VM recently updated it’s contract offerings to all post-paid members with a few nice additions. Most notably the ability to call anyone on Helio or the Virgin Mobile network with mobile-to-mobile.

o $175/month All-In plan with 4000 shared anytime minutes—unlike comparable plans, this includes unlimited messaging and data services
o $50 A La Carte plan including 600 shared anytime minutes with unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes
o An additional 200 shared anytime minutes added to the current $100/month A La Carte plan—more talk time without spending more money

This suite of Virgin Mobile USA contract family plans includes unlimited 7 pm night and weekend minutes, unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling to all Virgin Mobile USA contract and no-annual-contract customers, high-speed 3G mobile Web access, and no domestic roaming or long distance charges.

For the full press release, click here.

The elusive Ocean 2 is finally available via the Helio website, along with it’s spiffy 360° view for your 360° obsessive viewing pleasure (Yeah, we know you sit there and drag the bar back and forth for hours). Pricing is as expected, $149 for new members/contracts, $400 MSRP.

As well as the Ocean 2 going on sale, today Helio members also benefit from the new nights and weekends time starting at 7PM and free mobile-to-mobile (between Helio members), which is pretty darn dandy.

Since the day the original Helio Ocean hit the shelves, rumors were abound that a followup was in the works. 2 years have since passed, countless rumors and leaks have come and gone, and the company that birthed the original has since been acquired – but it’s finally here. Has the wait been worth it?

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After the past few posts, what news could one-up that? It may not be better than the Ocean 2 release, but it certainly was a highly requested service for Helio. Starting February 12th, along with the Ocean 2, Virgin Mobile USA will start offering for Helio members “nights & weekends starting at 7PM” instead of 9PM. In addition to that nice little two-hour expansion, they are also ditching the $5 dollar mobile-to-mobile addon feature and including it in the service outright. Great to see that they are expanding the services out further.

And for those of you wondering, they confirmed that they will be releasing this beast in black later in the year. So, don’t fret for those of you with erytophobia, a not-so-flashy version will hit the shelves eventually.

Full press release here.

After months of rumors and undercover imagery, the Virgin Mobile Helio Ocean 2 is finally just weeks away from hitting the shelves. Don’t want to wait to experience the rush of cracking open the box? Fear not, my friends – we’ve got what you’re looking for. We’ve peeled it apart, piece by piece, and snapped images all along the way. Ready for the unboxing of the Helio Ocean 2? Click on for the gallery.

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After word got out that Britney Spears’ next tour would be sponsored by Virgin Mobile and the Helio Ocean 2, the estimated Ocean 2 launch date finally found it’s first deadline: March 3rd, the first day of the tour. We can now confirm that the Helio Ocean 2 will be coming over 3 weeks earlier, launching on Helio.com on February 12.

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Unless you really, really, really like Britney Spears or just like watching her show off her hot pocket, then this won’t apply to most of you. But for those that do care, Virgin Mobile USA and Ms. B. Spears are teaming up for her tour, Circus, these coming months. Along with the tour, VM will be giving away VIP tickets to her final rehearsal which is on March 2nd, along with Ocean 2s to a limited number of fans at that show to document this historic event, so stay tuned for more information on that.

Click here for the full press release.

Finished! Our contest running through the past week has finally come to an end. In the end, we gave away a huge $500 dollars worth of AmEX giftcards, and we hope the winners will enjoy their gifts. Huge thanks to Helio/Virgin Mobile for providing us with the prizes. Without further ado, our final three winners are…

• helio_562 – 500 (404 was the number)
• bombtech – 2716 (2704 was the number)
• msjenni – 4511 (4520 was the number)

Congrats to all of the winners! The last batch will be contacted shortly. Thanks for participating guys and gals, some of the entries from the past week were quite entertaining.