Meet the New Helio Ocean - Tech News - Playfuls.com - Science & Technology

Meet the New Helio Ocean -

location based services

Helio Ocean is the world’s first dual-slider combining a traditional numeric keypad and a separate full QWERTY keyboard in a single device. Designed to be the ultimate social networking tool, Ocean merges Instant Messages, text messages, picture messages and emails from all the major portals, ISPs and even corporate Exchange servers, in one location. A 3G media and content powerhouse, Ocean also delivers full over-the-air music downloads, video-on-demand, a high-resolution camera, an HTML browser, MySpace on Helio, GPS-enabled Google Maps for mobile, Buddy Beacon and much more.
Voice, messaging, search, entertainment and the speed of 3G – Ocean has it covered, by design. Easy on the eyes with a flowing minimalist face and a soft-touch surface, the shape-shifting Ocean slides vertically to reveal a traditional alphanumeric keypad for comfortably making calls, sending quick texts or surfing the web, and horizontally to reveal a separate full QWERTY keyboard suitable for the heaviest of emails or texts, web searches and full screen landscape viewing of crisp images and video. Ocean answers the question of full keyboard for messaging speed or traditional keypad for voice without the compromise of a QWERTY keyboard on your cheek – now you don’t have to choose.
Ocean sports a huge, 2.4-inch, 260K color high-resolution QVGA display viewable in both portrait or landscape modes, external stereo speakers, a 2.0 megapixel camera with digital zoom and flash for photos and over two hours of continuous video recording, Bluetooth for wireless voice and stereo Bluetooth for untethered music and videos, 200MB internal memory expandable via microSD to over 2GB, and USB Mass Storage Mode for drag-and-drop sideloading of content. Ocean supports an array of audio and video formats including MP3, AAC and WMA audio, and MPEG4 and H.264 video, all delivered over a nationwide high speed 3G network.
Ocean also carries a special chip designed to optimize music playback for an estimated 15 hours of continuous audio, has blazing fast sync speeds and support for both subscription and individually purchased music. Ocean even allows users to browse the Web or their music library without interrupting music playback. Whether listening to tracks downloaded over-the-air from Helio Music, playing 3D or multiplayer games, taking pictures on the go and posting them to MySpace, or utilizing built-in GPS technology for Google Maps for mobile or Buddy Beacon, Ocean keeps Helio members in touch with their friends better than ever before.
Ocean combines email, text messages, picture messages and Instant Messages in a single messaging hub that’s just one touch away. Ocean’s integrated messaging dashboard includes out-of-the-box access to Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, MSN Hotmail, Gmail, Helio Mail, and EarthLink email, as well as the ability to add additional IMAP/POP3 email accounts. Want instant gratification? Ocean incorporates Instant Message access through Yahoo! Messenger, AOL’s AIM Service and Windows Live Messenger all in this single messaging paradise. Ocean will also support push mail from Yahoo! and other providers, as well as Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, combining business with pleasure as Ocean wirelessly synchronizes Microsoft Office Outlook email, calendar and contacts from a corporate Exchange Server.
Integrated messaging means users don’t have to choose between text messages or picture messages. Ocean does all the work through one interface, automatically sending an SMS for text messages or an MMS when a picture or video is attached, so staying in touch and sharing life as it happens is quicker and easier than before.
Ocean’s breakthrough Contact list syncs with Yahoo!, AOL and Helio Mail address books and even incorporates live “presence detection” so users can instantly see which IM service their friends are logged into. Just start typing a name from Ocean’s idle screen and the Helio Smart Dialer searches the address book and pulls up full contact information, complete with icons to show if a person is logged in to Yahoo! Messenger, AIM or Windows Live Messenger. Getting in touch with friends has never been easier.
Searching the Web on a “phone” is a multi-step process. With Ocean, there’s no need to open a search box. Just begin typing on the roomy QWERTY keyboard from the idle screen and the device automatically switches into search mode. Ocean has a built-in HTML browser, so users can visit WAP sites or surf any Web site on the Internet. Ocean’s Web browser also lets users view and save Web images to their device and offers features like “mini map” and “page optimize” so navigation is easier than before.
Ocean’s 2.0 megapixel camera will take advantage of Helio UP, which lets users take a picture with their device, tag it with metadata including a title, description, keywords and location information and upload it directly to Helio Album, Helio’s photo service. Helio UP is GPS-enabled, giving users the option of attaching their GPS coordinates to their photos.
The Ocean is planned for launch in Spring of ‘07 at a suggested retail price of $295.