In a confusingly enterprise move, youth-targeting Helio has just announced that their “Ultimate Inbox” service available on the Helio Mysto, Helio Fin, and Helio Ocean handsets is now push-email enabled. Not only will Helio actively push emails to your Helio from any Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail email account, but the new push-email service is said to be compatible with any POP and IMAP email account.

Push email is usually reserved to dedicated push-email services, so Helio’s push (pun unintended) to marry the real-time email service to virtually any email account is a refreshing change.

So, if you’re holding a Helio handset in your hand (or pocket) and still haven’t stumbled upon Helio’s new offering, check out the new service. Just fire up your Helio Mail client and hit “Send/Receive.” When prompted to enable the push-email service, choose accordingly.

[Via: HelioCity]

Eagle-eyed Engadget folks spotted the OZ2 hitting the FCC for the approval process. If you remember, prior to releasing it as the Helio Ocean, the Pantech-made dual-slider was known simply as OZ. Naturally, we think the OZ2 stands for Ocean 2 and hopefully, soon enough, we’ll see our assumptions confirmed, or not. CTIA is ahead of us and we’ll be looking for both Pantech and Helio for some answers. In the meantime, Helio users could keep their fingers crossed, it can’t hurt for sure.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

Here’s some good news for Helio users, as the MVNO started offering Opera Mini web browser for select handsets.

Owners of the popular Ocean model may have already found the way to get Opera Mini working with their double-sliding handset and they don’t want to “experiment” with Helio’s mumbo-jumbo. However, if you have some other-than-Ocean device, you may want to try this out. We’re not sure whether it will work with all Helio phones and we’ve already heard the Fin is refusing to play. Still you can try.

Here’s how to get it:

• From the idle screen, type the jumpcode “67372″ (OPERA).
• Hit the flamekey
• Download and start browsing!

We’re eager to know whether this works for you. Please use our comments form bellow.

[Via: Engadget Mobile, HelioCity]

Here in the States, it wouldn’t be a complete day without hearing about another lawsuit in the IP world. The latest patent infringement suit comes from some outfit that calls themselves Intellect Wireless. The suit calls into play a handful of patents, one of which is in regard to Caller ID. Now, we’ve seen this before from another company (suing Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)), but this time around, the suit comes from a different firm and is suing different companies.

The suit was filed in Chicago against T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) USA, U.S. Cellular, Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM), and Helio – claiming that the carriers infringed on some Intellect-owned patents regarding “wireless image messaging.” Three patents are in question and all were issued in 1997 – more than a decade ago.

On patent relates to technology that would enable a “Picture Phone with Caller ID” and the other two separate patents at hand are entitled “Method and Apparatus for Improved Paging Receiver and System.”

Vague? Sure. Possibly settlement-worthy? Sure. Unheard of? No way.

We’ll see how this one plays out. That Caller ID patent sounds like a winner – but then why would Intellect choose to sue these particular carriers? Have all other carriers entered into licensing agreements?

[Via: RCRNews]

Forget turning a profit, Helio needs to figure out how to stop bleeding cash (much like Sprint). On the upside, Helio’s fiscal 2007 revenues were $171 million, up from $46 million in 2006. But, what good is taking in more money when you’re burning greenbacks at a significantly faster rate?

Not much.

Helio posted a loss of $326 million in 2007, compared to $192 million in 2006. Albeit, Helio did increase their advertising out-go, but with $47.5 million advertising dollars in 2007, their advertising costs only increased about $25 million (from $21.6 million in 2006). In fact, Helio’s losing money so fast that once-parent Earthlink had to relinquish control of the MVNO venture to SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM), the other parent company that helped start Helio. 

Can Helio last? Time will tell. But, if history is any sort of predictor, MVNOs aren’t going to fare too well.

We can’t imagine Helio has more than another year and half to prove themselves (or run out of funding).

[Via: RCRNews]

Just what did Helio look like when it was still in its formative years, under the guidance of Earthlink and SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM)? It looked pimple-faced awkward.

HelioCity got their hands on some sweet pics of the prototype devices in Helio’s lineup, and here they are. These early devices are actually so old that they still sport the “SK Earthlink” branding. Take a gander at the antenna stub on the Helio KickFlip prototype. Definitely a half-baked idea – it’s a good thing Helio decided to nix that particular design element. And, the KickFlip prototypes had a secondary LCD display for framing the perfect self-portrait. It’s a shame that Helio didn’t go forward with that idea.

The Helio Hero and Helio Ocean prototypes look pretty similar to the final version. It’s amazing how a few minor cosmetic changes really make a world of difference. The prototype forms of the Hero and Ocean just look a bit clunkier than the current generation – it’s a good thing the design-guys at Helio decided to tweak these devices before they hit the market. But, it would have been interesting to see the current Helio Ocean rocking a two-tone color scheme.

Head on over to HelioCity for the rest of the prototype pictures.

[Via: HelioCity]

Is this a sign of things to come? Following on luxury MVNO Voce’s abrupt (and unethical) bankruptcy, Helio has just lowered the price of their unlimited rate plans. The Helio unlimited plan offers unlimited voice minutes, data, and SMS text messages for a new, low price of $99.

The price has been slashed from the previous $145 price point, and the new price seems to be a limited affair. The new $99 Helio unlimited plan doesn’t allow device-tethering, but hey, it’s still a good deal for heavy-talkers/data-consumers.

Now, what does this price-cut mean for Helio? One way to look at it is that Helio is just trying to expand its customer-base by playing around with rate-plan prices. On the other hand, Helio may be hurting for more customers. When carriers find themselves short on subscribers (and cash), they generally slash prices – which is exactly what Voce kept doing before their network went dark a couple days ago. After all, Helio has to make sure it puts that fresh $70 cash infusion to good use.

Helio

Sky Dayton is stepping down as a CEO of Helio only to become the company’s chairman. Helio’s current president and COO Wonhee Sull, a former executive at SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM), will supersede Sky and will hopefully cut some costs along the way. In addition to cost cutting, the personnel change may also reflect SK Telecom’s intent to consolidate its control over the struggling MVNO.

And while we’re on the struggling part, it’s important to note that Helio has around 200,000 subscribers, which pay about $85 per month. On average, Helio users send 550 text messages per month, 95% of them access the web, and 60% use their phones to access MySpace. But it’s still not making money…

The million dollar question is – will the new CEO change anything? We don’t know at this point, but we’re certainly hoping to see Helio introducing some hot “Korea-backed” services to the U.S. market. Stay tuned…

[Via: TechCrunch]

Helio’s move to launch the Mysto to the Korean-American community before going mainstream was something of surprise. Nonetheless, with huge backing from South Korean wireless provider SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM), the move made sense – you want to keep your investors happy, right?

Well, Helio has just pushed the Helio Mysto into the mainstream and has made the GPS-toting handset available through all Helio retail channels. And, to leverage that glorious GPS-receiver, Helio has launched the Mysto with their TellMe and WHERE location-based services.

TellMe, $2.99 a month, tracks your GPS-sourced location and helps you find the nearest whatever-you-need. Simply press the dedicated TellMe button on the side of the Helio Mysto, speak your query (say you’re looking for a Wells Fargo bank, you’d speak “Wells Fargo”), and TellMe will find the nearest Wells Fargo bank branch and clue you in to its location.

WHERE is a free web-based platform that leverages your the Helio Mysto’s GPS receiver to provide location-data to a host of web-widgets. The WHERE platform runs in the web browser and uses web-based searches to find whatever location-specific information you might want to know. From Gas Buddy to Weather to local music and events, WHERE’s web-widgets use your GPS-location to give you a heads-up on local weather and events.

Of course, Helio has included the Buddy Beacon (which is now the sole trademark of uLocate), Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps, and Garmin Mobile applications in the Helio Mysto, along with a location-enhanced Twitter application, to get the most out of the Mysto’s GPS-prowess.

Grab this slick, slim, sexy slider from your nearest Helio retailer. At

Press release after the break.

Read the full article »

Helio, like so many other MVNO’s, has been hemoraging red-ink like it’s nobody’s business. Cash infusion after cash infusion, the company has failed to bring their bottom-line back into the green.

Whether or not the financial aspect has influenced their decision to sell off the “Buddy Beacon” trademark is unclear, but it seems that Helio has done just that. The “Buddy Beacon” trademark has been sold off to uLocate, the company that provides the national buddy-finding service.

The move could mark the entry of the friend-location service into other carrier-markets. We could see uLocate take “Buddy Beacon” to other national carriers. Let’s see how this plays out…

Press release