virgin

Virgin Mobile announced a new $49.99 unlimited prepaid calling plan today, along with a special program to help customers who become unemployed. The program, called the "Pink Slip Protection plan," will waive up to three months of monthly charges if a customer becomes unemployed.

The Pink Slip Protection plan will only go into effect at least two months into a monthly plan, and once he or she becomes eligible for state unemployment benefits. There's currently an open enrollment period through June 30. You can enroll via Virgin Mobile's Web site starting April 15.

If you'… Read more

Helio's influence on Virgin Mobile continues to grow, as Virgin Mobile just announced the availability of the "Connect" social-networking dashboard and Opera Mini 4.2 to its prepaid customers. These features were previously available on post-paid devices only, like the Helio handsets. They will launch later this month on devices like the Shuttle, the Jax, and the X-tc. Do note that you'll have to sign up for a monthly or prepaid data pack plan. The price ranges from $5 for 5MB of data on prepaid plans, to $10 for 50MB on a monthly plan.

The "… Read more

Biofuels are on the way up, while carbon emissions are on the way down, a global airline industry spokesman said Tuesday at the annual Aviation and Environment Summit in Geneva.

After a successful run of pilot programs from Continental, Virgin, Air New Zealand, and JAL, sustainable biofuels are on track to be approved by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for wide commercial use in planes by 2010 or 2011, Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the IATA, said in a speech given at the summit.

The IATA includes more than 230 airlines that make up about 93 percent of the … Read more

Kyocera introduced two new cell phones Wednesday, as CTIA opened. Both offer slider designs but will appeal to different user groups. Check out our Kyocera CTIA photo gallery to see them in all their glory.

In keeping with the rush of messaging phones we've seen thus far in Las Vegas, the Kyocera G2GO M2000 hides a full alphabetic keyboard behind the 2.4-inch display. The overall design is a bit angular, and we're worried that the combined keypad and keyboard will be cramped, but the phone offers a fair number of features to compensate.

Inside, you'll find … Read more

Virgin Mobile's CEO said Tuesday that the Mobile Virtual Network Operator plans to introduce touch-screen handsets. Speaking at the Dow Jones Wireless Innovations conference, CEO Dan Schulman didn't give any specifics, but he said that the handsets would be part of a move to "smarter" phones.

As an MVNO carrier with a core prepaid business, Virgin Mobile focuses on low-end and basic models for making calls and sending messages. Over the past 18 months, and particularly after its acquisition of Helio, the operator has offered more multimedia handsets and messaging-centric devices with full keyboards. Yet, like … Read more

One can hardly find a better symbol of the music industry's crossover from physical CDs to digital downloads than the intersection of San Francisco's Stockton and Market streets.

On one corner sits a Virgin Megastore, once an icon of hipness and high-end music tastes. Now it looks more like a schlock discounter. Signs blare from the facade: "Store Closing" and "Up to 40 percent off."

Just across Stockton is a stainless-steel storefront uncluttered by text. Only a single Apple logo glows from the metal and the overall feeling created is of permanence and futuristic … Read more

Just a month after a new Kyocera messaging phone appeared on Virgin Mobile's Web site, another Kyocera handset greeted the world on Thursday.

The Kyocera Jax doesn't appear to be quite as exciting as the X-tc, but it should appeal to basic-phone users. The candy bar handset offers a color display, messaging, a speakerphone, voice dialing, and a wireless Web browser. The Jax isn't officially available yet so we don't have pricing, but we'll fill you in when we get more information.

Thanks Phonescoop.

We're getting close to the day when a major artist or group releases a download-only album. Maybe it'll be the next Rolling Stones or Sufjan Stevens album. That'll be a dark day.

Just last week, I went to my local record store to pick up "Hemispheres," the new release of Bill Frisell and Jim Hall, a jazz guitar duo. I left the store empty-handed.

Next, I checked on Amazon.com. It stocked the album in MP3 format only. Great, but I refuse to pay $17.98 for a crappy-sounding MP3.

Next, I checked the record … Read more

Financial services firm, Virgin Money announced Wednesday that it has joined the Uncrunch.org campaign in an attempt to raise awareness about alternative, social sources of credit for both consumers and businesses. Virgin joins Geezeo, Lending Club, OnDeck Capital, Credit Karma, and ChangeWave, while trying to "unthaw" the credit markets by giving consumers and businesses an online resource to research and find credit.

Uncrunch's focus is social lending, which is why Virgin Money joined the campaign (the company has close to $400 million in social loan volume). Those who surf to Uncrunch will be able to learn … Read more