Mobile Lounge Comes to Virgin Mobile USA Mobile Phones
WARREN, N.J., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Virgin Mobile USA announced today the official launch of two new first-of-a-kind features designed to empower its prepaid and postpaid customers with the latest mobile social networking technology. These new initiatives, both available at no additional cost beyond normal internet access charges, offer Virgin Mobile USA customers new and innovative ways to hook up:
“Connect,” a new social networking dashboard designed to give Helio By Virgin Mobile members quick and easy access to the latest updates from certain social media and networking sites; and
“Mobile Lounge,” a Virgin Mobile USA customer-exclusive mobile community now available on the VirginXL storefront.
“Virgin Mobile USA and Helio customers are some of the most connected mobile users out there, and for that reason we continue to introduce innovative features that make it easier than ever for them to stay connected, share and communicate with friends,” said Doug Britt, Vice President, Data Services for Virgin Mobile USA.
Connect
Connect ushers in a new era of community integration for Helio By Virgin Mobile members, allowing them to display friend updates and activity from social media and networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube in an easy-to-use, dashboard-style mobile interface which connects users directly to those sites. Launching first on Helio devices — the Ocean, Mysto, Fin, Heat and Drift — Connect will roll out to Virgin Mobile USA prepaid mobile phones during the first quarter of 2009.
Instead of logging out of a social networking site in order to access another one, customers can use Connect to conveniently aggregate status updates, invitations and requests, new photos and videos, comments, messages and more, all in one place, free of charge. Virgin Mobile USA customers can also use Connect’s integrated standard RSS reader to stay up-to-date with their favorite news sites, blogs and e-zines.
Mobile Lounge
“Mobile Lounge,” the first mobile-only community exclusive to a single wireless carrier, provides a social network for Virgin Mobile USA customers to share ideas and opinions. Its robust user interface allows users to see which friends are online and features micro-blogging capabilities, discussion boards, chat rooms and profile creation and contests.
Virgin Mobile USA also continues to offer rewards to its customers. Members of Mobile Lounge can earn points for writing blogs, posting photos and winning contests, and then redeem those points for credits for wireless usage. This builds on the success of Sugar Mama and Studio V, an online community where Virgin Mobile USA customers create, share and sell their own ringtones and wallpapers for rewards.
Mobile Lounge is accessible on Virgin Mobile USA mobile phones such as the Shuttle, Flare, Slash and others from the VirginXL storefront, which provides members with access to all of the latest services, games, ringtones and news for just 15 cents per day.
Social Networking
With these new features, Virgin Mobile USA has firmly established itself as a leader in mobile social networking. “Helio By Virgin Mobile is continuing to deliver mobile social networking in new ways, allowing members to interact with friends across their entire social universe and share experiences in real time directly from their mobile devices like never before,” added Jeremy Wasser, Director of Media & Social Networking for Virgin Mobile USA.
The new ‘Connect’ and ‘Mobile Lounge’ services continue the tradition that Helio carved out as a pioneer in mobile social media and networking. With industry leading solutions for MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and more from Virgin Mobile USA, members will always stay connected.
About Virgin Mobile USA
Virgin Mobile USA, Inc. , through its operating company Virgin Mobile USA, L.P., offers more than five million customers control, flexibility and choice through Virgin Mobile’s Plans Without Annual Contracts and postpaid offerings through Helio By Virgin Mobile, with national coverage for both powered by the Sprint PCS network.
Virgin Mobile USA is known for its award-winning customer service, with 90% of its own customers reporting satisfaction. Virgin Mobile USA allows customers to earn free minutes in exchange for viewing advertising content online through the innovative Sugar Mama program. Virgin Mobile USA’s full slate of smart, stylish and affordable handsets are available at approximately 40,000 top retailers nationwide and online at http://www.virginmobileusa.com/, with Top-Up cards available at more than 140,000 locations. Helio’s advanced devices like the Ocean and unlimited All-in voice plans can be explored at http://www.helio.com/.
Web site: http://www.helio.com/
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/
[...] Random Feed wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWARREN, N.J., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Virgin Mobile USA announced today the official launch of two new first-of-a-kind features designed to empower its prepaid and postpaid customers with the latest mobile social networking technology. These new initiatives, both available at no additional cost beyond normal internet access charges, offer Virgin Mobile USA customers new and innovative ways to hook up: “Connect,” a new social networking dashboard designed to give Helio By Virgin Mobil [...]
i am a virgin mobil customer i have been for 3 years now and every phone that i get i always have to get it put away because it broke and the waranty is still good on them but i wanted to tell you that your customer service reprsentives are not doing what they are susposed to be doing
I just wantto say that Mobile Lounge is one of the best social chat rooms that I have encountered in a long while, and I have encountered many!! I must say that the people are great, and the chat rooms are great, and I just love the atmosphere that I get when I am blogging and then Virgin Mobile even gives youa chance to make money by people reading and likeing your bloggs they will give you like 1cent, but that may not sound like a lot to most people but I look forward to those points everytime that I logg on. And you jus thave to beware of hackers but the chatters in the communityies let you know when there is a hacker in the midst and that’s cool too because they don’t have to tell anyone to watch out for these hackers you know I wish that I could afford to stay on my mobile lounge chat room more so that I could keep intouch with a few friend that I have met on there you know, it’s nothing but love from me to Mobile Lounge and Virgin Mobile for representing them BigXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO, SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH
I have a Virgin Mobile phone, and I must say that there are good and bad points about the service. Mobile Lounge is cool, and I visit it multiple times per day. However, it does sometimes crash, which is ,needless to say, a huge pain. Actually, on my phone none of the apps, such as email, Mobile Lounge, AIM, etc., are currently working. It’s been like that for a week now, and also isn’t letting me send or receive media at the moment. This sometimes happens, which is one of the things I hate about Virgin Mobile.
My dad got jacked when he tried to add extra minutes to my sister’s phone. He complained to the company, and they did refund him $40, but that still shouldn’t be happening. Therefore, I’m not one of the said “90% reporting satisfaction”.
The lounge also isn’t very secure. In fact, I, a thirteen-year-old girl, was taught to hack the blogs by another user over the course of ten minutes. Very easy.
I feel that VM has its very good aspects, as well as its very bad aspects. Overall, it’s an ehh-okay service, I suppose.