Helio turns up the Heat
Helio, a cell phone service designed for young hipsters, introduced a new phone called the Heat on Thursday along with direct links on its WAP (wireless application protocol) menu to several popular Web sites.
The Heat, which is made for Helio by Samsung, is a slider phone with "electrostatic" touch-sensitive buttons much like the ones on the LG Chocolate. My colleague, Nicole Lee, over at Crave, said that the Heat isn't much different from the Drift, another slider phone in the Helio product lineup. She was also a little disappointed that the phone's camera comes with only 1.3 megapixels of resolution while Helio's original handsets, the Hero and Kickflip, each sport a 2.0-megapixel camera.
But the new phone is just one part of Helio's announcement. The mobile operator also announced it has added several new applications to its WAP menu, including Boing Boing, Digg, Metroblogging and Wikipedia.
The company claims to be the first mobile operator to offer direct links to these Web sites, which have been optimized for mobile users. The links make it much easier for subscribers to get to these mobile Web sites, giving them access in only a couple of clicks.
Boing Boing and Metroblogging are currently available on the Helio WAP deck, and Digg and Wikipedia should be available to Helio members this month.The Heat is available on Helio's Web site starting this month for $175. Access to Boing Boing, Metroblogging, Digg and Wikipedia, comes at no additional charge as part of Helio's monthly service subscription.
Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies. E-mail Maggie.
