Virgin Mobile Kills Off Helio, Drops Ocean 2

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I can remember back before the iPhone was the answer to all of our mobile phone needs. I really wanted a Helio, but in my local area there were no Helio offerings available. The company was later bought by Virgin Mobile, which appears to be ready to send the Helio name to the crusher.

Apparently, the Helio Ocean 2 that launched back in February has already been pulled from the Virgin Mobile website and the only Ocean available is the aging original device. Apparently, Korean fans can still get the Ocean 2 and other Helio phones like the Heat and Fin. Read more

Posted on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Google To Pay For WiFi On All Virgin Airlines Holiday Flights

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Holy hell, how's this for a Christmas present? If you ride on a Virgin America flight at any point in time between November 10th and January 15th, your trip will come with free WiFi. Well, free for you anyway. Google is footing the bill as a way of saying 'happy holidays!' and making everyone's winter trips a little more pleasant.

Posted on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:02:56 CDT | by Robert Evans

Virgin Mobile Gets LG Rumor 2

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Virgin Mobile USA has announced that it is now offering the LG Rumor 2 mobile phone to customers. The feature phone offers a 2-inch screen, 1.3MP camera, speakerphones, Bluetooth, and expandable memory with microSD cards.

The handset supports all the messaging features you expect with text, picture, MyPix, email, and IM. The device can access the Internet and can use social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and more. The handset is also GPS enabled and works with Google Maps. Read more

Posted on Tue, 6 Oct 2009 09:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Sprint Nextel to Buy Virgin Mobile USA

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Sprint Nextel has been busy with its most popular smartphone having hit stores last month called the Palm Pre. The company announced today that it is buying Virgin Mobile USA for a total equity value of $438 million.

The price includes the value of the 13.1% that Sprint already owns in the company. At closing Sprint says that it will retire all outstanding debt of Virgin Mobile USA, amounting to $248 million. The purchase will strengthen the pre-paid offerings of Sprint the company says. Read more

Posted on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:34:54 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Virgin Mobile Announces Helio Ocean 2

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Virgin Mobile has unveiled the latest Helio phone to come to the US called the Ocean 2. The handset is the first contract 3G phone to be added to the Virgin Mobile 2009 line. Virgin says that the Ocean 2 offers slimmer lines and a larger screen than the original.

The Ocean 2 can connect to popular messaging and social networking sites and will go on sale at Virgin mobile on February 12th for $149. The Ocean 2 is a Virgin Mobile exclusive handset. Features of the phone include a dual slider QWERTY keyboard and a 2.6-inch screen. Read more

Posted on Tue, 3 Feb 2009 09:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Virgin Mobile Introduces Pink Flare Handset

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If your wife or girl is like mine, she is more interested in a phone that looks cute than one that actually offers a good feature set and works well. With Valentine's Day coming up your girl might have her eye on a new phone.

Virgin Mobile has a new limited edition pink Flare from LG. Sales of the handset will help benefit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. The pink phone will be sold exclusively through Best Buy stores across the nation. Read more

Posted on Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Virgin America launches Gogo Inflight Internet

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Virgin American Airlines has announced that its Gogo inflight Internet service has launched. The service is provided by Aircell and is available for passengers on select flights. The launch of the Gogo service on select flights makes the start of Virgin's fleet wide rollout for Gogo service.

On November 22, the service was launched on the first week the service was complementary to passengers. The normal price for the service will be $12.95 for flights over three hours and $9.95 for flights under three hours. Read more

Posted on Wed, 3 Dec 2008 14:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Virgin America In-Flight Wi-Fi hands-on Test

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Gizmodo's Brian Lam did a hands-on test (photo rather indicates a hands-off test) of the In-Flight Wi-Fi internet service on a Virgin America plane.
The Virgin America Wi-Fi rollout is still in beta, but 2009 several airlines are supposed to offer Wi-fi in planes powered by GoGo.
The bandwith of the Wi-Fi internet service is shared, so if many people watch Youtube videos the download speed drops considerably. Wi-Fi service will not be free. Virgin will charge $9.95 for flights under 3 hours, and $12.95 on flights over 3 hours. Read more

Posted on Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:00:00 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Virgin Mobile USA Announces Shuttle Handset

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Virgin Mobile USA has announced its latest handset and its first device to use EV-DO connectivity. The handset is called the Shuttle and will be available on September 28th. The handset came to Virgin Mobile after its purchase of Helio.

The handset features Buddy Beacon, Where application, a 1.3-MP camera, 2-inch LCD, video capture, playback and messaging. The handset has an integrated media player with streaming and downloadable music and stereo Bluetooth. The handset will be available with monthly and pay as you go plans. The handset will retail for $79.99. Read more

Posted on Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:59:51 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Virgin Mobile Completes Helio Acquisition

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Pay-as-you-go cellular provider Virgin Mobile has announced that its acquisition of Helio has been completed. Virgin Mobile reports it has now obtained all approvals needed to complete the purchase of Helio.

Virgin Mobile says that shareholders of Helio -- SK Telecom and EarthLink -- will receive limited partnership units limited to 13 million shares of Virgin mobile Class A common stock valued at $38 million. Each of the firms will also invest $25 million in Virgin Mobile for preferred shares. Read more

Posted on Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:33:58 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Virgin Mobile Adds Kyocera TNT Flip Phone

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Virgin Mobile announced today that it is adding a new, cheap flip phone to its prepaid lineup from Kyocera called the TNT. With a name like TNT, you might expect a cool phone, but it's really just a basic flip phone that Virgin says is perfect for those who want simple things in a phone.

The TNT is available now at major retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, and RadioShack at a retail price of $20. I am sure there are customers looking for cheap, prepaid phones and, at $20 the TNT fits the bill. Read more

Posted on Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:20:24 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Virgin Galactic unveiled WhiteKnightTwo

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Today, Virgin Founder, Sir Richard Branson and SpaceShipOne designer, Burt Rutan, pulled back the hangar doors on the new WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft that will ferry SpaceShipTwo and thousands of private astronauts, science packages and payloads on the first stage of the Virgin Galactic sub-orbital space experience.

Christened 'EVE' in honor of Sir Richard’s mother, who performed the official naming ceremony.
It is the world’s largest all carbon composite aircraft and many of its component parts have been built using composite materials for the very first time. At 140 ft, the wing spar is the longest single carbon composite aviation component ever manufactured. Read more

Posted on Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:38:21 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Virgin Mobile Gets Samsung Slash

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Virgin Mobile announced today that it was adding its first Samsung handset to its lineup. The Samsung Slash is a small slider phone that will retail for $79.99. Despite the low price the Slash has lots of features.

Features include a VGA camera phone, Bluetooth, IM, text and email capabilities. The Slash also has games preloaded on the device like Gameloft Jukebox and Superscape demo. The device also has access to multimedia content from Virgin. Read more

Posted on Mon, 19 May 2008 08:27:06 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Virgin Mobile and Helio said to be in Merger Talks

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The WSJ reports that Virgin Mobile and Helio are rumored to be in advanced merger talks.

A deal of Virgin Mobile and Helio could be announced in the coming weeks.
Virgin Mobile has about 5 million subscribers with mostly low-cost and pre-paid plans. Helio only has a couple hundred thousand subscribers, but makes on average a very high $85 revenue from each subscriber. Read more

Posted on Sat, 10 May 2008 23:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Virgle launched by Google and Virgin

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This year Sir Richard Branson posted a story on the Google Blog announcing Virgle.

Virgle, Inc., a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Google. Virgle's goal the establishment of a permanent human settlement on Mars. Read more

Posted on Tue, 1 Apr 2008 01:43:42 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Virgin Mobile Announces New Pre-praid Plans

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Virgin Mobile announced new pre-paid plans today that it says are aimed at helping Americans save money during the current economic crunch. “There is no reason for consumers to lock themselves into the restrictive terms of a postpaid contract plan to get real value," said Dan Schulman, chief executive officer, Virgin Mobile USA, "especially at a time when many people need greater control over their spending and use of credit. We're closing the gap between those features traditionally offered by postpaid carriers and the value available from our plans without annual contracts."

Virgin has added features to its pre-paid plans with offerings that offer 500 night and weekend minutes starting at $24.99 and unlimited night and weekend minutes starting at $49.99. Virgin says that it is the only national provider offering night and weekend minutes starting at 7pm. Read more

Posted on Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:02:56 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Virgin Mobile and LG auction off Artist-Designed Aloha Phones for RE Generation

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Virgin Mobile USA and LG announced today the debut of six specially commissioned hand-painted Aloha by LG handsets to help bring a voice to the issue of homeless youth.

The unique phones will be auctioned off as part of The RE*Generation Gallery 2007 Auction and Benefit November 7 at the Skylight Gallery in New York City. Read more

Posted on Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Kyocera Wild Card comes from Virgin Mobile

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Virgin Mobile introduced the Wild Card by Kyocera Wireless texting mobile phone.

Kyocera Wild Card clamshell design features a QWERTY thumb keyboard for text messaging.

Other features of the Wild Card include 1.3MP camera, 2 screens, speakerphone, real music ringtones, and Bluetooth. Read more

Posted on Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:51:25 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Virgin Mobile USA Launches their First LG Wireless Phone

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Virgin Mobile USA launched a new handset called the Aloha this week. The Aloha is the first handset from LG to join the pre-paid Virgin Mobile lineup in America. The Aloha by LG is 3.5” long by 1.9” wide and has a thickness of 0.9”.

Weight for the Aloha is 2.7 ounces and it has enough storage to hold 199 personal contacts with five numbers, three email addresses and one url for each contact. The battery gives the phone 180 minutes of talk time and 150 hours standby time. Read more

Posted on Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:01:07 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Sir Richard Branson announces $25 Million Virgin Earth Challenge Prize

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Sir Richard Branson is saving our planet by announcing a $25 million prize for the person who comes up with a way to reduce carbon gases in our atmosphere.

There are rules. You need to find a solution that is able to remove one billion tons of carbon gases a year from the atmosphere for 10 years.

I like billionaires that do stuff like this. $25 million should be motivation enough to motivate some scientists to try to solve the first planet earth engineering for the good. Read more

Posted on Fri, 9 Feb 2007 08:29:20 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Virgin Atlantic Lifts Ban on Dell & Apple Laptops

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News.com says Virgin Atlantic is lifting the complete ban on in-flight use of Dell and Apple laptops. Previously Virgin was preventing passengers from bringing Apple or Dell laptops on-board with the batteries still in place no matter if it was a model covered in a recall or not. With all the footage and hubbub surrounding the exploding Dell batteries, I was not surprised the ban was levied in the first place. I was more surprised that more airlines didn’t follow suit with similar restrictions. Read more

Posted on Mon, 25 Sep 2006 15:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun