We said that today would be the magic day, and here it is. Today Helio’s Ocean 2 becomes available and gets it’s very own “Buy” button. It will cost you $149 on contract or $400 without. Today Helio members also benefit from the new nights and weekends time starting at 7PM and free mobile-to-mobile, between Helio members.

A refresher on specs: 2.6″ TFT display with 240 x 320 resolution, 3G connectivity, GPS with Google Maps, Easy access to Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr, Stereo Bluetooth connectivity, Media player with background mode playback, 3.5mm headset jack, Opera Mini, Mail for Microsoft Exchange, File Viewer with document editing capabilities, 3D gaming, 2 megapixel camera with location tagging and video recording, microSD memory card slot.

Virgin Mobile USA has confirmed the Helio Ocean 2 release and has seen fit to shower the world with further details like features, price and availability. It’s dual slide design is similar to it’s predecessor, but this time it’s slimmer. Like you couldn’t have guessed that. Gadgets and models are always getting slimmer.

Some specs: 2.6″ TFT display with 240 x 320 resolution, 3G connectivity, GPS with Google Maps, Easy access to Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr, Stereo Bluetooth connectivity, Media player with background mode playback, 3.5mm headset jack, Opera Mini, Mail for Microsoft Exchange, File Viewer with document editing capabilities, 3D gaming, 2 megapixel camera with location tagging and video recording, microSD memory card slot.

Last month Slippery Brick first told you about a Helio phone first spotted on the FCC’s website and now we’ve finally got a name for this baby: meet the Helio Ocean.

It’s designed with two sliding compartments revealing a QWERTY keyboard (horizontal) and your standard alpha-numeric keypad (vertical). It will come with 200 MB of memory and has ports for microSD memory cards to beef up any music libraries that you want to pack around with you (including Yahoo PlaysForSure and Napster support.)

The full color 2.4-inch QVGA display will supposedly be able to deliver full HTML browser capabilities and a MiniMap feature for road navigation tips using the built-in Google Maps feature. The Helio Ocean has a camera that delivers 2.0 megapixels, stereo speakers, Bluetooth support, USB ports, communication apps for all the major email providers and ActiveSync support.

It’s nice to look at, …

A Helio branded phone has recently been discovered seeking approval on the FCC website, featuring a new multi-layer design.

The Pantech PN-810 made for Helio appears to be a new smartphone design solution with a unique triad of interfaces. On the face of the phone there is a relatively large 260k TFT LCD display with a handful of navigation buttons, but no keypad. Slide the phone length-wise and it exposes a number pad for dialing, and slide it sideways to expose a full qwerty keyboard. I’d be willing to bet that the view switches to landscape when the qwerty keyboard comes out (no numbers).

The double sliding Helio also contains EV-DO radio, Bluetooth and a 2.1 megapixel camera. Since this mobile phone is still kind of under wraps, there is no word on availability or price, but we will definitely be watching for …

Helio has added a music service to its ever-expanding line of custom-built 3G services. With Helio Music, the company now has a full mobile over-the-air music download service with some innovative sharing features that every music lover should appreciate.

Helio members can find their favorite music in the library by searching for artist, album, or song. Members looking for something new can get recommendations for a particular category or preview Featured Songs, Top Music, and New Releases. Members can also read artist bios, browse images, preview songs, get recommendations, and of course download tracks.

With Artist Alerts, Helio members can be notified when a new song from their favorite band enters the library via text message. Helio members can also find Rings, music videos, and VideoRings for their favorite artists.

Helio members can share music by allowing to “Gift & Beg” full-track downloads. A member can “gift” …

Obopay has announced that its mobile payment service is now available to Helio members. Helio’s hip, young, and connected members will now have the power to easily get, send and spend money directly from their mobile phone.

Obopay’s mobile payment service provides mobile customers with a real-time, secure, mobile peer-to-peer payment service, which is linked to an Obopay Prepaid MasterCard account. The prepaid MasterCard cards are accepted at 24 million merchant locations and over 1.1 million ATMS around the world.

With the service, Helio members are able to manage their Obopay accounts from a mobile application residing on their phone. They can check balances, view payment histories, and add funds - all remotely. Users will also have access to advanced mobile device personalization features such as contact list integration and specialized ring tones.

This is a significant announcement for the mobile payment domain. With Obopay on Helio, …

Helio has announced the launch of the newest mobile phone in its family of mobile devices targeted towards young, connected consumers. The Drift is a slender slider phone produced by Samsung and made exclusively for Helio members.

The Drift supports Helio GPS services that feature Google Maps for mobile. This service allows you to use a GPS-enabled version of Google Maps for Mobile to find your current location or a nearby restaurant or coffeehouse. Helio members also get real-time traffic reports, detailed step-by-step directions displayed on the map, and integrated search results.

Another handy GPS feature is the Buddy Beacon which allows Helio members to broadcast their location to the friends they add to their Buddy List. Once the Buddy Beacon is activated, their Buddy List friends can see their location on a map along with a nearby address.

The Drift features a 2.12 inch …

According to the Helio TV ads, calling it a “phone” is a misnomer, and they really don’t want to be compared to other mobile phone providers. Probably the most significant feature that separates this device from the others is it’s integration with MySpace.

With Helio, you can do a number of functions to interact with your MySpace account, including post photo bulletins, mail, comments, add friends and more. Helio boasts having the only device that is built around interacting with MySpace.

Helio offers something called Speedy 3G that gives high speed internet to the device for getting the “Helio On Top” news streams, surfing, games on a QVGA screen, video and music as well as messaging.

Gift and Beg is an interesting feature, were you can either “gift” someone a ring tone, video or game, or you can “beg” for one from someone.

At the time …