Pre-emptive heads up: The only thing this has to do with Helio is that it’s something that happens to be made by the editors of Heliocity. Thought you guys might enjoy seeing what we do in our off-time. Besides making silly crap like this, its pretty much all staring at walls and talking to cats.

Oh, American Idol. You’re a big bag of shenanigans, but your auditions are entertaining as hell. If you didn’t tune in, you may have missed Renaldo Lapuz’s bananas mcridiculous audition.

As soon as it was over, an IM window popped up:

JustinB: did you watch American Idol?
Greg: Yep.
JustinB: Renaldo Lapuz. Remix?
Greg: Hell yes.

If you didn’t know already, JustinB is pretty damn talented at laying down the tracks. He pushed this awesome mix together in no-time flat, and I couldn’t resist cutting together a video. Make sure you watch until at least a third of the way through. Things go kind of crazy.

Enjoy.

I’ve mentioned it in the past: I’ve always considered Heliocity’s current layout to be temporary. And the one before this one, for that matter. Hell, Heliocity itself was kind of an on-a-whim idea that just blew up into something that I totally less-than-three.

Heliocity is growing up. Traffic is up, member sign-ups are on the rise. More and more people are lookin’ at this site every day - seems like the right time to pretty her up a bit. We’re prepping for a massive overhaul - completely new look, buckets of new content.. It’ll be bananers.

Good news: We’ve already got an amazingly talented artist drafting up some concept layouts. Bad news: He’s not a fan of template creation. That’s where you come in, assuming that you are (or someone you know is) a super-bitchin’ code head with experience with Wordpress/CSS/PHP/etc.

The Rundown:
- Gotta be experienced with CSS, PHP, and preferably with Wordpress theme integration.
- Portfolio, or any example of past work, is a massive plus.
- No real art abilities required. Most of that will be supplied - we’re just lookin for a coder.

You’ll get a crap ton of exposure and the credit you deserve, along with a life-time donor account on the forums. We can figure something out if you’re really awesome and require monies. But wouldn’t you rather do it for the snuggly feeling in your heart that comes from helping, otherwise only found while petting newborn puppies or saving orphans from fires? No? Well, we’ll figure something out.

Think you can help? Hit us up at designer@heliocity.net.

Heliocity is growing up. Smirking defiantly at the magical googlebots for refusing to give us any sort of PageRank whatsoever, it continues to get bigger. Every day, more and more people register for the forums and join what is now the most active Helio community on the vast internets. This community, barely 6 months old, has already amassed a list of outstanding accomplishments We rallied together and had our voices heard. We put our brains together and brought homebrew to Helio devices. We’ve established our presence on the internet, finding ourselves linked to from Crunchgear, Gizmodo, Engadget, Digg, and hundreds of blogs around the web. Today, we reached a landmark I definitley wouldn’t have imagined when fooling around with the idea of this site just months back; we’ve reached 2,000 members.

Two thousand friggin’ people. With Helio’s subscriber count being estimated at around 100,000 by the Chosun Ilbo, that’s pretty damn impressive. And that’s just counting those who took the time to register! How many lurkers do we have out lingering around the forums? (Note to these lurkers: Register, you! For real though, we have secret member-only cake parties.)

We’re growing because of the actions of the community members. Word of mouth, being friendly to newcomers - it’s something you don’t often see in online communities. You guys treat us well. Don’t worry, we’ll be returning the favor.

In celebration of reaching 2,000 members, the next week will be jam-packed with goodies. We’re not about to ruin the surprises, but a quick rundown:

- September/October Contest: September’s contest is being partially eaten by October. The details will come as soon as they’re ready, but the prizes will be the biggest we’ve given away to date.

- New content! The guides section is getting a complete content overhaul, with new guides on the way for the Ocean, Fin, and as many other devices as we can cover.

- More surprises!

Be sure to check back daily for more info about the cool new stuff on the way.

Thanks to everyone who has made this community great. Whether you’re a lurker, a poster, or a mod - you guys make Heliocity what it is. I can’t wait to see where it’ll go next.

As mentioned a few days ago, we’ve made the jump to a new layout.

It’s still a work in progress - we’re planning on adding a light variation as an option, sprucing up the background a bit, and making a few changes to the layout overall. The brand new Review section should go live either today or tomorrow is now live (more reviews are on their way), and the Media section will become the Downloads section as we add Wallpapers and other downloadable content. Don’t be surprised if you notice little changes here and there over the next few days as we fine tune things.

In other news, we have a new editor on board! Most regulars probably already recognize him by his screen name- JustinB is a regular around the Helio scene, and had already contributed a good amount to the site before joining the crew. Welcome to the team, Justin!

Hope you like the new layout. We definitely prefer it. Go check out one of the guides - they’re far easier on the eyes now. Keep an eye out over the next few days for new stuf!

The main site will be going down for 1-4 hours tonight at 12 AM PST for scheduled maintenance.

This only affects the main site; the forums will still be accessible.

Wow, It’s been a long week. Moving from house to house (especially just down the street) is quite possibly the most tedious thing in the world.

It’s been a few days since we’ve updated, so we figured we’d give you a quick peek at what’s coming up - It’s all right behind the jump!

(more…)

Today is the last day of the July contest. Did you get your entry in? Better hurry!

Recap:
The grand prize is a 2GB MicroSD card. Some lucky folks will also win a gift of their choice (Game/Application/Ringtone/etc) from the Helio store.

It’s easy to enter. Just make a sign that says “Heliocity” somewhere on it. Print it. Take a photo. Don’t got a printer? Take a photo of your screen with your hand somewhere in the frame. As long as its a photo of your work, you’re good to go. Get to it!

Enter the contest over in the forums.

We’ve got a contest goin’ on over in our forums for a 2 GB MicroSD Card and some Helio e-gifts.

The idea is simple: Grab a piece of paper, write Heliocity on it, take a photo. The top 5 most creative “Signs” get into the drawing for the SD card. Everyone who participates gets a shot at the Helio e-gifts. Go check it out!

Go win free stuff!