<![CDATA[Gizmodo: helio ocean]]> http://tags.gizmodo.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gizmodo.com.png <![CDATA[Gizmodo: helio ocean]]> http://gizmodo.com/tag/helioocean http://gizmodo.com/tag/helioocean <![CDATA[Pantech Matrix Dual Sliding Phone Has More Buttons Than Sense]]> Formed from the same genetic ooze as Pantech's Slide Duo smartphone and rebranded Helio Ocean handset, the Matrix is a mildly frustrating device: spec'd with the best, but dressed in the worst. An HSDPA-enabled handset with GPS, a full QWERTY keyboard in addition to a dialpad, and two cameras should have the software to leverage the hardware, but AT&T and Pantech have chosen to stick with an in-house OS rather than opt for Windows Mobile as they did with the Duo QWERTY smartphone. Still, it doesn't look like a bad feature phone for people who message more than they talk, and it's available today at AT&T stores. [Crave]

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<![CDATA[Opera Mini Browser Now on Helio Ocean, Officially]]> Sure, with a little third-party app hacking you've been able to get Opera running on some Helio phones for a while. But today Helio and Opera have released Opera Mini in what's the first official deployment of the tiny browser by a US service provider. Apparently Helio listened to their enthusiast community and then worked to tailor the software. Press release below the screenshots.

The software is available for download from today from Helio's web portal. Currently it's optimized for the Ocean, but since this is apparently the "start of a beautiful relationship" we may expect to see other versions in the near future.

Opera Mini Surfs on the Helio Ocean
Opera signs first deal with U.S. service provider

Oslo, Norway and Mountain View, CA - March 19, 2008 - Opera, together with Helio, announced the first deployment of Opera Mini on a mobile service provider in the United States. As of today, Helio members can surf the Web with Opera Mini on their Ocean device with a specially-tailored version of the browser designed specifically for the handset.

Available as a downloadable application from Helio's Web portal, Opera Mini is a perfect addition to the Helio Ocean, a sleek and powerful dual-slide device that offers an incredible breadth of functionality. Opera Mini makes browsing on the Ocean even more fun and addictive with an
elegant desktop-like experience that lets the user dive into the page to access the content they want. At the same time, Opera Mini serves pages at lightning speed so it will not slow down the on-the-go mobile experience to which Helio members are accustomed.

"We're always looking to give our members their choice of great applications so we're excited to be the first service provider in the U.S. to make Opera Mini an on-deck option," said Doug Britt, Vice President of Service Management at Helio. "Opera Mini is a tremendous mobile browser. Optimized for Ocean and running on a nationwide 3G network, its a combination that's tough to match."

"Offering Opera Mini underscores Helio's insight into how the mobile industry is evolving," said Rod Hamlin, SVP Sales and Marketing Americas, Opera. "Helio understands their customers' desire for innovative and engaging mobile experiences and answering this demand with a choice in browsers explains why Helio selected Opera Mini."

More than 39 million cumulative users have discovered how Opera Mini can revolutionize their mobile Web experience. Now Helio Ocean users can enjoy all the features and fun of Opera Mini, including Opera Link, a free service that synchronizes your bookmarks, Speed Dial and personal bar between all your Web browsers.

About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera's cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at HYPERLINK "http://www.opera.com" www.opera.com.
Opera Mini Surfs on the Helio Ocean - 2

About Helio
Helio is the mobile brand for the Internet generation. With advanced mobile services, exclusive, high-end, beautiful devices and smart pricing on a nationwide high-speed 3G network, Helio is built for consumers who have mobile at the center of their lives. Helio is a joint venture between
SK Telecom, one of the world's most advanced wireless carriers, and EarthLink, the next generation Internet service provider. www.helio.com.

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<![CDATA[Helio's YouTube 2.0 Client Hands-on and Impressions (Verdict: It's Good)]]> YouTube and Helio aren't strangers in the least, but compared with the iPhone's gorgeous implementation, Helio's first version was found to be a little lacking. No more. The latest release, available today, bumps Helio up onto the same tier as Apple's offering. Here's what we think.

The video quality is definitely good, but not quite as good as iPhone over Wi-Fi. The good news is that it loads faster and looks better than iPhone over EDGE. The interface is pretty solid, and allows you to scroll horizontally between featured videos and popular videos. The standard desktop options like favorites, commenting, playlists, related videos, rating and searching are also there.

What makes this better than the iPhone is the ability to upload videos directly from your phone. How cool is it to shoot a camera vid, dump it onto YouTube, then call your friends to tell them about this crazy homeless guy you saw on the road? And speaking of roads, you can even GPS tag it with the Ocean's GPS so you know exactly where it is you were when you shot it. Only available on the Ocean for free. [Helio]

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<![CDATA[Helio Offers Unlimited Service for $99/Month, Refurbed Ocean for $99]]> Good news for people thinking of picking up a Helio Ocean: Helio has lowered its rates for its all-in plans, giving you all-you-can-eat service for $99 a month. It's also starting to offer refurbished phones through the Helio Refreshed service, with the Ocean now available refurbed for a mere $99. That's a pretty awesome deal for one of our favorite phones seeing it lists for $295 new. [Helio via Electronista]

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<![CDATA[AT&T's Dual-Sliding Pantech Duo In the Wild]]> The Pantech Duo, seen previously as the Helio Ocean, has just been spotted in the wild by a tipster. He takes some sample shots next to his V3xx RAZR, which should give you a good idea of how large it is in comparison. If it's as thick as the Ocean, prepare to be either appalled or flattered when your friends comment on your third testicle. [Update, added side shot]

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Thanks tipster!

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<![CDATA[Sizemodo: Helio Fin vs. Ocean vs. iPhone vs. HTC Touch]]> Here's how the Helio Fin, the thinnest clamshell in the US, stacks up against other equally thin phones. As you can see, it's pretty much the same thickness as the iPhone, which is amazing since the Fin actually flips open. It's slightly thinner than the HTC Touch, and is dwarfed by the bulge-tastic Helio Ocean. More Sizemodo after the jump.

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<![CDATA[Custom Apps Now Possible on Helio Ocean (Opera Mini)]]> Not only is the iPhone getting its third-party cherry popped, the Helio Ocean is now running third-party apps now as well. The first proof of concept app is Opera Mini, the smallish browser from Opera that lets even lousy phones browse like a star. To get it to work on your Ocean (even though the default Ocean browser is just fine for us), just follow the directions on Heliocity. After you're done, you may want to check to see how you can support them to get even cooler apps on the Ocean. [Heliocity]

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<![CDATA[Helio Adds YouTube Features, New MySpace App]]> We told you the YouTube on Helio's 3G was free now, but they've gone and added a couple more features to it since Monday. First, Helio users can record videos on their Oceans and upload them to Helio Album. Why's that cool? Because if you configure your Helio Album correctly, it can push those videos to YouTube and Flickr (for pictures, we're assuming).

In non–YouTube news, the new MySpace Mobile 2 app is available on the Ocean now. It's much better than the old app, and actually lets you Photocast by publishing pics to your bulletin so your MySpace buddies can see. Great for up-to-date vacation pics for your co-workers to get jealous at.

Helio

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<![CDATA[Helio's 3G YouTube Access Now Free]]> Helio originally wanted to charge a few bucks a month for YouTube, but in response to the iPhone's free access, they're doing it free, too. And that's over 3G, so it'll be fast where ever you have EVDO coverage. See? One-up-manship can be beneficial for all. Oh, did I mention that you can upload your Helio vids to YouTube? It ain't the slickest phone out there, but it sure has legs.

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<![CDATA[Helio Fights Apple with Official YouTube Over 3G (and the Genius of the iPhone's 2.5G/WiFi)]]> Sky Dayton, who has been quoted several times in the last week in iPhone critique pieces, is officially putting a more powerful set of YouTube features on his 3g phones. Here comes the bloodbath. This is going to be complicated to explain, so sit down and listen up.

With 3G high speed networks, that's anywhere, not just where you have a Wi-Fi hotspot like on an iPhone. And it'll have video upload from the phone's camera, direct to YouTube, with two clicks. (To be Launched later.) That's by dedicated app, that'll let you rate videos and view favorites. And will include access to eBaum's World among other video sharing sites. They're charging $5.99. And Howard forums members have just reported to me that access to m.youtube.com directs them to a purchase page. So it appears no Mobile YouTube unless you pay. This isn't true.

Over the weekend, we reported a mysterious soft launch of mobile youtube (m.youtube.com), and gave you a tour on none other than a Helio Ocean (completely coincidentally). Today, that page redirects to a sign up page for the official service.

There's a workaround. Just enter "m.youtube.com/?s=srf" into your browser to get read access to YouTube on a Helio device. This is the same page that I gave you a tour of over the weekend. Granted, you don't get the upload, or other services. But you can still watch YouTube on an ocean, for as free as you can watch it on an iPhone.

I cannot believe I am muttering these words: Now it becomes evident that the move to put 2.5G EDGE and Wi-Fi in the iPhone was smart for the device. Not only does the iPhone have eight hours of talktime without battery sucking 3g, but they've got full video streaming to the handset without racking up stupendous cellular network bandwidth costs for the carriers and users. The only problem is that you need to be at an access point for the iPhone to stream video at a reasonable pace.

So how is Helio going to pay for those YouTube freeloaders when they soak up the network? I don't know, but I'm glad they're offering a workaround for the geeks, while still managing to up sell something useful with that video upload feature and more.

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<![CDATA[Helio Ocean: Do You Use the Keyboard or Dialpad?]]> We've got a bet going here about the Helio Ocean. I say Lam's a weirdo because he uses the numbers on the QWERTY keyboard to dial, and Lam says I'm a weirdo because I use the dialpad (the numbers) to dial. Both of us use the quick-lookup contacts from the start screen.

Lam says he doesn't want an extra layer of hardware for something he uses 2% of the time. I say entering in numbers on the QWERTY pad, especially for dialing a 10 digit phone number, sucks nards.

What do you think? Vote, and we'll see who's taking whom to a romantic dinner next week.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Helio Ocean [Gizmodo]

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<![CDATA[Helio Ocean: The Cake]]> Our female-fearing cousins over at Kotaku are familiar with cakes made in the shape of their favorite things (games), but we don't often get the pleasure of eating our own gadgets. That's why this Helio Ocean cake made by a geeksugar reader is so sweet (heh).

The cake itself looks gigantic, and features none of the features the actual Ocean has—unless you count the fact that they both make us drool. Hit the link to see more pictures and the two creators posing next to the cake.

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Edible Geek: Helio Ocean Cake [Geek Sugar]

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<![CDATA[Fat Joe Reviews the Helio Ocean]]> What has the world come to? Why is Fat Joe trying to do our job and review the Helio Ocean? We're not going out and mackin' on the ladies and rapping it up. C'mon Fat Joe, stick to what you know! Wide scrizzle fo life.

Helio Ocean walkthrough with Fat Joe [Boy Genius]

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<![CDATA[Ten Takes on the Helio Ocean]]> After scoring a few units of our own to play with, we talked about the Helio Ocean a ton last week—eventually posting an extensive features review that shouldn't be missed by anyone seriously considering a smartphone.

So for this week's Frankenreview, we're giving you a eight other opinions (that obviously don't matter as much as ours) on the Helio Ocean. The NY Times, Forbes, Crunchgear, CNET, Slashgear, Mobileburn, PCMag and the Wall Street Journal all have something to say about the phone. So hit the jump and wonder how it's possible that only one out of nine takes gave the Ocean a numerical score...(SPOILER: CNET, and it was 83)



NY Times
While smart-phone makers cower in the looming shadow of the June release of the iPhone from Apple, a small cellphone service provider called Helio is introducing a device that is getting plenty of buzz.

Forbes

The phone's dual sliding keypad design is nifty: Slide out a standard number pad from its heel for dialing, or a large, QWERTY keypad from its left side for text messaging or speedy Web browsing. Ocean's software effortlessly switches the display from portrait to landscape mode, depending on which keypad is in use.
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Crunchgear
The main comparison here is going to be with the Sidekick.... The Sidekick is also about the size of my cat—and about as practical in a pocket. The Ocean is considerably smaller yet it still maintains all of the core features of the Sidekick and it manages to contribute a few of its own to the fray (like GPS).

CNET
The bubbled keys have a nice soft-touch texture that make it a joy to type on. Yet, we still had some complaints. When compared to other keyboards like that on the T-Mobile Sidekick 3, the Ocean's buttons may feel a bit too crowded.

Wirelessinfo

...some of the features are limited, for instance, the much-vaunted GPS feature is very useful (and the Buddy Beacon lets you keep track of your Helio owning friends), but it's missing some features that you would get on even a cheap dedicated GPS receiver; It can't track where you've been and doesn't provide turn by turn directions.

Slashgear

I discovered two features that I really don't like: not being able to turn off the audio notification for all incoming and outgoing messages without having to put the entire device in silent mode...[and] not being able to hide offline contacts in AIM.

Mobileburn

One of the best aspects of the Ocean has to be its large 2.4", 262k color TFT display; it is a real stunner.... The backlight, when configured at its brightest level, is certainly strong enough to overcome the sun in my outdoors tests.

PCMag

There's an MP3 player in here, too. The Ocean quickly detected my cardful of music and let me play songs by album, artist, or track name. I could drop songs onto the phone using mass storage mode with a PC or a Mac, or sync with Windows Media Player on a PC.

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WSJ
...the Ocean is an innovative, thoughtfully designed smart phone that advances the state of the art.... The software is smart, too.

Gizmodo
Our final recommendation would be: buy it, but only after you consider our caveats...you can't sync your calendar to your Mac or PC...[using the keyboard] is like walking in an attic crawlspace—cramped and uncomfortable.


I'll admit it, before the Ocean came out I'd basically written Helio off (They did tell me to "not call us a phone company," after all. But if they can convince enough customers to pay $65/month for 500 minutes or $85 a month for 1000 minutes of Sprint service, it's going to be with heralded exclusives like the Ocean. Because trust me: The same strategy will work just fine for Cingular/AT&T.


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<![CDATA[Helio Ocean Roundup: All The Hot Details in One Place]]> If you were around last week, you saw that we got ourselves a fever for the Helio Ocean and we covered the silly out of that thing. If you want to go back and see what all the fuss was about, this is the place to find it. We've got everything you could want to know about the phonedevice that Gizmodo readers prefer to the iPhone. Walk with me.

First of all, those of you who hate words and love pictures should head straight to our galleries of the hardware, software, unboxing, and manual. For those of you who are actually literate, please read on.

  • Our feature-by-feature review is the first stop you should make, especially if you're considering picking an Ocean up for yourself.
  • Here's a rundown of the key features of the Ocean and our first impressions of playing around with it.
  • Want to see how the interface works on the dual-slider? We've got three videos, which should be plenty to satiate your desire for seeing the Ocean in action. Check out part 1 here and parts 2 and 3 here.
But wait, there's much, much more!
  • The first thing we did when we got the Ocean was unbox it. Not by ripping the packaging apart to get to the goods as quickly as possible, no. We used patience, and you get pretty photos of every detail as a result. You're welcome.
  • A lot of work and thought went into designing the Ocean. We go into detail as to all three (yes, three) ways to hold the phone and just what the design process was like.
  • We did an uber-Sizemodo, comparing the Ocean's size to everything we could get our hands on.
  • Helio makes it super-easy to switch between devices, making it possible for you to have your Ocean for daytime/work use and a Heat for going out on the town. Here's a step-by-step tutorial on how you switch between phones instantaneously.
  • Helio also makes it easy to sync your contacts with your email program or another Helio device. Here's a tutorial on how to do just that.
  • At your request, we put the entire 150-page manual up for your perusal. Fascinating!
And hey, we're not the only people who have things to say about the Ocean. What about other folks, such as Daddy Mossberg?

Walt Mossberg, surprisingly enough, really seemed to dig the Ocean. Like us, he has his slight reservations, but overall he said that " the Ocean is an innovative, thoughtfully designed smart phone that advances the state of the art." That sounds like a thumbs up to us.

Sascha Segan over at PC Mag also seemed to like the Ocean, saying that "the Ocean is everything I wish the LG enV VX9900 was - a great messaging phone with very good multimedia capabilities," although while it "faces down the iPhone and the Sidekick with dignity, it still won't kill them off."

CNET also gave the Ocean a generally, but not overwhelmingly, positive review, giving props for the overall design and messanging software but griping about the thickness and wonky numerical keyboard.

For a more comprehensive review roundup, check out the one over at Sci Fi Tech. For future coverage of the Ocean here at Gizmodo, point your browser to this link right here, which will gather up every post we do on the Ocean.

And hey, now that it's available to the general public I suppose it's time to ask: what do you guys think? Anyone pick one up yet?

Helio Ocean [Gizmodo]

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<![CDATA[Helio Ocean Available Today, Friday May 11]]> Hey folks, just a quick note to let you guys know that the Ocean is going to be available today, Friday, May 11. You can get one by going to helio.com, calling 1-888-88-HELIO, or going to one of their retail stores in Santa Monica, Palo Alto, San Diego, Denver or NYC.

If you're heading to EBGames or Gamestop next week to get ripped off when you trade in some games, you can pick up an Ocean there as well. Other retailers will have them after that. As always, check out all our coverage to see if it's worthwhile for you to pick up this $295 device.

Helio

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<![CDATA[Helio Ocean Feature-by-Feature Review]]> We've had lots of time to use, re-use, and digest every feature available on the Helio Ocean. We've done UI videos, hardware galleries, handset sharing tutorials and sync tutorials, but what you really want to know is what we think of it. Here's our review, broken down feature by feature so you can easily see the ones that matter the most to you.

Idle Search: By far, the coolest and most useful thing on the Helio Ocean is its ability to search right off the idle homescreen. Like Spotlight on a Mac, it can search through multiple things, namely, your contact list, or any of the websites the Ocean supports: Yahoo, Google, Google Maps (using the phone's Java version), Wikipedia, Yelp and Amazon. If Helio is smart, they'll let the phone do the idle search from a customizable list of websites.

Instant Messaging:The addition of the slide-out keyboard and new IM apps is fantastic, but we're bummed by not being able to have more than one AIM account online simultaneously. You can do MSN, Yahoo and AIM at the same time, but there's no Google Talk even though there's a GMail app. Oh, and you can't turn off the AIM alert sound unless you silence the entire phone. And you can send photos over IM, which I believe is a first for a native phone IM client. TXT and SMS screens are great, too. And you can get to the text messaging quickly by pressing down on the d-pad, while a long press down will open a new text/pic message.

Email: Email isn't push (yet—exchange may be coming soon) and you can't set up check intervals, but we have heard talk about Yahoo offering push email like they will for the iPhone. UPDATE: It's push for Yahoo! AOL and Windows Live. But the fact that you can check Hotmail, AOL Mail, GMail, Helio mail, Yahoo Mail, and Earthlink mail all from your phone is fantastic. (Plus standard POP3 and IMAP.) Plus, there's deep integration into other apps like the camera so you can send pictures from any of your accounts from the Photo Album screen.

Camera: The 2mp camera captures images at 1600x1200, and downward. The shots are grainy, and dull, compared with those from the Nokia N series phones and the Cybershot Sony Ericsson phones. But they're a lot better than most. A lot better, frankly. The best thing is the Helio Up mode, which uploads your tagged photos to an online album, tagged with descriptions and even GPS geotagged metadata. The controls are great: white balance, multi-shot modes, flash, effects and frames, although the frames didn't work (UPDATE: They work at the low res 240x180 photo setting) and the controls should have been accessible without digging into a menu. Video is recorded at 320 x 240 and 176 x 144 for MMSing.

Keyboard: I didn't think it was as great as I did back at CTIA when I only used it for a few minutes. Instead of being luxuriously spaced like HTC phones are, it's more like walking in an attic crawlspace—cramped and uncomfortable. The sidekick 3 is better in some ways, like the rubbery keys and bigger spacebar, but the prominent @ symbol on the Ocean is nice. But you won't be able to type as fast as you could on some other phones like the Sidekick or HTC's. Still, it gets the job done very well and should be more than enough once you get used to it.

Sliding Keypad: The keypad is one of the most high-profile differences in the Ocean. I read about its special triangle spring that pulls both the backlit QWERTY and the keypad open and closed with the quality "thunk" of a BMW car door. I don't know if I need the dialpad if I have the QWERTY. Dialing is annoying on a keypad (see the Hiptop, and the cramped top row of the Ocean's keyboard) but 95% of the time, I'm using a speed dial. If they could make the phone slimmer, and lose the middle layer, I'd go for it. But Chen disagrees. All in all, the QWERTY is pretty damn nice.

Battery Life: With all the additions present in the Ocean, one item we wish had been improved was the battery life. It's an issue with the older Helio devices as well, with all the UI flashiness, the 3G, and various other apps running, you'll be lucky to have the phone last a day on heavy use. Not to mention if you do a lot of calling and media playback.

Speakers: Scientifically tested with "My Humps," I would declare the speakers to be of fair volume and clarity.

GPS/Buddy Beacon/Google Maps: These are fantastic features carried over from the Drift, which is also GPS enabled. However, Buddy Beacon doesn't work in landscape mode, and we wish they'd settle on having either Google Maps or Mapquest (buddy beacon) instead of two separate mapping suites. But being able to locate exactly where you or your buddies are is priceless.

The Idle Screen/Home Page: The home page shows the time, battery life, network status, and a few controls, but largely, it's wasted real estate. A good number of the Ocean's competitors, like most of the N-series phones, Windows Mobile phones, Palm devices, Hiptop, and soon the iPhone put deep function on page one, I expect Helio's custom designed phone to meet this level of UI. Right now, you can tweak it out with a world clock or falling icons, like kitties (very cool, seriously) or lightning bolts, video wallpapers, or different clocks. I'd like it if Sky and the Helions put surf/snowboard/weather reports on the opening page, if not a direct line to the main menu's functions. It's nitpicking, but I think Helio need to consider this stuff if they want to beat out the boring old business phones.

Media: The Ocean is a passable media phone with external controls (which don't actually activate the music)(UPDATE: long presses do the trick, and they are designed this way to avoid the phone playing "My Humps" in your pocket, which is unfortunate if you're into that kind of thing), and you can load 2GB of music onto it with the microSD card, but it won't be nearly as robust as the iPhone. Plus, the $1.99 tracks are kind of pricey, especially seeing what Sprint is doing with the Upstage and their $1 pricing. The streaming video quality isn't great either, but it's passable enough to make you still want to watch. As for multi-tasking, you can't listen when you're doing anything other than browsing.

Data Sync Support: The cool thing about Helio—you can switch between handset on the website. Some suggestions. Data Syncing and phone switching from the devices themselves, not a website accessed by a PC. The Sync thing is a problem. Right now, you can upload, by CSV to the Helio website, your address book. And you can do an over the air merge of your online address book with your phone. But what you can't do is sync your contacts between phones easily, nor can you sync with your PC except through manual importing. There is also the question of Mac support. Mac users and Helio users seem to be of the same demographic, so this seems critical, the way it's critical for Sling and TiVo. And yes, syncing is another problem with the industry, but if Helio wants to destroy the competition, that's just something they should keep in mind. Oh, there's no way to cal sync either. UPDATE: Hit the sync button in the contact menu and it does a two-way sync between phone and Helio's online data. Sweet! Let's get that in real time!

Browser: Helio's new browser makes HTML surfing easier in two ways: Zoom out to 50%, or by providing a window map of the entire page for easy scrolling. (Nokia has this.) I like the browser, but wish the zoom out went to about 30%, and was easier to access. The window'd map mode is great. It's active when you load a page, and turns off once you select a region to read on. Perfect. The network itself is slow to start but quick after. I suspect that the connection handshakes every time you click a link, because Sprint's network is blazing fast, as you've heard me say before. As I've said plenty of times, the first people to get YouTube on a mobile browser (flash support is key), on 3G, will be big winners in my book. Oh, clicking to RSS feeds brings you to Google's news reader. Cool.

Apps: Even though you get Buddy Beacon and Google Maps for free, Helio still charges you for various other things. For example, you have to rent the Accuweather weather app for $3.99 a month. Also, there's no blogging software that lets you blog to Wordpress or Movable type.

Games: The games that are available are decent for cellphone games, but most of them don't work in landscape mode so you'll be playing just like any other cellphone. The dpad orientates itself on the left when you flip it 180 degrees from the QWERTY perspective. Most games aren't landscape now, yes, but there's Lumines and others, and more will come.

Multi Phone Support: One great thing about Helio is that you can switch your number between various devices. We documented the number-sharing process, but in essence, you can have your Ocean when you feel like doing more messaging and emailing, but switch to the older and slimmer Heat or Drift if you just want a phone for taking calls. Just tick off a radio box online and you're all set. Much easier than swapping out SIMs.

Accessories: The Helio's headphones are of fair quality, plugging into the small mini jack, and equipped with the microphone. I like that its wrapped in cloth, and gray. The best accessory is the Metal and Suede Helio cellphone charm that serves as a screenwipe. Stylish. If you ask me, the first company to include several charms with their phones will do pretty well. People are superficial like that.

Calendar and Organization: The bad news is that you can't sync your calendar to your Mac or PC, even though exchange syncing may be coming soon. Nobody wants to maintain two different calendars with their schedules on it. There's also no task list, so if you wanted to use this phone as an organizer, it'd be kind of a stretch. You've also got apps like stopwatch, unit conversion, world time and wake up call, which acts like an alarm that regular people can use.

Our final recommendation would be: buy it, but only after you consider our caveats. If there's one or two features you really need, but aren't met but the Ocean, then you're better off somewhere else. Otherwise, this is a fantastic multimedia messaging phone with features that are hard to top.

Helio Ocean [Gizmodo]

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<![CDATA[How to Sync Your Contacts with the Ocean]]> The Helio Ocean is an emailing machine, allowing you to manage a whole slew of email accounts at once. Also, Helio, unsurprisingly, would love it if you stocked up on their phones. You know, if you grabbed an Ocean for going to work and a Heat for going out at night. But what about loading your contacts up on it? Won't that take forever by hand? And what about keeping your contact info synced up between multiple devices? You don't want to have to re-enter every new number you get, do you?

Well, luckily for you, Mr. Moneybags, they make it super easy to upload your contacts from a mail program as well as get your contacts synced up between phones.

The whole system is based around your Helio Mail account, which is a free email account you get with your phone. You sign up at the Helio website, and it basically acts as a go-between for your phones. First, I'll show you how to upload a CSV file of your contacts, which is how you export them from Outlook or whatever other mail program you're using.

Sign up by going to the "My Account" section of the Helio site and clicking the Personalize Email option on the left-hand side.
sync1-1.jpgCreate an account and sign in, giving you your mailbox. Pretty straightforward stuff. Go to your preferences.
sync2-1.jpgNow go to Import Address Book. Upload the CSV file you exported from your mail program here. It ain't brain surgery, people. I'm going to skip the next steps of uploading, as they're self explanatory. Now your contacts are on your Helio Mail account.

Now, to get those contacts down to your phone, sign into your Helio Mail account.
sync3.jpgThen, in your Contacts menu, select Synchronize. Bam! You just downloaded all your contact info.
sync4.jpgBut wait! What if you want to get your contacts off your old phone? Simple. Just sign into your Helio Mail account on your old Helio phone, do the same syncing thing, and it'll upload your contacts to your mail account. Sync the new phone up, and voila, synced contacts.

So if you want to use two phones, just sync one whenever you're done with it before swapping over to the other (as we showed you how to do yesterday). The whole thing is super easy, especially once you get everything set up the first time, making having multiple phones for multiple uses a reasonable proposition. Well, as long as you don't consider the cost of such a venture, in which case it's pretty unreasonable. But still, it's possible, so that's something.

Helio Ocean [Gizmodo]

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<![CDATA[The Helio Ocean's Hardware Design Secrets]]> Along with the external hardware you'll see in the shots below, the Helio's triple decker mechanism has a special triangle-shaped spring that operates both the keypad and QWERTY. So interesting that MIT's Tech Review put the phone on its May/June cover, along with a well-written and romantic feature, Soul of a New Machine, penned by David Talbot.

...the dual-slide format brought on another problem: no one wanted a device that was too thick. A number pad and a QWERTY keyboard would normally require two sets of springs and hinges—one for each slider. This would tend to fatten the gadget. What's more, Helio wanted the sliders to be rugged and to have a firm "feel," like the luxu­rious thwunk of a BMW's door. "We need to avoid those indeterminate states, when it can slide halfway out, and it is neither fish nor fowl," Duarte says. The Ocean needed a very special kind of mechanism: a single spring that could not only control hinging action from two directions but impart that hum-to-yourself satisfaction to the keyboard-sliding experience.

More on their solution, the triangle spring, and the undocumented third orientation of the phone meant for gaming:

...Helio had hired Pantech of Seoul, South Korea, to build the phone, but it also hired a small engineering company, Teus of Suwon, South Korea, specifically to solve the hinge problem. Teus's people came up with something new in the realm of mobile communications: an ingenious triangle-shaped spring that governs the opening and closing of both of the Ocean's sliders. The triangle simply gets pushed on different sides, depending on which slider is being used. Using one of the sliders feels like pushing something over a little incline and then dropping it firmly down into a locked position. With the design of the spring, Helio was on its way to a device that worked well as both a phone and a messaging device—­without being too fat.

The feature also reveals something I had no idea about: When the phone is flipped 180 degrees from QWERTY mode, the navigation cross becomes a gaming D-pad. Ingeniously designed and ingeniously reported and written about by Talbot:


Connecting to one's friends was the organizing principle.
But while the hinge spring made the dual-slide concept feasible, the dual-slide concept brought on the d-pad problem. "D-pad" means direction pad: four arrow keys with a center button. For messaging and Web surfing, the d-pad should be to the right of the screen. This is because most people use their right thumb to navigate. But in gaming, the right thumb has a more important job: It must keep up a rapid staccato on a firing button. So for game consoles, the d-pad needs to be on the left. Another Korean engineer at Helios, gaming-product manager Leo Jun, insisted that if the Ocean was really going to be the best of everything, there could be no compromise on the d-pad. The device had to have a left-side pad for gaming—whether or not it also had a right-side pad for messaging. It was another "conflict of requirements."

Jun's solution: give the device not two orientations but three. The first orientation, of course, is vertical—for the phone. The second, with the QWERTY keyboard open, is horizontal; in this configuration, the d-pad is on the right, for scrolling through messages. The Ocean's software changes the orientation of the displayed material depending on which slider is pulled out. But Jun asked game manufacturers to give Helio versions of their software that essentially played upside down. Flip the device 180 degrees, keeping both sliders closed, and the game is now playing right-side up—with the d‑pad on the left. "That was a nice move on his part, so it doesn't undermine the gaming experience," says Duarte.

Here's a quote from Sky Dayton, which explain's Chen's Annoying habit of flipping the Helio phones we used at CTIA together over and over again:

"If you go talk to the CEO or COO of one of the major carriers, I doubt you will hear much about the color of icons, the feel of the soft-touch paint. I can wax poetic about the spring-loaded action [of the sliders]." And he does: "We really thought about the movement and the sound it makes when it opens, the sound it makes when it closes. You see a mannerism when people open and close their Ocean. It's like humming to yourself."

Part I: Soul of a New Mobile Machine [MIT Tech Review]
Homepage [Helio]
Helio Ocean [Gizmodo]

Ocean Specifications Form Factor - Dual Slider - alphanumeric keypad + full QWERTY keyboard Color - Black Dimensions - 4.33" x 2.20" x .86" Weight - 5.61 oz Display - 2.4 inch QVGA display, 240 x 320, 260K colors 3G Speed - EV-DO network support for fast multimedia downloads Talk Time - Up to 5.1 hours Memory - 200MB internal memory expandable via microSD™ with USB Mass Storage Mode Camera - 2.0 Megapixel, digital zoom, built-in flash Video Camera - MPEG-4 video recording Audio - Stereo Bluetooth® wireless technology Personal Entertainment Center - Supports: MP3, AAC, WMA, MPEG-4, H.264, VOD, MOD Additional Features - POP/IMAP Email Support Supports Helio Music GPS-enabled services and applications Photo caller ID,

Ocean Comes With
Battery + Charger
Stereo Headset
USB Cable
2.5 to 3.5mm Headset Adapter

Accessorize in Our Store
Car Charger
Carrying Case
Bluetooth® Stereo headset
Bluetooth® headset

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<![CDATA[Helio Ocean UI Walkthrough Part 2 and 3]]> Since we couldn't get part 2 of our video walk-through up in time last night, we're giving you a bonus video as well! This time we go through much of the UI elements and answer questions you posted in the comments last night.

Hit the jump for part 3 (and if the video is too small for part 2, there's a larger one after the jump as well).

Update: Made the videos non-private. Oops, I'm a dumbass.

Part 2:

Part 3:

Homepage [Helio]
Helio Ocean [Gizmodo]

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