Slacker gets official on Portable Player, Premium Radio Service

Looks like Slacker's on the move -- remember those guys? They're the ones with the customizable streaming radio stations that intend to distribute dynamic audio streams by way of internet and satellite. The sat option's not quite ready yet, but the Portable Player is well on its way. The details:

• It'll be available in 15 (2GB), 25 (4GB), and 40 (8GB) station capacities. (Station capacity is how Slacker gauges storage. Each station carries with it a slew of tracks). Prices are $200, $250, and $300, respectively.
• 4-inch screen with touch strip and scroll wheel. (Sorry, not a touchscreen, though, nor is it intended for video playback.)
• The device uses WiFi to connect directly to content, and MTP over USB connection. You can do your thing without using a machine, but if you want to use USB you won't have an easy time using it on non-Windows platforms.
• It supports MP3, WMA, and AAC playback. The music you sync from the stations is kept in "hidden" storage in DRMed AAC. No, you're not at all allowed to try and grab at this content.
• 10 hours battery life with removable li-ion battery
• Premium Radio Service is available for $7.50 per month, enabling unlimited track skipping, ratings music and banning tracks or artists, station sharing, and ad-free station streams

More on this thing soon!

[Craig B. @ Nov 14th 2007 10:07PM]

Interesting to see this hybrid - I've thought for a while that 3.5G' streaming internet radio will eventually erode Satellite radio's (at least urban) market - but maybe that's years and years down the line...?

[Simon @ Nov 14th 2007 10:08PM]

Great...another service where you pay them money and you get crappy DRMed music. And not only that, you can't even keep the music!

[Daren @ Nov 14th 2007 10:10PM]

its free if you want. you can ban as many songs you dont like (no limit) and can skip up to 6 songs (every hour) you want to keep as a favorite...

[Daren @ Nov 14th 2007 10:10PM]

im looking forward to it. I love the Slacker Desktop software...

[SteveMB @ Nov 14th 2007 10:09PM]

8GB? Come on...

[Sirocco @ Nov 14th 2007 10:55PM]

Seems like existing satrad is better.

[nate @ Nov 14th 2007 11:04PM]

I'd been thinking with something like the zune or ipod touch that has wifi it'd be nice to have integrated streaming from something like pandora internet radio, though that'd only be usefull when you have wifi, but neat none the less.

[tekdroid @ Nov 14th 2007 11:11PM]

wow, a removable battery. Such a rare occurrence inside audio circles these days yet v.common with phones, cameras, laptops...and everything else sanely designed.

Congrats.

[SteveMB @ Nov 14th 2007 11:14PM]

Or some Archos and Creative Zen PMPs.

[faztang @ Nov 15th 2007 8:28AM]

Wow this device has gone through some changes. The one that was shown earlier in the year was a huge brick and I think it was high capacity hard drive based. The huge screen made me think it was going to play video too (no mention of that in this post). Now we find out they are going to try and charge $300 for an 8gb device!!! Only 10 hours of playback too?? Good luck with that!!
Sad thing is that the slacker web radio station is great, I used it every day, too bad this mp3 player looks like it's going to be a huge bust.

www.bumpnlump.com

[rickhamilton620 @ Nov 15th 2007 12:15AM]

I'm really psyched about this. I've been using their online service for a while and love it. It would be nice to just bring this along to listen to-I have a Sansa but never find new music to put on it. In fact, I listen to the radio on it more than my downloaded music.

[JP @ Nov 15th 2007 2:05AM]

Remind anyone else of a certain Amazon Ebook reader?

[JP @ Nov 15th 2007 3:38AM]

Ha yeah just compared -- it's kindof upside down and without a keypad and with a color display and yeah not at all the same thing. Go me.

[Ryan P @ Nov 15th 2007 9:39AM]

Sounds pricey. Any word on what the satellite option would be? I'd listen to it if it was free. I can't believe these guys have been working on this for years and not have a better plan.

[Mark @ Nov 15th 2007 12:00PM]

A 4" battery sucking screen with no video? Are they crazy?

[Andrew @ Nov 15th 2007 5:34PM]

"The device uses WiFi to connect directly to content, and MTP over USB connection. You can do your thing without using a machine, but if you want to use USB you won't have an easy time using it on non-Windows platforms."

According to Wikipedia at least, MTP is supported on Linux via libmtp, which is used on Amaraok and Rhythmbox as well an ability to mount an MTP device using FUSE and libmtp.

MTP may be a microsoft thing, but the implication that its going to be a complete bitch outside of windows doesn't seem quite fair, when two (very popular) Linux based media players have it out of the box it would appear.

Theres also an OSX thing for MTP, but it doesn't look anywhere near as good as Windows or Linux usability.

I know Engadget is slanted towards Macs, but "but if you want to use USB you won't have an easy time using it on non-Windows platforms" seems to mean OSX by "non-Windows platforms", as the Linux side of things for MTP doesn't look too shabby at all.

[jeff @ Nov 26th 2007 10:58PM]

Ryan, When might you demo the device and write a review?