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

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.)

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.

We didn’t expect to hear anything Helio related from Sega when we stopped by to check out their mobile offerings, so imagine our surprise when they mentioned that Sonic will be making an appearance on Helio devices - and that he’s bringing friends.

In addition to two Sonic titles, four other Sega mobile games are in the pipes. No exact dates yet.

The games:

• Sonic Jump 2
• Sonic at the Olympic Games
• Golden Axe
• Super Monkey Ball Tip ‘n Tilt
• Columns Deluxe
• Beijing 2008

The list may change by the time the games start showing up on the WAP deck, but hopefully we’ll see things sooner rather than later.

Helio just sent over the details on a promo they’ve set up especially for Heliocity readers, and it’s a pretty friggin’ sweet deal. You get 2 free months for referrals, while your friends get 10 bucks a month off their bill for a year (includes $99 Unlimited) and (if they’re grabbin’ a Mysto or a Fin) a $50 dollar prepaid gift card.

The promotion will be running until the end of April, so go snag yourself some referrals!

The details:

Greetings Heliocity.

First we want to thank you again for all your support. We love what Heliocity stands for and we appreciate the service you provide to all the Helions out there.

We’re so grateful that we have a couple great offers for all your faithful readers.

Here’s the deal:
Existing Members can get two months of free service when they refer a new Member (certain restrictions apply, of course). Click here to find out more.

The new member you refer gets the following deal:
New Members can use a special promo code (see below) to get $10 off their monthly fees for a full 12 months (valid on $40 plans and higher, up to and including the $99 All-In plan)

Plus, if they get a new Mysto or Fin, they also get a $50 Helio Prepaid Visa Card.

Click here to get started or go to http://www.helio.com/page?p=promo_50&

Promo Codes:

Ocean: oceanoffer
Fin: finoffer
Mysto: mystooffer
Heat (black): heatblackoffer
Heat (gold): heatgoldoffer

~ Your friends at Helio

Helio and Gameloft have teamed up again for a Helio exclusive contest with some really cool prizes.

The Rules:

You must be a Helio member.

One internet entry per person.

You must be over 16 to enter the contest.

What do you have to do to enter, you might ask? You can enter two ways. Over the internet (only once) or by purchasing at least one of the following games:

Guitar Rock Tour

American Popstar: Road to Celebrity

New York Nights: Success in the City

Meteos Astro Blocks

Asphalt: Urban GT 2

And the most important thing: the prizes. They will be giving away DJ Consoles and iPod Nanos each week. Remember: If you download more than one of those games, you will be entered for each you buy. Contest ends at 11:59:00 p.m. EST April 18, 2008.
For the rest of the rules, head on over to the rules page.

Just a side note, Gameloft doesn’t have the newer Helio phone models in there, but just pick PN-8300 (Pantech), SPH-A303 (Samsung) or SPH-A503 (Samsung) and everything should be alright.

Enjoy! Let us know if any of you Heliocity users end up winning!

Update: Hope you enjoyed April Fools, everybody! This was not an actual announcement from Helio.

Having aggressively targeted the 16-35 market for the past 2 years, Helio announced today during CTIA that they will be addressing an otherwise ignored market: the 70-85 year olds.

A bit of a shocker, overall - we’re hoping to have a hands on sometime while we’re here.

What we know:

• Larger buttons to assist those with reduced sight
• Bingo odds calculator
• Automatically detects when the user is yelling into the microphone, self-reducing the volume
• Most non-phone features removed, Calendar replaced with “Grandkid Birthday Reminder”
• Exclusive ringtones by Fred Astaire, Fats Waller, and Bing Crosby

We’ll update you when we know more.