iPhone Alternative: Helio Ocean

[TheNumberOneFan]

obviously they aren't going to put anything in their "comparison" chart that would have the word "no" on Helio's side. So anything that they left out to compare with the iPhone was likely left out because they would look much less appealing if it were there.

its all about the wow

 

[zac4mac]

Slow news day - give Arn a break. No pre-show leaks, no trip to SF for Arn, here's something to chew on...

I've had my iPhone, earned by standing in line for 10+ hours at the local Apple bar and I'm finding it more indispensable every day. Yesterday I took off into town for something and part-way out realized I left my phone plugged into my MBP, refueling. I almost turned around to get it.

OT - I watched and showed-off the video of Jake Brown's X-Game crash so many times the battery died by 4pm... YouTube really eats up the battery.

Z

 

[twoodcc]

seems alright....but that thing is ugly! and i'm happy with my iPhone thank you!

 

[MacQuest]

haha so arn, basically you're just bitter you didn't get an invite to the media event?

That's exactly what I was thinking.

...That being said, sites like Engadget and Gizmodo run Apple rumors all the time.

arn

And there's the confirmation.

 

[Royale w/cheese]

wow. old skool. my dad used to have one of the 1st mobile phones out - he had to carry it in a briefcase!

My dad had one that WAS a briefcase, the bagphones. Gross
He would have me carry it and it would sometimes drag on the ground when the strap was on my shoulder, and I was not a very short kid!

 

[parafish13]

Dear Arn: rock on! This is a nice (and funny-surprising in a good way) change of pace.

Dear surprisingly-high number of members in this post: Laugh! It's good for you!

 

[Royale w/cheese]

Is arn gonna have to issue a public apology or something? 5 and a half hours to go, then maybe we will have something better to talk (complain?) about. Lets all get some rest.

 

[fireplace]

Arn, I like it.

You lot on the fat side of the pond need to learn to appreciate irony

 

[macam]

Sony Ericsson have some seriously amazing phones coming out soon - to all networks in the UK. They really do fight the iPhone. The only things the iPhone has are multi-touch and a 'large screen' to watch videos on.

Yar I hear you... and I am a staunch sonyericsson user... They make the best phones in my opinion, and they seem to work much better with a mac than any other phone including Nokia!

But that's not to say that the SonyEricsson doesn't come with it's flaws... So that's why the iPhone is so appealing to me (Along with it's prettyness) is the ability to completely be sync'd with my mac...

And unfortunately the Helios Oceanios doesn't really do that!?

So iPhone all the way for me... even tho - it doesn't take videos, has a crappy resolution cam, doesn't do picture messaging, doesn't have GPS... To be honest after the first month... those features are all moot. I use it as an address book, a phone, a text device for 11 months of the year!

I have GPS in my car, I don't record those moments for posterity on a low res video cam... they are just nice extra features... Altho - I do think 3G would be good to have...

But hey ho...

All this posting doesn't really help the fact that I don't have an iPhone.

macam

 

[Modjo]

This is getting blown waaaaay out of proportion!

Even though it being a joke and all, it's nice to see some alternatives.
And at that price, it's a damn feasible alternative.
I don't know if it will be available in Europe, but i might be tempted to buy this thing instead of an iPhone.

I do realize this is an Apple-fan site, and i am an avid Apple-fan owning several machines and working on them for 10+ years. But please people, let your intelligence speak instead of the fan-boy-ism.

If there is a superior product available (i'm not saying this is the case, the iPhone has other features that make it stand out) it might be worthwhile to take an unbiased look at it and compare it to Apple's products. Which i believe was the case in Arn's post.

If he made some money with it, let him have it. He's not running a charity, and the post is related to the subject of the site. So i don't see anything wrong with it, as long as it doesn't interfere with the posting of newsitems we've all grown used to over the years.

 

[breath of apple]

A competition page?

I agree that this should not be posted on MR page 1, and that there are many, many stories out there relating to "apple competitors" that could be posted - "competitors" for Apple displays, OSX, applications, hardware, iphone, etc. If Arn wants to post articles about Apple competitors, maybe there should just be a " competitors" tab/forum on MR where we could all go in and look at the latest competitor news. And, of course, comment There could even be comparison charts, etc., where helpful. MR could eventually (with a lot of effort) become a "1 stop information place" not only for Apple but for those wanting an "MR take" on Apple competition.

Thank you, Arn and team, for all of your work on MR to date - you've built an excellent site! Maybe there is even more room to expand?

 

[Modjo]

If Arn wants to post articles about Apple competitors, maybe there should just be a " competitors" tab/forum on MR where we could all go in and look at the latest competitor news. And, of course, comment There could even be comparison charts, etc., where helpful.

Great idea!
He would make good money with it too

 

[MacQuest]

5 and a half hours to go...

6 and a half (+3 minutes to be exact).

 

[Cleverboy]

How would you like SELECTION/COPY/PASTE to work?
07-17-2007, 08:36 AM - Posted by Cleverboy
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/330711/

How Apple Could Handle Copy and Paste in the iPhone
07-28-2007, 09:11 PM - Posted by arn
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/335012/

HELIO OCEAN - besting the iPHONE 24/7...?
07-14-2007, 06:16 AM - Posted by Cleverboy
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/329599/

iPhone Alternative: Helio Ocean
08-07-2007, 01:28 AM - Posted by arn
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/338201/

Oh... I see how this works now... Well, if arn is anything like me (GMTA?), then this thread is simply a Machiavellian plot to once again deal Helio Ocean a back-handed compliment. My take? Given the comparison chart (that I actually stuck in the thread, FYI) how in heaven's name is Helio Ocean simply not the cat's meow of the iPhone set? It's everything anyone could ever hope for in a feature phone... ANY phone, yet iPhone misses many BASIC features? --Caused a nice roaring debate... A few weeks ago.

It ended in the somewhat universally held belief that people that bought the iPhone did so because Helio isn't really all its cracked up to be, even with all the features. People would rather a feature-light iPhone than a feature-heavy Helio. Same two year contract (unless you manage a promotional offer), comparable price to 4GB iPhone (after picking up retail memory cards to boost storage... ships with only 200MB), no WiFi (as an MVNO, if you ever break your contract the device is truly *useless* without service), no contact syncing (although you can import... oh, joy... a CSV file!), no iTunes (although you can buy music "over the air" for $1.99 a song!), a web-browser that is nifty for a mobile browser without touchscreen (but pales in comparison, like all others, to the iPhone's Safari experience). MySpace integration? What the hell is that supposed to mean... I mean really?

In a Gawker poll, iPhone was given the cold shoulder to the Ocean:
http://polls.gawker.com/?key==kTO0MTM&voted=1

Results as of August 8th, 2007:
Helio Ocean
59.2% (4275 votes)
Apple iPhone
31.0% (2236 votes)

Considering that Earthlink's Helio Ocean investment continues to be a money losing operation, I guess they must be in it for the long haul though. Hopefully people will flock to the Ocean in droves, and maybe someday in the none-too-distant future they might turn a profit. Personally though, I'm more than happy with my iPhone and would consider the similarly "deficient" Blackberry Pearl before the Helio. Call me a sucker for quality. "Feature-packed" or "Over compensating", you decide.

Oh, and um... Long Live the Forum of the Phoenix!

~ CB

 

[mschmitt]

Maybe a few of us are simply sleep-deprived as we await today's announcements.

Arn, I've been reading your site since 2001, when I switched BACK to Mac as Jaguar became available. You run a great site and always seem to treat site visitors with respect. I really appreciate that.

If you want to post a non-Apple / non-Mac article, it is certainly your right, and it doesn't bother me in the least. Why should Apple get all the free advertising? They sure don't need it, do they?

Haven't we seen MS Vista ads on this site? Has there been a similar outcry from the "faithful"?

Keep up the good work, Arn.

 

[danielwsmithee]

... but all the usability in the world won't matter if your device doesn't do what you want it to in the first place.

The same can be said in the opposite direction too. All the features in the world don't matter if they are difficult to use. Devices run the gamete from feature rich with poor usability to very few features with great usability. Apple tends to stay on the usable side with a few key features.

 

[mschmitt]

I remember studying gametes in biology.

There's always "gamut".

 

[michelepri]

Ugly

It's ugly, it's really ugly. I would love to see some great competition kick the Iphone from behind, since I hate Apple's sales strategy. But it's not with those ugly things that Apple will be threatened.

 

[nrd]

The CEO of Helio is a Scientologist, so take that as you will. The article does read like an ad. It really should be revised or removed. I thought this site was Mac Rumors, not "Cool Scientology Phone" Rumors.

 

[ImageWrangler]

In context, this "news" item comes across as a petty and childish move by the admins.

Same admins who wont let some members post things with a little snark and some often deserved slams on people who have them coming while adding actual content — then banning them over nothing — yet will let misinformed, bad info spewing, self-appointed know-it-alls (anything but) disingenuous and often insultive should-be-banned types like Multimedia stick around, or other members like Stella get a continuous free pass yet all he adds in every single one of his posts is pure negativeness and critizisms of every thing Apple tries.

Heck, I'd say the Helio article has more merit than the agregious actions of the admins stated above, and THAT my friends is really saying something. Though in slight defense (slight, as in actually little to none) at least this article wasn't called "iPhone killer." This place isn't as bad as C|Net (yet anyways).

 

[gotohamish]

Is this advertorial?

 

[diamond.g]

Helio did not tell the whole story there...

1. The Ocean doesn't have WiFi, forcing you to use only the cell network to transfer data. 3G data coverage is only avalible around citys, and where there is no 3G or standard data (which is most of the US - see attached map) you have no data at all and can only use the phone's voice services.

2. They neglected to explain that unlike the iPhone, which uses a GSM/GPRS modem for its long range communications, the ocean uses CDMA-2000/EV-DO, a closed and dieing standard avalible only in the US and Korea, rendering the Ocean useless in the entire rest of the world.

For these reasons + its meager interface, tiny buttons and fugly case design, i will never buy an Ocean, or any other CDMA phone for that matter.

Stop. Just stop right there, because you're wrong on multiple points.

First, 3G coverage is available for most of the population. Yes, most of us Americanos live in cities where 3G is available.

Second, if you happen to be one of those few unlucky people who doesn't have 3G coverage, you still have 1x coverage - which is itself comparable to EDGE in throughput and has lower latency.

In addition, Helio operates using Sprint, Verizon and Alltel's network infrastructure to deliver all that coverage - and doesn't charge for roaming, Try matching that with AT&T.

As for your comment about CDMA EV-DO (a technologically superior code-division service) to GSM/EDGE (a slower time-devision service with all the corresponding drawbacks like dropped calls, poor voice quality)... whatever. I guess that's why all the GSM providers are using W-CDMA (CDMA EV-DO's little brother) for their network upgrades, huh?

Dang, you took all my biting points.

 

[zac4mac]

Good grief people.

Arn did this to spark a little conversation while we all sit in the dark waiting.

It's not an advertisement, nor a solicitation from Scientologists. Just some mental tiddly-winks.

Somebody scrounge up some real info... cmon, I'm jonesin' for some Apple newness.

Z

 

[Jebaloo]

Is this a paid for ad? It's not what I have come to expect from this site, no?

 

[manu chao]

In the comments to this article by Pogue about the iPhone, somebody details his experience with a Helio (search for Helio on that site), very funny read:
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/iphoneatt-billuh-oh/