'Tis the season for giving, which leaves the rabid phone fans among us in a tight spot: how do we get in on a little new mobile tech for ourselves and help those less fortunate at the same time? Our friends over at Phone Scoop are hoping to fill the bill by auctioning off a handful of hot, current handsets graciously provided by carriers and manufacturers with all proceeds going to benefit The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria -- the same fund (RED) benefits. Loot includes a T-Mobile Dash, LRG Sidekick 3, Motorola MOTOKRZR K1, unlocked Samsung i320, M500 for Sprint, and BlackJack, and a Helio Drift (see, we told you the goods were hot). Bidding will take place via Phone Scoops' forums, with all auctions ending this Friday. Bid generously, and bid to win!

Ushering in what appears to be an ongoing partnership with Samsung, Helio has officially taken the wraps off its Drift slider. While it might not be able to run with the latest and greatest that Korea has to offer in its domestic market, the Drift looks to stand head and shoulders above the lion's share of handsets in US circulation with a fairly impressive spec sheet. Besides the expected QVGA display, decent storage (128MB, to be exact) with microSD expansion, 2 megapixel shooter and EV-DO, the Drift sports a true GPS receiver. That in itself isn't terribly notable or interesting, but Helio's bundling the Drift with a GPS-enabled version of Google Maps, which when you take into account the routing, real-time traffic, and satellite view capabilities, might make a dedicated nav system obsolete for some users. Helio's also using the launch as an opportunity to introduce "Buddy Beacon," a location-based system in the same vein as Loopt for locating and mapping a preselected list of friends. Add in a web browser that's been revamped for speed and A2DP support, and the Drift -- in either white or black -- suddenly seems like a bargain at the $225 asking price.

Word has it we're looking here at Samsung's first entry for Helio, christened the "Drift." Coming hot on the heels of news that the Kickflip is no more, the glossy black Drift appears to be more of a phone in the Hero vein on account of its slider form factor. It'll apparently come equipped with a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth (something the Kickflip sorely lacked) with A2DP, and a QVGA display, though we can't yet confirm that it'll be rocking the aforementioned Java platform from XCE. We'll pass on more Drift news as we get it, but expect the phone to launch fairly shortly.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]