New OZ2 Pics unearthed
Posted by Justin B. on June 23rd, 2008 at 11:55 PMIn light of all the negativity that has been fueled from the uncredited/inaccurate Engadget and Gizmodo articles, some Youtube videos have been uncovered by our forum members of a Helio employee videoing quick glimpses of the Ocean 2, along with other oddities, and then deleting them.
The employee in question seems to just be wandering around recording random things and uploading them from his device, most likely an Ocean 2 as well. While most of the videos were just walls, floors, people (and the inside of a bathroom stall?), there was definitely some nice shots of the Ocean 2 in there. We’ve taken some screenshots of the good ones to make it easier, since these videos are no longer up.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Helioncity.com who??? What up now!!
^_^ Good work JustinB
June 24th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Ditto
June 24th, 2008 at 3:40 am
Man I cant wait! thanks JB!!!
June 24th, 2008 at 4:51 am
Call me crazy, but it looks like there is no qwerty part to the phone. In the first pic, it looks like there are only 2 layers. I could easily be wrong, anyone else see what i see?
June 24th, 2008 at 5:20 am
That would suck big time. Like wow.
June 24th, 2008 at 5:35 am
ARG i hope there is QWERTY!
June 24th, 2008 at 6:06 am
I can’t see a phone that thick not having qwerty…
June 24th, 2008 at 6:07 am
Actually, if you look cloesly you can see the qwert deck. It’s just that now the qwerty deck is the middle deck, and the number pad is the bottom deck. They swapped places. Look carefully below the silver faceplate, there’s a black qwerty deck clearly visible there.
June 24th, 2008 at 8:42 am
HAHA, he is playing HomeRun Derby.
June 24th, 2008 at 9:36 am
SARCASTICNESS: oh great i always wanted a thicker keyboard, if redstar1949 is right.
I Dont see how this could be 30fps, its still as bad as the OZ1
June 24th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Is this phone spring loaded? It looks like this guy is holding on to it like it’s about to take off. I mean really…..who holds their phone like that?
June 24th, 2008 at 10:32 am
hey all…i stumbled on the actual video from whence these images came!!! i snagged it with aTube before it goes away again. check it out!
June 24th, 2008 at 10:45 am
This thing looks thicker than the oz1!!
June 24th, 2008 at 11:47 am
If you ask me, if looks like a prototype of Ocean 1. Why would they keep the same exact form factor and tiny screen?
June 24th, 2008 at 11:49 am
This poor guy probably got fired….
These pics don’t seem to give us much anyway.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I like the look of the black numeric keys instead of the silver. It still bugs me that there hasn’t been one shot of the keyboard. I know it has it, but i just want to see it. Do you think its possible they changed something major with the keyboard that they don’t want to show yet?
June 24th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
It’s obvious these are still very much prototypes, it’s possible maybe the keyboard isn’t fully implemented on them. Notice that some of them have that silver trimming, and others don’t. They seem to not all look exactly the same…
June 24th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
redstar i noticed that to
June 24th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
hey waz up with the charger? or is that the charger next 2 it? it got a button now..
June 24th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
i used to work for helio master dealer. i can confirm they are going out of business just like ampd
June 24th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
What the hell are you talking about? Enlarge the pic, they all have the silver trimming.
June 24th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
helio going out of business? no i hope not or at least merge or another company takes over. (i guess i wont have to w8 till my contracts expires o well back to tmobile
)
June 24th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
these pictures are very much the prototypes….. you would think they would show the qwerty. If this would be the actual phone, it would of been released already.. June 15th i believe was the first release date given, still not here yet… probably because they dont want to spend a massive amount of money on phones that will not be used due to a merger/going out of business. It all still sounds a little to odd for me… I think its time to say bye to Helio.
June 24th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
i’m going to just get a helio ocean and hope helio stays in businees and i can upgrade to the ocean 2 when and if it ever comes out.
June 24th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
futurehelio doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The direct channel(stores in Santa Monica, Palo Alto, San Diego, Denver and corporate owned kiosks around the country) all shut down today. The indirect channel is still up and running. Anyone who has had anything to do with Helio acts like they know everything. Working for a Master dealer doesn’t give you an inside scoop.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:56 am
looks like Ocean v1 with different color schemes. I wonder if the hardware has changed?
June 25th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Thanks Beau - for knowing what you are talking about!
Running stores and kiosks are EXPENSIVE. Mall rents are upwards of several thousand per month, and if the company is selling more devices via their website and telesales at a lower cost - why keep the stores around? Especially in this economy?!
I think it’s a smart move on Helio’s part. After all, Sprint sold a ton of its stores and kiosks a year ago, only to see them shut down completely - and no one’s sayin Sprint is going out of business. =P
June 25th, 2008 at 10:00 am
beau i think your wrong… Helio is gone as of today… NO MORE HELIO WELCOME VIRGIN MOBILE AND NO MORE OCEAN 2
June 25th, 2008 at 10:03 am
All you Helio drools bye bye bitches =) Sky Dayton could not run a paper bag!
June 25th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
It doesn’t look like there are any soft keys at the top of the OZ2. The part near the Helio logo.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
For a little over a year now, people have been saying things like, “Bye-bye, Helio”, “Helio’s gonna be gone by this date”, “Helio’s dead”, etc., etc. Where’s the proof to support such a bogus statement? I remember when Helio first started almost EVERYONE who hated on Helio said it would be gone by March of 2008. We’re nearly in July. Good call. It’s not going anywhere but a possible merge. I agree with Beau about Helio ex-Helio workers thinking they know what’s up. I’m super stoked on this phone and I think it’s going to blow Ocean1 out of the water. Better look and better features, I think we’ll get out of this one.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Ocean 2 isnt even going to come out, the merger is done and Virgin took over…. Im telling you say bye bye to Helio.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
they r going to announce the take over end of this week or beginning of next week. After that, we’ll find out if we’re lucky enough to keep devices/plans or screw us out of them. Tell y’all this though, i don’t get to keep my ocean i go back to sprint and go for the instinct
June 25th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
i’ve been w/ helio for over a year(thru all of the ‘helio’s going under’ rumors that intensified after amp’d folded ’til now)!pumped for the company on various message boards,i guess you could say i was one of those nerdy ‘fan boys’,but it looks like it’s coming to an end
Anywho,another carrier is coming out w/ a LIMITED EDITION phone i want n mid july,so what are the chances of helio announcing it’s going out of buisness or mergeing in the next to months(so i can avoid paying the termination fee)?the economy’s bad and they caught me@a bad time!should i go ahead,cut my losses and pay the cancellation fee?or should i wait it out?non-biased opinions,please 
June 25th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Well if Helio merges then I’m going to Sprint for sure. Helio has not had a NEW devices recently, their support of customer is great with all the great software they off us free of charge and etc but we shall see.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
-correction above- i meant,what are the chances of helio announcing they are going out of buisness or mergeing in the next 2 WEEKS!and when companys merge,do you still have to pay a cancellation fee?
June 25th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
if it’s a merger and not a hostile take over then you’ll probably keep your contract till it ends and anybody who signs on with helio after the merger will deal with whatever new plans they are thrown at them.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
So…what will happen to all the features specifically meant for the Korean community? If they do merge, you think they’ll still be there?
June 25th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
I think your going to see alot more VMUSA features than Helio feature. You see that VMUSA already came out with the unlimited plan for 79.99…. Dont think that is a coiencidence to keep the inticing 200,000 helio customers on board and pay the 79.99 a month. I have helio and im probably going to leave just because I know the downfall of it all with Ampd Mobile. Customers are going to start leaving regardless of whats going on, if we wanted Virgin we would of went to virgin, plain and simple, regardless of how you say it. Virgin has a certain way of doing things and Direct Channels will be affected and Indirect Channels will be affected as well, since VM has a particular indirect channel they go through, Sprint Kiosks, RadioShacks, Wal-Marts, Targets, ETC. Wait n see People
June 25th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
IM GETTIN BORED OF HELIO THE FONE HAS LOTS OF COOL THINGS BUT ITS JUST BORING I HOPE THEY GO DOWN SO I DONT HAVE TO PAY TERMANATION FEE AND OCEAN 2 IS GUNNA BE BORING TOO SAME MENU SCREEN AND IF U DO GET IT UR GUNNA HAVE TO WAIT YEARS AND YEARS TO UPGRADE AGAIN SUCKY FONE SELECTION IM GOING WITH TMOBILE
June 25th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Still Cant Get Any Credit For Finding The Youtube Videos. Sad. Just Sad.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
well beau working for the masterdealer of the southeast u get direct contact with the helio corporate office thats right here in downtown atlanta. compare helio to verizon tmobile and other companies.. do you think verizon is the most succesful company just by selling their phones and plans online ?? helios numbers are going down period. people are buying phones and canceling their contract so helio makes no profit. dealers are giving away phones for free to try to get their numbers up but failing because the customers end up canceling or not even caring about their bills. helio is loosing money period and fast. helio’s primary target was for the korean community but mostly the koreans think helio is too expensive espcecially for family plan. helio is dying period
June 25th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
The way I see it, even if the merge was going to happen(which I think is nothing but rumors), neither Helio or Virgin Mobile would benefit from it. If anything, I’d have to say Virgin proposed the idea to Helio to pick up VM’s sales revenue by hoping that Helio would bring better phones and better plans to Virgin Mobile. The way I see it, neither have anything to gain from the merge and neither have anything to lose by not merging. Not a single Virgin Mobile rep. has confirmed or denied the possibility of a merger, while several Helio reps. have already denied it on more than one occasion.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
rob, do you know what you’re talking about? its official as of today.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUKSEO21478820080625?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true
June 25th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
semi official**
June 25th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
http://helioncity.com/images/stories/virginocean.jpg
haha….
=[
June 25th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Well, I thought I knew until you crushed my hopes of it being untrue, Rad! Ha ha. That pic is pretty funny, though. But it’d be sad if that became a new phone. I won’t mind the merger at all, so long as the Helio plans and phones remain. VM’s phones are the worst(next to Cricket). So, like I said, if we get to keep everything Helio after the merger, it won’t be so bad.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
actually my best friend has virgin and has the wildcard and I gotta say its not horrible. Of course for the more sophisticated user it would be on the shallow side, but its makes due. I will only be happy with this merger if 2 of these three things happen. (besides everything going all virgin on us)
1) Plans go down in price (not likely)
2) More devices spring up (kind of likely)
3) The ocean 2 blows me away (who knows?.. but I’m thinking not likely)
3.5) Ocean 2 doesn’t cost an Arm and a Leg
If 2 of those happen and quality remains the same I will be very happy.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
I think the pricing of plans is pretty decent considering it’s about $30 to $40 more than Helio for other plans to compare. I don’t see the Oz2 costing more than $250, to be honest. Anymore than that, and I might have to find something spectacular about it to want it that bad. But, I’m hoping that everything you mentioned come up with the merger.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
if they merge u wont even notice it
June 26th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Honestly I hope they merge and give me the option of cancelling or I complain and avoid a fee, Ocean is great and all but is laggy at best, I get a discount at Sprint but have ~9 months left of contract.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:28 am
Honestly I hope they merge and give me the option of cancelling or I complain and avoid a fee, Ocean is great and all but is laggy at best, I get a discount at Sprint but have ~9 months left of contract. Plus I want a Laptop Mobile Card, Helio had one but dropped it(dumb).
June 26th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Helio had a connection card ?
June 26th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Helio HAD a labtop mobile card.
It was discontinued.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:50 am
The pink tape is probably covering over the “Virgin” logo, yo…
June 26th, 2008 at 9:29 am
why would you say that? in the first pic, you can blurrily see HELIO on the phone, lit up in blue
June 26th, 2008 at 10:19 am
ye,they had that ‘hybrid’ card,wonder why they did’nt stick w/ that(since they’re such a ‘datacentric’ company,lol!no doubt,i just hope i can get out of payin’ a ETF!it was fun while it lasted though
June 26th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
i love how everyone is just giving up despite awesome service…
June 26th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I agree with Rad. If they merge and nothing changes, so what? It’ll be the same service, same plans. Just a lame name on Helio phones. Granted I’ll still tell people I have Helio service and not Virgin, I wouldn’t just change providers because of the merge.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I’m not leaving unless i have to. i think a lot of these phones are better than other phones…ESPECIALLY better than other MVNO company’s phones. And virgin’s 79 all in doesnt include unltd internet. and you can’t use virgin phones internationally. which sucks. even canada!
June 28th, 2008 at 5:50 am
Are you serious? This person couldn’t get a better picture? Oh well I’ve lost interest thanks to the buyout
July 1st, 2008 at 10:51 am
I don’t know what the fuss is about. Ocean was a great phone for its time but Ocean 2 is just a rehash from the pictures and the random tidbits it doesn’t sound impressive at all. i’d rather sell my soul to the devil(Apple) and get an Iphone rather than an Ocean 2. Which won’t happen I’ll stick with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. That phone is worth 400. I dunno about ocean 2 i hope helio doesn’t fall flat on its face…
July 6th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
if shit goes down and plans switch and mine does not get droped in price. Or and intrupution happens or no cancellation fees happen I am totally goin to go to t mobile and getting a sidekick or a blackberry. I am goin to t mobile if even if there is a fee
July 6th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
actually you can get out of your plan I was told because what happens is they sell your serivce plan and you sign up to a new company. I was told this by a guy who work at a helio store tryin to get me to sign up with helio.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
any truth behind this http://base.google.com/base/a/2633630/D8060252882470296645 ….this phone looks siiick and i would def be all over that if it comes out.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
@Frank: That is not the OZ2, this is a prototype from Fujistu Japan if I remember correctly.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
thought it was too good to be true
July 10th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
I only see the numeric keypad… I wish I could have seen the qwerty keypad…
July 26th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Does this device support Wimax !?!
July 27th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
i really hope that’s not the new ocean!!
August 6th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
the ocean 2 video is on this website http://helioncity.com/content/view/33/2/
August 9th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Just talked to a guy I know at Helio, he said the top layer swivels like the sidekick and the bottom numerical pad slides out. Also, the release date is Sept 8 inside the Helio office. Just fyi