Fall into the Helio craze did you? Better keep that Ocean/Ocean2 in tip top shape because it appears those will be the last Helio branded devices ever. As Engadget points out, it never made sense of Virgin Mobile to hobble along supporting two different brands. Whether the exec’s at Virgin Mobile finally stopped tapping that funny kool-aid or they just came to their senses is a moot point. The fact of the matter is Helio branded devices are being erased from Virgin’s memory save for two lonely survivors seen above. What’s sort of odd is that the Helio Ocean 2 which was hardware wise a newer (hello captain obvious…is that you?) and ultimately better than the original Ocean has been nixed. In it’s place is the older, original Ocean. Another blow to the face is that the few remaining Helio devices are being referenced by their manufacturer’s names. Ouch. No love.
In case you’re feeling a little directionless in life now that you can’t get that Helio 2 you’ve been eying for months, as long as your know some Korean (or know how to translate Google Translate’s sometimes not quite right translations), the Korean market of Virgin Mobile USA still has your fix. For how much longer though is anybody’s guess. If I were you and really wanting an Ocean 2, I’d get on it pretty fast as there’s no telling how much longer these devices are going to be available anywhere.
I don’t quite understand Virgin Mobile’s rationale on this one but hey, they pay important people to make important decisions. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Engadget > Mobile Crunch
All you can eat post paid data plans can often cost upwards of $250+ per year. Not to mention, the majority of people never come close to actually using $250 worth of data. If you have been begging for more reliable and affordable pre-paid data options, Virgin Mobile would like to share something with you. Virgin Mobile has finally released all of the info associated with this new type of plan and billing. The
Broadband2Go pre-paid data plans while on the surface look mighty expensive for such a small amount of data, are in fact a huge value to those who only need mobile internet a couple of times throughout the year. The pricing for the plans is as follows:
- $10: 100MB usable for 10 days
- $20:250MB usable for 30 days
- $40:600MB usable for 30 days
- $60:1GB usable for 30 days
Again, if you are planning to use these types of plans and pricing every month, you will end up spending a ton of money on Rogers-esque plans/prices that are not good for the long term at all. But, if you are the data dabbler who uses it sporadically and can’t afford an extra $30-$40 every month for post-paid data options, this Virgin Mobile solution may be right up your alley.
Messaging fiends get your fingers ready as the XTC from Kyocera is coming. A slide out qwerty that will go for $99.99 contract free featuring:
- 2.4″ TFT QVGA screen
- 1.3 megapixel camera
- Micro SD card slot for memory cards up to 8GB
- Stereo Bluetooth
- Music player with dedicated music controls
- support for SMS, MMS, and IM
- Web browser with direct links to popular social networking sites
Look for the affordable Virgin device to slip on April 6th.
Source: Slashphone
- January 16, 2009 12:18 pm
Helio is a relatively popular brand of phone that doesn’t really get the attention it deserves. Running on Virgin Mobile Helio has introduced some pretty cool phones, most recently, the Ocean. It was a “beginner” smartphone for people who shun wireless contracts and being locked in. Lately not much of anything has come from the media shunned company as RIM, Apple, HTC and a host of other vendors continue to fill the net with leaks and news article after news article of impending releases and announcements. Helio isn’t taking this lying down however as the sequal to the Ocean, the Ocean 2 is reported to be coming soon. How soon?
