Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

Last Switched On introduced the Slacker Portable, a device that is as noteworthy for great value in bringing a steady stream and great variety of free music -- including on-demand favorites from those with a premium subscription -- as it is for its design quirks.

None of these are as frustrating as the device's touch strip used to provide quicker access to on-screen selections. Unlike the touch strips on older Creative Zen models, it uses absolute positioning that activates the button at that part of the screen. Unfortunately, this means that stray touches can cause the interface to jump from screen to screen and even skip tracks. The Slacker team may have considered the touch strip a compromise for a device without a touch screen, but at some point realized that their implementation wasn't up to the task. Slacker turns the touch strip off by default, and it will need a major overhaul to prove useful in future players. Fortunately, the jog dial Slacker includes is almost as efficient.

Other controls fare better as they represent hardware counterparts. The device's left side has a Favorite button (which designates that a track be played more often) and a Ban button (that prevents it from being played again in the future); its right side has the Skip button, which Slacker sees as a key differentiator from satellite radio. Most station management tasks, such as creating a new station or designating which stations show up on the device, need to be done from the Slacker site or desktop application.

Hey, Slacker Portable users -- yeah, all eight of you: listen up. Slacker has just teamed up with Devicescape Software in order to give you easier access to more WiFi when on the go. Essentially, the Devicescape Connect application is a WiFi hotspot manager which allows users to register usernames / passwords online and then have the software automatically connect whenever in range. For existing users all giddy about having more opportunities to refresh your Personal Radio stations, you can simply perform a station refresh to nab the new goods -- as for prospective buyers, look for all Portables shipping now to have Devicescape pre-installed.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

The Slacker Portable is the proverbial elephant being inspected by blind men. One is the crop of portable MP3 players, to which the device's service represents free, fresh music on the go in exchange for user control of track selection. Another is the bevy of online internet music sites such as Pandora, Last.fm, Finetune and others, to which it represents the leap from the beb to portable entertainment. A third is the traditional consumer electronics industry for which it portends a connected future. And a fourth are XM and Sirius, which now appear on track to merge in part due to the kind of competition that the Slacker Portable will ultimately provide.

The Slacker Portable picks up where last year's promising Sansa Connect left off. While that device was billed primarily as an MP3 player that boasted tight integration with the Yahoo! Music Unlimited service (now shuttering), the Slacker Portable is labeled as a "personal radio". MP3 files can be loaded onto the device, but that feature is more of an afterthought.

The device comes in three capacities that are billed as storing a different number of stations, which are either genres preset by the internet radio service available at slacker.com, or customized for the user based on a particular artist. One nice touch is that a device ordered from Slacker comes pre-populated with any stations you have set up on the site.

We'd heard at CES that Slacker Portable wireless PMP was due to be released tomorrow, and now Laptop's gone and confirmed it for us. Slacker's marketing VP says that 2008 is about expanding the Slacker service, with additional products, including some from Logitech, and even Slacker apps for mobile devices. Still, they've got to get those initial $199 4GB and $299 8GB units out the door -- tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life, Slacker.

It's been a semi-long journey to release for the Slacker Portable, and while it truthfully hasn't quite arrived, it's on the proverbial home stretch now. Demoing at ShopStoppers here at CES, Slacker was pimping its forthcoming Portable -- which is set to be available on the outfit's website on January 31st -- and according to the on-site rep., it'll be out in 4GB ($199) and 8GB ($299) versions. Granted, we're still not elated about the thing, but those who can't squash curiosity can head on through to check on the vid.

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]

Not that next year is too far away or anything, but those of you who have been following Slacker's WiFi-enabled Portable Player DAP may be disheartened to learn that its release has been delayed until January 31st, 2008. According to an email received by folks who have already pre-ordered, Slacker has "adjusted" the targeted ship date of its streaming device away from December 13th "in order to deliver the best possible player." Customers who don't want to suffer another six weeks to get their slack on are welcome to cancel their orders, although you don't need to do anything at all if you're cool with waiting.

[Thanks, Matt B.]

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!

It's been a tick since we've heard any peeps from Slacker, but today it announced that it not only inked a deal with a few "top indie labels," but it managed to sign up the likes of EMI, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group, too. Additionally, "as part of the agreement, Slacker listeners can transfer their personalized stations to Slacker Portable Players with a single click and automatically refresh them via WiFi or USB." On the independent front, IODA, The Orchard, Beggars Group and Matador Records, IRIS, Ubiquity Records and Sanctuary Group PLC are all signed on, further broadening the amount of content available to, well, Slackers. So if your ears are in need of some variety, head on over to the firm's website to try out the (freshly expanded) Slacker Personal Radio beta.

Read - Slacker Finalizes Deals With Major Labels
Read - Slacker Inks Deals with Top Indie Labels

The upcoming Slacker player from Broadband Instruments is never gonna win any fashion shows -- it's not ugly, per se, but that big ol' screen makes for a device the size of a late 90's PDA -- so we're more interested in hearing about the functionality than watching it strut its stuff in front of the cameras. Still, the innovative features and copious storage options mean that this chunkster is likely to make some waves in the market, so we're sure that those of you considering a purchase want to peep all the angles. With that in mind, Cnet's got a bunch of press shots of the satellite radio-playin', internet radio-streamin' DAP; hit up the Read link if you think you might be interested in getting your slack on sometime.

Remember the mysterious San Diego startup called Broadband Instruments, which pulled executives from Diamond / Rio, MusicMatch, and iRiver, and promised "a new type of integration with online radio stations"? Well, that company now has a product and a plan: Slacker will provide a internet radio network that won't just reach you via browser, but will also stream to a Slacker portable by way of WiFi and -- get this -- satellite service. (On the Ku-band, if you're really interested.) It's all a little complicated, but it'll go something like this: at launch (i.e. now) users will be able to get Pandora-like streaming internet radio for free (the caveat is you only get to skip six songs per channel per hour), with a $7.50 per month plan around the corner that kills the ads and skipping limitations. The Slacker player, which will feature a massive 4-inch screen with scrolling touch strip and debut this summer in varying capacities between 2, 4, and 8GB up to 120GB for between $150 and $350, will have track metadata via AMG, and gobbles up and plays back audio content via WiFi and USB (with tracks purchasable for $1). The satellite part comes into play with a docking station at home or in the car, so you can get Slacker content while on the move or if you're out of range of internet access. Sounds a lot like the WiFi iTunes experience people have been asking for since, well, forever, but definitely with an internet radio bend to it. What we're really dying to know, however, is whether this satellite radio service of theirs will provide enough competition in the market to help the Sirius and XM merger get its wheels greased.

[Via Mashable and Wired]