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Helio to launch EV-DO / WiFi card with Boingo
Word on the street has Helio launching its first data product as soon as tomorrow, which appears from this leaked kiosk mockup to be a Sierra Wireless AirCard 580. That would normally seem plausible enough -- assuming we can forget that the 580 is merely a Rev 0 device -- except for one critical detail: our sources tell us Helio's launch will combine EV-DO data with service through Boingo's network of WiFi hotspots. That leads us to believe that the 580 in the mockup is simply a placeholder for a different, hybrid card, or Helio's going to be assuming that its users are capable of bringing their own WiFi radio -- probably a safe assumption considering the percentage of notebooks that ship with integrated 802.11 these days. The partnership with Boingo makes a lot of sense, seeing how Helio's CEO is Boingo's founder and chairman, but given the ever-increasing ubiquity of EV-DO coverage (particularly anywhere Boingo would have a hotspot), we'll be curious to see Helio's marketing angle on this one.[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
Helio to open flagship store in Santa Monica
Phone-oriented flagship retail locations seem to be all the rage these days, but who would've thought MVNOs would be getting into the action? MySpace-friendly Helio looks to gain some additional visibility when it opens its first of five dedicated stores in Santa Monica this October. If the renderings hold true, we have to admit the place looks pretty nifty -- just add some hot new devices to match the decor and Helio may have a winner on their hands. Additional facilities will be opening in New York, Denver, San Diego, and Palo Alto through late '06 and early '07. Any love for the midwest, guys?
MySpace members entitled to contract-free Helio
You have to give these guys a lot of credit for trying some unusual angles in an effort to gain footing. Appealing directly to its MySpace demographic, Helio is now offering to waive the nearly universal concept of a 2-year contract for new subscribers. Not bad; to MySpace members that take their social networking seriously, Helio probably seemed like a pretty hot concept already, and we can guess that this should be enough to push over a handful of those folks sitting on the fence.[Thanks, Rom]
Bankrupt VK Mobile: down but not out
Would-be Kickflip owners, Helio employees, rejoice: VK's back in the ring for another round. After a July 7 scare that had the Korean manufacturer facing liquidation, a bankruptcy court has ruled that they can conveniently forget their debts and obligations, freeing up cash for things like -- oh, you know -- manufacturing of phones. It'll apparently take the court a couple months yet to decide exactly if and how VK will be allowed to continue its turnaround, a decision that will be based largely on how the defunct company fares in the interim. If they agree to cut it out with the SLVR knockoffs, we're all for a complete recovery.
New Helio hardware in the pipeline from Samsung?
Your interpretation of the Google translation is just as valid as ours, but we're getting that Samsung has entered an agreement with SK Telecom (one of Helio's parents, the other being Earthlink) to provide at least one handset to the MVNO's stable in the October timeframe. No real deets on the device itself, though this pictured Z400 "phone of champions" may be the culprit. Anything is an upgrade from the Hero, although the Z400 lacks the Kickflip's style; at any rate, if Helio wants to save itself, we're hoping Bluetooth finds its way into the mix this time around.[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
Helio: another MVNO in trouble?
It looks like Amp'd and ESPN Mobile aren't the only MVNOs discovering that their business models may not be getting them where they want to be. An unconfirmed report out of Telecoms Korea is brewing that Helio -- chic Kickflip and all -- has managed to sign up 100 (yes, that's one hundred) subscribers since launching a couple months back. SK Telecom, which teamed up with Earthlink to form Helio, is denying the reports and insisting the true number is in the thousands, but either way they've fallen well short of projections. It looks like we now have an explanation for Helio's shockingly generous gadget trade-in program. SKT also looks to shore up Helio's lineup with as many as five new models by year end, but we have to wonder -- if 100 subs is an accurate count, is there any hope for a turnaround?UPDATE: We just got an official response from Helio about this: "This morning's report by Telecoms Korea is wholly inaccurate and does not represent Helio's membership figures." They wouldn't tell us any more than that, but they're adamant that the figures reported aren't correct.
Helio letting new subs trade in old gadgets
In one of the more innovative promotions we've seen lately, MVNO Helio has begun offering recent subscribers up to 30-days to send in their old gadgets in return for not a service credit, but cold, hard cash (in the form of a check mailed two to three months later). The so-called Trade-Up program, developed in conjunction with Market Velocity, lets new subs sign up online and get the trade-in value for some of the more popular cellphones, PDAs, digital cameras, and gaming consoles from yesterday and today -- although since the quotes are based on your own unprofessional evaluation of your gear's condition, the actual amount of loot you receive may vastly differ from what you were expecting. The prices Helio is willing to pay range from 10 to 20 bucks for older devices in disrepair to several hundred dollars for meticulously cared-for smartphones and high-end digital cameras -- they'll even give you $26 if you've somehow managed to keep your first-gen Gameboy maintained for all these years. The only real losers in this program are the proud few who've chosen to say "iDon't," because Helio will happily take your old iPod off your hands, but want nothing to do with players from SanDisk, Creative, and friends.
Helio review roundup
We've managed to stop opening and closing our Kickflip just long enough to put together a compilation of Helio reviews for you to sift through. Helio is looking to outfit beautiful people with beautiful phones -- or, at least, one beautiful phone and one atrocious phone -- and they appear to be off to a strong start if their freshman effort is any indication. The Kickflip and its homely step-sister, the Hero, are not the most feature-rich phones on the market, but Helio is bringing an interesting hodgepodge of extras to the table to appeal to a certain demographic, as MVNOs tend to do. Tight MySpace integration on Helio's network should give you a good idea of who they're shooting for. Without further ado, here's a list of reviews to get you started -- please contribute more in the comments as you find them. Read - Kickflip, PC MagazineRead - Hero, PC Magazine Read - Hero, hel.io Read - Kickflip, Phone Scoop
Helio LA launch party celebriful
We totally missed Helio's big coming out party in LA this weekend at the Park Hyatt, but as we understand it was attended by none other than Tom Cruise (who carries a Hero) and ladyfriend Katie Holmes; apparently Helio's also making sure Steven Spielberg and, um, female Korean golfers like Pearl Siin have handsets with which to be seen around town. The Korean LPGA stuff is no coincidence though, Helio's using its half-Korean connections with SK Telecom to offer Korean Americans limited free calls to Korea, ringback tones, and games until June 30th. Perhaps more interesting still is according to Hankook Daily, T-Mobile -- who apparently currently carry about 35 percent of Korean Americans -- is supposedly pressuring shops to not vend Helio devices and service by pain of losing their T-Mo dealer license. We don't know if they'd so brashly engage in anything so anti-competitive, but SK, Helio, ET, the LGPA, and agent Hunt have their eyes on you, T-Mobile.[Via Telecoms Korea]Update: Helio called us on our Batphone Kickflip to let us know that the party was actually an SK Telecom event for the launch of Helio powered by SK Telecom, their Helio sub-brand targeting Korean Americans (ahh, it all makes sense). While Tom Cruise doesn't look Korean to us, we'll let it slide; we wouldn't kick him out of our party, either. Ok, well, maybe we would if he started doing that Risky Business shtick or something.
The Pipeline: Pundits pick on the UMPC
Welcome back to The Pipeline, a weekly feature where we dig through the mainstream media and see what the pundits, prognosticators and and pencil pushers have been discussing over the past week.Last week, the media piled on the Nintendo Wii, more or less agreeing that the name left just a little something to be desired. This week's target: Samsung's Q1 UMPC, which went on sale today. As much as we'd like to say somebody actually liked the Q1, the mini-tablet was panned across-the-board, from The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, who called it "so deeply flawed in key respects that it amounts to little more than a toy for techies," to BusinessWeek's Steve Wildstrom, who commented that "buyers would do better to step up to an ultralight laptop or down to a PlayStation Portable or a handheld media player." Elsewhere in the media, WNYC radio's Leonard Lopate sat down with Giles Slade, author of "Made to Break," to trace the history of product obsolescence from Henry Ford to Steve Jobs (what, you thought it was an accident that your iPod dies just as a hot new model hits the stores?). Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times checked out the "Into the Pixel" exhibit of video game art, while that city's LA Daily News, checked out the celebs at the star-studded Helio launch, including Milla Jovovich and Chloe Sevigny. We assume the glitterati showed up largely for a chance to get a free Kickflip, though we suspect most of them could afford the phone, even at its $250 price tag. The New York Times: A big question unanswered by a tiny PCThe Wall Street Journal: Two tech leaders aim for bold new portable, but miss the markThe Washington Post: Turning a miniature into a lightweightAP - Tiny PC carries a small load of annoyancesBusinessWeek - An itsy bitsy problemWNYC - Made to breakLos Angeles Times - The fine art of the video gameForbes - Helio heats up handheld lifestyleLos Angeles Daily News - Hello, Helio
Hands on with Helio's Kickflip at Engadget Mobile
Our partner in crime gadgetry, Engadget Mobile, just got Helio's Kickflip in the mail and managed to pull themselves away from playing with the hot swivel action for long enough to put up some impressions, pics, and a video. Get it while it's fresh.
Hands-on with Helio's Kickflip
Well, Helio sent us our Kickflip in the mail today, and we can't really stop playing with it. The EV-DO is the usual walled garden media business; H.O.T. isn't bad, but won't let you add feeds; generally the apps work well and are easy on the eyes, even if they aren't always incredibly flexible. We'll go more into the software later (anything you want to know?) though, it's the hardware where the Kickflip really shines. We freaking can't stop flipping the thing open. It's like tactile crack, and we have to put it away under some papers to free our hands and get any work done, instead of engaging in the idle addictive sensation of nudging the screen and flipping it open, then closing it again with that little click. Not that it'll do it justice, but if you want to peep a video of the Kickflip's opening mechanism in action, check out the link below. Otherwise click on for a bunch of hands on pics of the device.Watch [19.5MB Quicktime]
Helio's media services
That MySpace and Yahoo integration wasn't the only thing Helio rolled out for their user media services today; in addition to the leaned MySpace interface and customized Yahoo services portal, Helio users with the All-In Membership will get a slew of other things to keep them occupied when constantly fidgeting with the Kickflip's hinge. There's Helio On Top (H.O.T.) access, which is a simple 10-channel news and info aggregation feature, MMS picture and video messages, which can be sent up to 1MB per; free streaming video from major networks like MTV, Comedy Central, ABC, etc., $2.49 music video downloads (uh, what?), and of course those purchased, "gifted," or "begged" games, which are going for $5.99 to buy, or $0.99 to "rent" on your phone for a week. (The gifting and begging thing isn't only limited to games though, and can be applied to any purchasable content as well.) Not a whole lot in there that we're super interested in, ourselves; but you know us, we're more the Bluetooth DUN, A2DP, SlingPlayer, data overload types more prone to exploring mobile media on our own than holding a carrier's (or MVNO's) hand.
Helio launches
Alright kids, it's the moment we've all been waiting for (and by we, we mean the MVNO nerds). SK Telecom's and Earthlink's joint-venture Helio is officially lighting up today with their first two devices -- the Hero and Kickflip. We're all pretty well briefed to date on the capabilities and general offerings the service was supposed to have, so let's get to the plans and pricing, of which there are two types: the All-In Membership, which includes unlimited data, video, MMS, texting, nights and weekends, roaming, and long distance with the plan; and the A La Carte plan which is as the name implies. The All-In buys you 1,000 anytime minutes for $85, 1,500 for $100, or 2,500 minutes for $135 (which we think is a pretty good value, considering what some are charging for that many minutes and unlimited phone data); the A La Carte gets you a 500 minute $40 monthly plan straight up. Oh, and the devices now have prices, too: the Hero will set you back $275, and the Kickflip will ding you for $250. We have a sneaking feeling we know which will outsell the other. So if you're not ready to wait until the end of the month for their retail rollout to switch carriers (or join Helio as your first), fortunately you can just order direct and cut the middle man.
Helio announces game service deets
With our personal favorite MVNO Helio's launch just around the corner, we're getting some details as to what exactly they have in store for us beyond those hip-cool Korean handsets. In the gaming arena it turns out they're sticking with their general operating style and borrowing from their partner SK Telecom to bring Korean mobile gaming tech to the US. Their library of 2D and 3D multiplayer games -- including titles such as Tetris, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire -- are said to take full advantage of the Hero and Kickflip's processing power and 3G data speeds. Before you buy a game you can get info and screens from IGN reviews with your phone, and can either purchase the game straight up, "beg" it off a friend, "gift" it to a pal, or rent the title. Doesn't sound too groundbreaking, but there does seem to be an emphasis on community, so we look forward to seeing how it plays out.[Via MocoNews]
The Engadget Interview: Sky Dayton, Helio CEO
Ok, so CTIA, the big wireless industry trade show that Ryan and I went to earlier this month, didn't exactly knock our socks off, but we were lucky enough to sit down with Sky Dayton, the serial entrepreneur behind EarthLink and Boingo. Dayton's latest venture is Helio, a youth-oriented (yeah, we know...) MVNO that's all set to launch this spring. Thanks so much for taking some time to speak with us; I'm sure it's been a busy week for you here at CTIA. Could you tell us about Helio? I know you're getting ready to launch soon. Helio is a new mobile brand designed for young, passionate consumers that have really been missing out on cool stuff; not just in terms of technology, but in terms of services -- some of which are available elsewhere in other countries like Korea, and some of which we’re just inventing and that are totally new. We don’t have the word “wireless” or “mobile” in our name -- it’s just Helio. That's because for young, passionate consumers today, it’s just as much about fashion and lifestyle as it is technology, and saying the word "wireless" is a little bit redundant. Of course it’s wireless. We never had a concept that there was a wire. What we’re doing is starting with a technological lead with a platform from Korea, from SK Telecom, probably the most advanced wireless market in the world and bringing a basis of innovation here. Then we’re taking that and creating some interesting stuff with that.
Helio teams up with Yahoo! for mobile services
In a new partnership announced today, Yahoo is going to be launching a slew of services for Helio customers including search, mail, IM, news, sports and more. This is supposed to be one of the most extensive mobile offerings of Yahoo! services, and Helio seems to think it lines up well with that snazzy target demographic of theirs. Some of the more interesting integration includes Yahoo search straight from your phone's home screen and the display of news feeds there as well. There's no word as to when the Yahoo services will launch, but we're guessing they'll be available when Helio itself launches this spring.
HDBeat Review: Helios HVD2085
DVD up-scalers are all the rage these days. They cost all the way from $100 to more than your HDTV does. But what are they?DVD up-scalers take a standard 480i signal and can present it to the TV in a variety of resolutions. Generally you would want to give the HDTV its native resolution. i.e. most plasmas are 720p so that is what you should set the DVD player for. Most digital TVs can only display one resolution and have scalers built-in, but sometimes they are not that great. These DVD players are designed to help, or replace, those internal scalers which will theoreticaly make a better picture. Will they make the DVDs high-def: no; will your DVDs look better: most will. Neodigits was kind enough to send us their lastest up-scaling DVD player the HVD2085. This thing is loaded. Up-scaling all the way to 1080p via HDMI and component, 5.1 digital and analog outputs, VGA, and "Smart Play." (more info in the full review). Click on for the full review.
Apple prepping an iPhone handset for Helio?
By now we've become resigned to the fact that iPhone rumors will badger us for however many millennia it takes for Apple to release such a device. That being said, there's a new one making its rounds, claiming an iPhone is, of course, in the works, and this time it's headed for the Helio MVNO. We can thank the research and consulting firm Visiongain for this helpful morsel, who claim that Apple and Helio have been buddy buddy since Apple's work on the ROKR. Visiongain also points out that the iPod and Helio are both targeted at the same market segment, and that Helio is all about dissing the mainstream carriers which would normally squelch the capabilities of the type of phone most Apple fans assume the iPhone would be. They also claim that Apple would work with an existing handset maker in South Korea instead of making their own hardware from scratch, which has to make us wonder how this will foray will be any different than the infamous ROKR song cap incident of last year.
Wired profiles Sky Dayton and the birth of Helio
Ever wonder how an MVNO, especially one so hyped as Helio, gets started? Well, Wired's got a profile on the days of foundry at Helio, and its inception by EarthLink / Boingo founder Sky Dayton after taking an (awe-)inspiring trip to Korea where he discovered for himself all the insane multimedia phones we here at Engadget Mobile know and love. The idea? Create an MVNO that targets "trendsetters, gadget geeks, gotta-have-it-now guys with credit to burn," i.e., you, the Engadget Mobile reader. Yeah, we might sound a little gushy, but you have to give it up for Helio; after years of our sitting in our little corner complaining about the utter lack of decent phones in the states, it's they who're finally bringing hot Asian devices to the American market. And what's more, they seem like they understand what we want, 3G, features, and style, nothing less. Either way, if nothing else it's an interesting profile of Dayton and the beginnings of a new wireless company, if that's your kind of thing.
