What is Helio?

Helio is a joint venture between SK Telecom in Korea and EarthLink. Headed by Sky Dayton, the founder of EarthLink, Helio is what is called an MVNO, or mobile virtual network operator. Now owned by Virgin Mobile.

Also of interest:

• Helio's Ocean of Fans Blogroll
• Helio's Ocean of Fans FanListing
• Wallpapers (screens) for the Helio Ocean
• Ringtones for the Helio Ocean
• How To: Video for the Helio Ocean
• Heliocity forums - resources, tips and other goodies for Helio products
• Heliocity Tutorial: How to upload MMF, Mp3, or MIDI Ringtones to Your Ocean

Currently browsing: Helio

Goodbye, Helio

As of 3pm today, Jim and I are no longer Helio members. (yes, I know they are now Virgin Mobile, but apparently accounts are still separated in their system and for all intents and purposes, it’s still “Helio”) Wow, I can’t believe that two years have already passed!

My Ocean has been a really good device, but I can honestly say that now I’m glad that we upgraded. It was time to move forward and sadly, the Ocean 2 (or “O2″) isn’t near as nice as Apple’s iPhone aesthetically- (nor functionally-) speaking. So far, the AT&T service has been really good. Hopefully it’ll stay that way. (although I really DO wish they get their collective asses in gear on this MMS crap!)

So AT&T is not the devil?

Speaking specifically about their wireless service, I’ve got to admit that AT&T has made it a lot easier for me to do business with them. They’ve cleaned up the online billing process and I love their iPhone app — it’s great for paying on the spot, changing account info, checking usage stats, etc. They’ve even implemented a CSR chat function on their website. It has been great for letting me get small tasks taken care of without having to stay tied up on the phone. (which also allows me to work on other things at work while chatting with the CSR!)

I still won’t go back to them for internet or residential services, but hey I’m happy with the wireless service overall.

What about the extras?

Someone recently asked me what was to become of the fanlisting, blogroll, or other Helio-related goodies here. I think for now I’ll let them sit. If an interested party wants to take something over, I’ll gladly hand it off — or maybe I’ll kill ‘em all in a mad cleaning spree 6 months from now. You never know …

I like Safari, but …

For a while, I’ve been following the progress of Mozilla’s mobile browser project, codenamed Fennec. As the Mozilla team’s efforts push the project forward, I can’t help but hope that one day soon it will be available on the iPhone. Of course, this will mean that Apple will have to actually APPROVE the app for inclusion in the App Store.

As of this post, Apple has yet to approve any major 3rd party web browser application for the iPhone (meaning not based on Safari). That’s one of the few things where Helio had them beat. When the Opera “mini” browser was released, Helio embraced it. And how could they not? Let’s face it, the Helio native browser was sluggish and seriously lacking in many features where as Opera was sleek, fast, and surely had it beat. Heck, you could even manage your bookmarks online from the Opera website and easily synchronize with the browser on your device.

I would LOVE to see that kind of capability on my iPhone!

I had hoped that by now, Fennec would be far enough along that Helio users could use it. But since Jim and I have jumped aboard the Apple ship, my hopes are now that Fennec could one day soon be made available for iPhone users.

Please, Apple? Please???

Don’t get me wrong, I like Safari … but I’m a Mozilla fangirl through and through!

I’m sorry, I drank the Kool-Aid

After a long round of BS with Helio Virgin Mobile, today Jim and I took the plunge and drank the Apple Kool-Aid — we dumped Helio Virgin Mobile and got iPhones.

I won’t post the details, but I will say that I am no longer a Helio fangirl … today was the proverbial last straw. Our Helio Virgin Mobile contract is up in June, and I will most definitely NOT be renewing it. And to add insult to injury, the Ocean 2 is a huge disappointment. For the same amount of money, we could get nicer devices — and so that’s exactly what we are doing!

OK now, you iPhone pros out there … got any tips, advice, etc. for an iPhone newbie?

Some room to breathe …

Ever have one of those really good productive days at work? One where when you get done accomplishing things you just feel like you can breathe again? I’ve had one today. I spent a good bit of the afternoon clearing out my major email accounts and am pleased to say that I got quite a lot done. Jess is over at her mother’s tonight. Jim came home from work early and has been in bed most of the afternoon (most likely he’s finally coming down with that awful crud that Jess and I have both already had), so the house is nice and quiet.

Tonight I treated myself to a very fantabulous meal from Hamburger Heaven and am currently downloading 6 months’ worth of photos from my Helio Ocean to my laptop. I’ve finally had time to sit down and go through a new cookbook I had bought on Black Friday. I’ve made a laundry list of items I’d need for various recipes that caught my eye — from Chicken Tortilla Soup, to Easy Cajun Stew, to 30-minute Paella, to Spanish Skillet Supper, to Catalonian Stew, …

Yum, yum!

I’ve also started clearing out my desk. I found myself tossing out old notes, papers, and various promotional brochures — everything from Victorinox Swiss Army watches to vacation places …

Gah, I collect a lot of crap!

I’m toying around with the thought of upgrading this blog to WordPress 2.7 RC1, but I think I’ll hold off as I have not yet updated this theme to handle all the new features. I’ve also started on and have almost finished my Christmas card mailing list, and am scanning the Soldiers’ Angels forums to see if there are any new card or letter requests.

Something I had meant to post a couple weeks back — my soldiers’ Christmas packages. Jess, Jim, and I had a lot of fun playing “Santa” and filling up a stocking for each soldier. Each stocking was filled with all kinds of Christmas cookies and candies, different types of trail mixes, a CD of Christmas songs, a wool scarf, various little toys, a novelty tie, and a handful of other things …

I so wish I could see their faces when their packages arrive over there!

I hope everyone’s having a good week. I think I’m going to take off for now and curl up next to the snoring snuffle monster (Jim, LOL!) to catch up on some DVDs.

Ja, mata ne!

Directions help, you know?

It dawned on me earlier today that I never paired my Bluetooth headset with my Helio Ocean when it was replaced a couple months ago. So I brought it inside the office and happily sat down at my desk and set about turning it on and enabling the Bluetooth on my cell. I turned on “Exploratory mode” and tried the “Find my device” several times and it could not find my headset. I turned the headset off and on several times and kept trying the “Find my device” with no luck. I checked the Ocean manual and saw no reason why it couldn’t find my headset.

*proceed to pound head on desk until vision blurs*

About a half hour later, out of sheer frustration, I downloaded the manual to the headset. Apparently it has a “pairing mode” and once I had enabled this, the Ocean found it with no trouble at all.

This reminds me of why I usually read the directions first!

You say Goodbye, I say Hello

I’ve recently (and finally) abandoned a service I’d become very fond of … HelloTxt. The guys who run it have been great, always welcomed feedback, and were helpful when bugs were reported, but it did not have availability of posting to other services of which I’m a member, and to use their SMS gateway, I would’ve had to incur some international charges.

The final straw was when I discovered that my tweets from NOLA were never posted. Even worse, when I tried using their mobile site from my cell last weekend, Opera Mini would hang or crash, and at one point I received an error message. Put simply: I’d had enough.

Chrispian at Mobility Hacks (formerly Twitter Hacks) recommended Ping.fm to me. I had checked out this service before, but didn’t sign up (no beta key). Having been hooked up with a fresh beta key and several recommendations of their service, I registered at Ping and “tested their tools” … everything came through quickly.

So far, so good … I’m really pleased with them!

If’n any of you are interested in giving Ping.fm a try, here’s the latest beta code: pingadactyl

Enjoy!

Back in the Heart of Dixie

Well, things are slowly returning back to “normal” … I was greeted this morning with 600+ emails in my work Inbox, 100+ in my personal, and ~3000 feed entries waiting to be read.

LOL! Miss me much did they?

I see that WordPress has released 2.6 finally. The blogosphere is all a-buzz with the news. Suggested reading: Doug Campbell, Keith Dsouza, and Ryan Boren. So now I’ll have to update all my blogs, themes, and plugins.

Yay … I’ll get around to it (hopefully!) this week …

We had a great time in NOLA. The drive down and back was pretty pleasant. We took the “scenic route” passing through Montgomery, stopping by Jim’s mom’s both ways (she kept Jessie for us). I was reminded why I love living in Alabama. I remember thinking to myself, “My God, we live in a beautiful state!”

We stopped briefly in Waveland, Mississippi, and in upper Louisiana. It’s been nearly 10 years since I’ve been down there … everything I remember is gone. Katrina and Rita really kicked the collective asses of coastal cities in lower AL, MS, and LA.

Otherwise the drive down to New Orleans was nice. We had great weather (outside of the heat and OPPRESSIVE humidity!) I took the time while in New Orleans to see some sights, have some great food, partake in local (and interesting) spirits, and just enjoy myself in general. The reunion was a lot of fun, and it was interesting to see the people Jim grew up with.

I was lucky enough to meet up and have lunch with two of my Cotillion sisters: Greta Perry and Conservative Belle. I would have liked to have spent more time with them, but the heat royally kicked my butt and Jim and I had so much planned, LOL!

Hopefully I’ll be making another trip down that way pretty soon!

We stopped by so many shops in the French Quarters that I loved! Many had beautiful clothing and jewelry that I could have easily gone “ga-ga” over. We stopped in one vampire shoppe that had many cute novelties and some interesting books covering local and Southern folklore. The shop owner had a BEAUTIFUL German Sheppard (the “head of security” LOL!) that was just as sweet as he could be!

I want another dog!

We also stopped by a local mall to pick up a few amenities that were forgotten in the hurried packing process. It was pretty much like what we have here back at home. I checked out one store that sold a lot of cell gear, drooled over some bluetooth cell phone headsets and considered getting another micro sd card for my Helio Ocean. (nah, will wait and get them cheaper online! LOL)

One thing that really sticks out in my memory is how “available” alcohol is down there. I kid you not, we walked into a Wal-mart and there was a HUGE section with every type of liquor and beer I could ever want! And you can’t walk 50 feet without coming across a daiquiri shop!

There’s so much more to tell, but we’ll leave it at this for now …

It’s good to be home!

Helio and Virgin Mobile to merge

There have been rumors about the pairing circling around the internet for the past couple of months. Heliocity had even commented on this, but the two companies had stayed mum denying the rumors — until last Friday.

I received an email from Helio announcing the upcoming merger. Heliocity covered the announcement. Virgin Mobile is acquiring Helio.

To be honest, I’m a bit conflicted about the whole thing. On one hand, VM could bring some very cool services to Helio customers. Their negotiations with Sprint may lower our rates. All of the Helio products will continue to be carried: all apps, games, and including “in process” and upcoming devices such as the Ocean 2 (a.k.a. OZ2). From what I can tell, nothing will change service-wise for quite some time, if at all.

On the other hand though, the Helio label will be no more. No more cool blue flame logo. And as silly as it may sound, that will mean no more Helio fanlisting, no more Helio blogroll, etc. No more Helio, no more anything that embodies being a Helion — and that saddens the Hell out of me.

Mobile links

One of the things I hadn’t thought of looking into backing up on my Helio Ocean was my bookmarks. Sure, I have my custom bookmarks for Opera Mini stored on their server, but the ones to my native Helio browser are gone. I had quite a few that I can’t seem to find at the moment. So, in the meantime, I thought I’d pop a few in a post so I can surf back here and recover them later.

Note: feel free to add your own via the Comments box below!

• 30 Boxes: http://m.30boxes.com/
• ABC News: http://wireless.go.com/wireless/abcnews/index
• CNN: http://m.cnn.com/
• eBay: http://wap2.bonfiremedia.com/
• ESPN: http://mobileapp.espn.go.com/wireless/espn/redesign/index
• Facebook: http://m.facebook.com/
• FedEx: https://www.fedex.com/mobi/
• Fox News: http://foxnews.mobi/
• Foxmarks: http://my.foxmarks.com/mobile/
• Google Mobile Apps: http://www.google.com/m/products?hl=en
• Google Search: (”soft” mobile gateway) http://google.com/gwt/n
• Helio Magazine: http://www.heliomag.com/mobile/
• Heliocity: (mobile downloads & more) https://downloads.heliocity.net/
• HelloTxt: http://m.hellotxt.com/
• Live Search: http://m.live.com/
• MapQuest: http://wap.mapquest.com/
• MSN: http://home.mobile.msn.com/en-us/default.aspx
• MySpace: http://mobile.myspace.com/
• National Weather Service: (set your location) http://cell.weather.gov/ and http://mobile.srh.weather.gov/
• Remember the Milk: http://m.rememberthemilk.com/
• The Washington Post: http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/
• The Weather Channel: (change location for yours!) http://weather.mobi/xhtml/cc/BHM
• USA Today: http://m.usatoday.com/
• Wunderground: (beware of ads!!!!) http://mobile.wunderground.com/
• Yahoo!: http://wap.oa.yahoo.com/
• YouTube: http://m.youtube.com/
• Animal Planet: http://m.animalplanet.com/

Also: you can view the mobile version of any Tumblr blog by adding /mobile to the end of the the URL.

Example: http://nitallica.tumblr.com/mobile

Sources: MyOpera, Heliocity & Heliocity Forums, Great Mobile Sites Directory

Cell goodie…

I’m already done downloading all my wallpapers, ringtones, video rings, and am now re-installing my apps (and discovering a few new ones, courtesy of Heliocity!).

One thing I’m missing is my Helio screen cleaner charm. My existing one has taken a beating and is pretty frayed and barely held together by a thread or two … so I went looking for a new one. Called Helio Sales, they don’t sell their charms separately. (dammit!)

I’ve looked in various shops off and on for the last 8-10 months, looking at charms (I knew then that I was soon to be needing a new one!). Never saw anything I liked. It was always too “girlie” (God, how I HATE PINK!), or the same junk over and over, and I never DID see any locally that doubled as screen cleaners. So tonight I decided to hit the web … struck out on eBay and Amazon, so I hit Google. Their Product Search didn’t do squat for me, but a curious hit on their web search caught my attention … “Strapya.”

It turns out it’s a Japanese shop of various device accessories, and had THE most unique selection I’ve ever seen. In fact, I found something I hadn’t seen anywhere else AND it doubled as a cleaner!

I can’t say ‘no’ to DBZ!

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