I was a bit busy at CTIA when April rolled through this year, so I kept our April Fools joke fairly simple. Playing on the idea of giant remote controls, I announced that Helio had decided to target an older market with the “Helio Era”. Larger buttons, simplified user interface, etc.

Well, looks like Pantech actually had something along those lines in the works — albeit, not for Helio. AT&T began selling the Pantech Breeze device today, a device aimed at an older market. Larger buttons? Check. Simplified user interface? Check. Sure, it’s missing the Fred Astaire ring tones, but I’m sure Pantech just had last minute licensing issues.

[Via Phonescoop]

As you may or may not have noticed, you can now purchase a selection of five Helio Ocean skins from the online Helio store, and we were able to get our hands on some from Helio to check em’ out! They are the same kind you can get from MyTego.com except the price is half of what you’d pay there. At just $15 dollars a pop, it isn’t too bad for some harmless customization.

Click here for the review + pics

And since we didn’t want them all to go to waste, we only applied one of them for the review so we could give the other four away in a … *dramatic drumroll* … contest!

To enter just comment on this post and we will randomly pick four people. Remember, we need to be able to contact you if you win, so make sure when you comment you are using a valid e-mail address. Only one entry per person. Enjoy! Contest ends May 31st, 2008 at 11:59pm

Maaaaaaaaaaan! It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Busy, busy, busy.

I finally got a chance to pop together the white Ocean this morning. I’ll be popping it apart one final time to fix a few mistakes I hadn’t noticed and do one final wet sand/touch up job, but these give you a good idea of how it will look in its final form.

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When I first launched Heliocity 365 days ago, I never imagined how much I’d come to enjoy it. I can’t even begin to count how many awesome people I’ve had the opportunity to meet, nor how many fond memories have come as a result.

We’ve already accomplished so much as a community. This community stood together, and helped to reshape a service its members use most. Then we went and did it again. We’ve grown to remarkable numbers, through nothing but word of mouth and natural discovery. We’ve banded together to tackle obstacles that kept our devices from their maximum potentionial. Perhaps most notably, this community has provided help to thousands upon thousands of other Helions. Without a doubt, this community has made being a Helio customer better.

Happy Birthday, folks. The best is yet to come.

Remember back in April we did that “New Games Roundup”? Well, here it is again!

Prince of Persia Classic by Gameloft - Bringing back all the memories of the classic Prince of Persia. The great thing about this is that you can play it in landscape mode.

Speed Racer by Glu Mobile - Just in time for the movie release. Go speed racer, go!

Brick Breaker Revolution by Digital Chocolate - Very similar to Arkanoid, except with spruced up graphics and some really cool additions.

Penguin Fun by Skava - Mini games involving penguins, what could be more fun than that?

There is also a special promo going on right now, the following Gameloft titles are 50% off, hurrah!

Tropical Madness

Gangstar: Crime City

Turbo Jet Ski 3D

Sexy poker Top Models

Catz

Big Range Hunting

We’re considering making the switch from Google Adsense to handling advertising in house, across all sections of the site.

Some stats about Heliocity:

• 500,000 page views per month.
• Our reader base stretches across the US and is made up of gadget lovers, tech-minded individuals, vendors, software and product developers, corporate power figures, and those considering Helio.
• We are highly respected as a source for all things Helio, and as a member of the blogging community at large.
• We are the largest and most tightly knit community of Helio users by many leaps and bounds. Both our readership and our registered member base grow significantly each day by word of mouth alone. It is estimated that 1 of every 50 Helio subscribers is a registered member of our site.

Contact me at greg at heliocity dot net if you’re interested.

Last Thursday, we reported on a rumor that Helio/Virgin Mobile were discussing a possible merge.

SK Telecom’s claiming the rumors a bunch of nonsense. According to a spokesperson for the company, there had not been “any sort of talks” between Helio and Virgin, saying all rumors as such were “groundless” and that they remained “committed to Helio.” In the vaguest statement of the century, she also added that SK Telecom was actively seeking opportunities to expand in the US.

I’m still on the fence with this one, as I’m wary about anything that could potentially cause radical changes to the way Helio does their thing. On one hand, more users and a larger retail footprint is an awesome thing. On the other, I heart Helio.

SK Telecom has big ol’ pockets, with over 50% of Korean mobile customers being SKT subscribers. Their pockets are fat enough to keep Helio afloat as long as they need to to work things out. I’d be incredibly surprised if any of the opportunities they were seeking involved tossing the brand they’ve been working to build.

[Via mocoNews.net]

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.)