As a follow-up our exclusive Helio briefing at this year's CTIA conference, Helio LLC, a new mobile service geared toward multimedia and interconnectivity, has officially launched their new service. Using 3G wireless broadband technology, the Helio service is geared toward young consumers who want multimedia connectivity right from their cellular phone. The service will feature a number of exclusive features not found with any other phone company, including connectivity to MySpace, content gifting, group pictures, video messaging, and dynamic news feeds. All these features connect the user to their world in a way never before possible.

Sky Dayton, CEO of Helio LLC, said, "Helio is custom-built for the lifestyle of young people who have their mobile device at the center of their universe. Mobile devices are with us all the time and they shouldn't be limited to making calls, sending text messages and downloading content. With Helio, mobile is about staying connected in innovative ways where sharing your world includes content like videos and games, or unique personalization that you know your friends will love. These are things that have been happening on the Internet for years, but haven’t been taken mobile – until now."

As of the launch, Helio offers a number of exclusive features. MySpace on Helio is a service designed to allow users to access and utilize MySpace directly from their Helio device, including reading/sending email, posting photos, creating bulletins, and posting blogs. Helio users are also alloted more photo storage on MySpace. Helio on Top gives members access to their favorite content, such as Fox sports, IGN, MTV News, and more. The network supports a wide variety of messaging options, including picture, video, and text messaging; video messages can be up to 1 MB in size, while many other networks don't allow video messages larger than 300 KB. Helio also boasts a game portal with 2D, 3D, and multiplayer games to take advantage of the multimedia power offered by it's high-end devices. All Helio games are priced at $5.99, with an option to rent games for $0.99. (rental period is one week)

But that's not all! Helio also allows for gifting and begging; gifting allows users to purchase content and then stream it via the network to a friend's phone, while begging allows users to ask members to buy content for them. The new service also includes mobile Internet with integrated Yahoo! Search and content from Fandango, FUEL TV, IGN, Jimmy Kimmel, POPSUGAR, Surfline, The Onion, and other popular Internet websites. Users can also download streaming video from ABC, Fox, FUEL TV, IGN, and many others; music videos may also be downloaded for $2.49 each. Finally, each member can customize their Helio experience by using video Video Screens and Video Ringers. Video Screens allows users to assign video content as their wallpaper for when their device goes idle, allowing users to make their own video-based screensaver. Video Ringers allows for users to be informed of incoming calls with video as well as audio, making getting your next phone call a lot cooler.

The service is available from http://www.helio.com and (888)-88-HELIO, and will become available through over 3,000 nationwide retailers by the end of May. There are 3 plans to choose from initially; 1,000 anytime minutes ($85/month), 1,500 anytime minutes ($100/month), or 2,50 anytime minutes ($135/month). Two devices are currently available; both feature 2.2", 262,000-color QVGA screens, removable memory, and a 2 MegaPixel camera with digital zoom and built-in flash.

The Hero model also includes duplex stereo sound and a co-processor chip that allows it to process music and video at higher quality than the Kickflip; the Hero will retail for $275, while the Kickflip will retail for $250. So what are you waiting for? Go out and be the first one on your block to bear witness to the awesome power of Helio; mobile communication will never be the same again.