QVGA display which is centered to be held vertically for phone use or horizontally for watching video, as well as TV out for video playback on a larger screen. It also features a 2 Megapixel camera, MP3 player, stereo speakers, and TransFlash slot. This handset signals Helio’s intent to focus on streaming video and music, similar to other 3G services. Additionally, the FCC has recently approved the SK Teletech SKY 8300, which is a slider EV-DO phone that shares most the 650c’s features but adds additional buttons for gaming. It is likely this model will also be launched on Helio.

Article courtesy of HelioSpot.com (click for full article)

Posted by Peter at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)