Mossberg previews the Slacker Portable

The short of it is that the Slacker is an intriguing concept and decent product with some serious bugginess in the prototypes -- which is why it's probably a good thing it's been delayed until next year. Walt Mossberg has been kicking around the "blocky" player and related service, and seems to think the idea has some legs. The player is basically a portable WiFi internet radio, but it ties in closely with the free ad-supported Slacker service to give you a bit more of control over your listening experience than a traditional internet radio station. You can navigate the device with either the touch-sensitive strip beside the screen or a scroll wheel on the edge of the unit, and Walt found the sound quality good and WiFi capable. Album art, related photos, artist bios and album reviews are all included with the music and shown off on an expansive 4-inch screen, and the stations are saved to the device for offline listening. You can create custom stations based on artists you like, and if you shell out $7.50 a month for premium service you get unlimited song-skipping (usually limited to six per hour), zero ads, and the ability to pick songs to save to the device and play as often as you'd like. You can of course load your own tracks, but that sort of defeats the purpose of being a "slacker." Mossberg thinks the formula could work as long as Slacker can work out the sub-par battery life, touch strip issues and connection problems before the January 31st launch.

[Via Orbitcast]

[conor.galligan @ Dec 7th 2007 11:08AM]

Cool concept. Screen looks gorgeous. Anybody know how Slacker compares to Pandora? I really like Pandora's music selection and GUI.

[Joe @ Dec 7th 2007 11:15AM]

I don't know. I just can't seem to find Grandpa Mossberg's reviews credible for some reason.

[JerkyChew @ Dec 7th 2007 11:19AM]

If you want the same functionality now, just subscribe to Yahoo Music Jukebox and pick up a Sandisk Sansa Connect.

[Dave T. @ Dec 7th 2007 11:33AM]

you can listen to all of slacker on the web slacker.com to see if you like the recommendation features as much as pandora.

They have about 10 indie/alternative stations. 20 rock etc. I'm getting a test unit sometime soon and hope to have some actual photos of the player in action. Can't believe I watched 5 minutes of Moss with absolutely no live shot of the flippin' player. Gee thanks.

My big issue is right now there aren't any commercials so it's great. Not sure how I'll like it when you get commercials. If you plunk down $200 you should get commercial free listening IMO.

[Todd @ Dec 7th 2007 11:44AM]

"...if you shell out $7.50 a month for premium service you get unlimited song-skipping, usually limited to six per hour."

Whoa. what? Is that a typo?

[Justin @ Dec 7th 2007 11:52AM]

It's worded clumsily, but it's not a typo. He means that without the subscription, you're limited to six skipped songs in an hour. With it, you're not.

[Dave T. @ Dec 7th 2007 12:01PM]

yeah but if you change the channel you get a new six skips. I haven't really run out of skips too often. Especially when you can ban songs entirely. The advantage is over satellite radio. Can't skip songs there at all. Plus you get to see what's coming up next.

[Todd @ Dec 7th 2007 12:13PM]

Main Entry: unlimited

Function: adjective

1 lacking any controls : unrestricted
2 boundless, infinite
3 not bounded by exceptions

source: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=unlimited

[Cash @ Dec 7th 2007 12:36PM]

I'm pretty sure we all know what "unlimited" means Todd, but thanks for the quick english lesson complete with cited sources.

In case you're still confused:

Six song skips per hour/per channel = Free
Unlimited song skips per hour/per channel = $7.50/month

All clear now? Good.

On a side note, the majority of the bulk in that picture is the car dock btw. The player itself isn't much bigger then the imo much too large screen. If the thing played videos then I could justify a 4" screen, but as it cannot well then it's just wasting battery life as far as I'm concerned.

[Tavis Veighey @ Dec 7th 2007 12:18PM]

Cool use of Weird Al's newest album in the pic!

[Tavis Veighey @ Dec 7th 2007 12:18PM]

Cool use of Weird Al's newest album in the pic!

[mike @ Dec 7th 2007 1:14PM]

"The player is basically a portable WiFi internet radio" ... sounds kind of limited for the size and the thought of having to lug around another object.

The content provider should focus on the content and make their service available to existing hardware, like the thousands of phones and wireless PDAs that are already on the market. I have no desire to plunk down $200 on yet another device. I have a cool laptop that does all this and more.

Can I surf the web with this? Seems kind of like a big screen to only use for pictures and band bios.