Tip: Did you know the Ocean has a hidden test mode?

Featured Reviews:

Rumor: Helio and Virgin to merge?

Posted by Justin B. on May 8th, 2008 at 07:14 PM


Over at MocoNews, word is that Helio and Virgin Mobile may be in talks of a merger. While it is safe to say this could be just a rumor as neither company has given an official stance on it, it would be pretty interesting if anything did come of it.

We’ll just have to wait this one out until we get some word from either company.

(Greg says: We’ve asked the people that might be in the know about this. While no one is willing to spill any details, no one is making any effort to deny it. As Matt Hickey from Crunchgear points out, the two companies could each bring something to the table that the other lacks: Virgin already has floorspace in a ton of outlets, but lacks any sort of high end offerings. Helio has far less retail penetration, but can bring high end products and services to the table. If it does go down, I just hope Helio keeps its own name; VirginMobileocity sounds whack.)

Youtube Mobile gets updated, everyone party!

Posted by Justin B. on April 30th, 2008 at 02:09 PM

Youtube Mobile, wee.

If you’ve used the dedicated Youtube application for the Ocean at all today, you may have noticed that it was asking you to update to the newer 1.1 version. Oh, but what could be better in this so called new version you ask? How about lightning fast buffering speeds and improved quality? Why yes! Now you can watch this video with a buffering speed of less than 3 seconds, and improved streaming quality. Bravo, Helio. Bravo! As always, you can download the application by opening your Youtube app and downloading the update when it prompts you, or by heading to the Apps section of the WAP store on your device.

And don’t worry, for those of you with a different Helio device, you can still experience the fun through the http://m.youtube.com website.

New Site Features: Image Gallery and Mobile Downloads Site

Posted by Greg Kumparak on April 25th, 2008 at 11:35 PM

As the first of a number of additions coming to this site, I’m incredibly stoked to announce two new features: the Image Gallery, and our Mobile Downloads site.

Image Gallery:

Image Gallery

The Image Gallery allows forum members to share images in an incredibly easy and organized way, with a full rating and commenting system built in. Got a ton of Ocean wallpapers you’ve made? Upload’em! Want to show off your collection of work? Stick a link to your “My Images” page in your signature!

Right now, we’ve got three categories in the Image Gallery:

  • Wallpapers: Finally, a place to put’em all! Users can easily upload their Wallpapers by device and category. To get the ball rolling, we’ve already uploaded around 250 awesome user made wallpapers. (If you see any of your work uploaded by the username “Wallpapers”, just send us a list of the image IDs [grab it from the url] and we’ll make sure it gets put under your name)
  • Heliocity Mugshots:: It’ll be like a yearbook, without the generic messages of good will! We wanna see pictures of forum members rockin’ their Helios.
  • Accessories:: It’s way, way too hard to find pictures of Helio accessories. Even on Helio.com, the product shots don’t tend to show enough. Well, we’ve got accessories - lets fix that.

You can find the gallery at http://forum.heliocity.net/index.php?action=gallery, or by clicking Forum > Gallery. Once things get rolling and we’ve made sure all the kinks are worked out, it’ll find its way up to the big bar up top.

We’ll be adding tons of categories to the gallery, depending on what people want. We’re open to ideas!

Mobile Downloads:

Mobile Downloads

What good is a massive collection of wallpapers without an easy way to access it from your device?

That’s where the Mobile Downloads site comes in, and I’ve already got a little sneak preview version up and running. Check it out on your device at https://downloads.heliocity.net.

From the Mobile download site’s streamlined interface, you can easily access the entire Wallpapers collection on the go. It automatically pulls all of the images on the fly and sorts them by their proper categories.

The download site is built to look gorgeous in both portrait/landscape modes. As the whole thing is running with SSL certification, you won’t ever have to deal with hitting “View in HTML”. You don’t even have to remember to type HTTPS - it’ll handle that for you.

A few things started acting kinda whonky at the last second (for example, application uploads), so we pulled them before launch for the sake of gettin the goods to you guys sooner. Don’t worry - those sections will be up and running within a few days.

So, Whats next?

The guides and reviews sections are finally gettin’ the lovin’ they deserve. Exciting stuff. Stay tuned!

Hunt for a White Ocean: Part III (Don’t worry. Everything is all white.)

Posted by Greg Kumparak on April 24th, 2008 at 06:42 PM

Top Layer, whited out.
Click for a larger image

Bam! I’m now the proud owner of a white Helio Ocean. Okay, fine - I’m the proud owner of a white Helio Ocean body and a bunch of disassembled Helio Ocean pieces. But it’s getting closer!

I sprayed it in about 15 light coats over the period of a day and a half. The texture is gorgeous, looking far less spray-painty than I expected. It still needs a light wet sanding before it’s clear coated, but it was nice to not have to deal with nasty orange peeling.

ZOMG ITS LIKE ITS SNOWING OCEAN PIECES.
(Ignore the big solid white areas in the middle of the frame pieces - it’s just masking tape.)

Pretty soon comes clear coating, where I’ve got a decision to make: Do I spend around six dollars on a really nice, hard clear coat.. or do I dump 53 dollars (after shipping) into getting a can of soft-touch clear coat? First will look shiny and sexy, but the latter’s texture will be much more like the original Ocean paint job. I’m definitely leaning toward the first option for the sake of not making myself poor.

Gmail (and POP/IMAP!) gets Push support in Ultimate Inbox

Posted by Greg Kumparak on April 23rd, 2008 at 12:33 PM

Gmail Logo

Oh heeeells yeah.

Back in July, Helio flipped the switch that enabled Push e-mail support for Helio Mail, Yahoo, Windows Live, and AOL.

Gmail has now received the same treatment, making Helio the first carrier to support Push Gmail. It’s available now on any device with Ultimate Inbox. If you already have Gmail configured on your device, all you have to do now is hit “Send/Receive”, and it’ll ask you if you want automatic notifications enabled. Blam - Push Gmail support.

Update: Not just Gmail! All POP inboxes have gotten the option to receive automatic notifications!

Update #2: IMAP, Too!

Hunt for a White Ocean: Part II

Posted by Greg Kumparak on April 22nd, 2008 at 03:42 PM

And now I'm painting your black ocean white!
And now I’m going to make your silver pants blue black Ocean white!

The hunt continues. Last post, I was trying to track down an Ocean body that hadn’t been sprayed with its soft-touch coat yet.

After about a week and a half of digging around, it didn’t seem like this was going to happen. So, I said screw it - If I couldn’t get an Ocean body that hadn’t been sprayed with soft touch yet, I’d remove the soft touch coat myself.

I did a bit of research, trying to find any chemical strong enough to remove the clear coat but weak enough that it wouldn’t eat the plastic. It seemed like for every one person saying something would work fine, another three were saying it would destroy the plastic and punch me in the face. I didn’t really want to take any chances, so I grabbed some sand paper and a bottle of elbow grease, and attacked.

(For good measure, I wore a respirator I had laying around. I had no idea what would be flying around in the area as I sanded this thing down. I was doing the sanding out in front of my house, which was probably not the best idea in hindsight. My gas-mask-esque contraption totally spooked at least 2 of my neighbors.)

About 3 hours of disassembly and sanding later, my Ocean is ready for painting:

Ocean body, sans Soft Touch.
Click for larger image

It was a bit of work to make sure I didn’t accidentally round any of the surface edges, break any tabs, or scratch up the camera mirror - but it all worked out, as far as I can tell. I lost the Helio logo that was pressed into the paint on the battery, but I’m pretty sure that was unavoidable.

Next Steps:

  1. Masking off all the stuff that needs to be masked.
  2. Give it a solid cleaning
  3. Spray it with 5 or so uber light coats, possibly sanding between coats depending on how it’s holding.
  4. Clear coat
  5. Reassembly
  6. White Ocean Whoooooo!

    7. Off to the hardware store to research paints and clear coats. More coming as it’s finished.

Video: “Texting your way to love” by SuperNews, starring the Ocean.

Posted by Greg Kumparak on April 21st, 2008 at 06:33 PM

As cognitive beings, we’re all smart enough to avoid trying to squeeze a heart-felt love letter into a 160 character text. At least, we are when we’re sober. Throw down a couple of drinks, and everyone in your contact list gets a love letter or five.

SuperNews’ “Texting Your Way to Love” documents the steps involved in drunken mobile flirting, and one of its boozed up stars looks pretty friggin’ familiar. (Hey - that explains the Ocean’s occasional lag: It’s not buggy. Just hungover.)

Video might not be safe for school/work - nothin’ too bad, but there’s a bit of swearing and some phone-on-phone lovin’.

(Thanks to nvoutback for pointing this out!)

Rumor Control: Things that are probably not OZ2.

Posted by Greg Kumparak on April 18th, 2008 at 10:33 AM

At least twice a day over in the forums, someone shows up and posts something that they’re totally sure is Oz2. It’s been the same set of images on a constant loop for months now. We still don’t know how Oz2 will look, but having seeing these images about a bajillion times, we’re pretty sure how it won’t.

1) Pantech’s Tri Slider Concept:

Pantech Trislider

Why it’s probably not Oz2:

  • We’ve been seeing this since November of 2006 - a full 6 months before Oz1 was released.
  • The market for “People that want to be able to block their keyboards with the numberpad” is pretty small.

2) Fujitsu’s Slider Mockup:

Fujitsu Prototype

Why it’s probably not Oz2:

  • This concept device was made - but not for Helio. This was a concept device made by Fujitsu for their own use. The Helio logo on the screen was photoshopped in as a joke by one our of forum members, and it spread like wildfire.

3) Helio Ocean Cake:

Ocean Cake

Why it’s probably not Oz2:

Hopefully these rumor shots can rest in debunked peace now. We’ll have images up as soon as we know what Oz2 actually does look like.

© 2008 Heliocity.net
All Rights Reserved.