If you've found yourself dumbfoundedly staring at your Bravia Internet Video Link-equipped HDTV thinking "when am I going to see some Slacker radio up in this piece?" -- you're in luck. Sony announced today that it would be bringing the streaming service to users of the company's $300 hardware add-on free of charge, allowing music hounds to grab "millions" of songs on over "100 individually programmed genre music stations" in CD-quality audio. The service joins other streaming content like YouTube and Amazon, and will be available immediately. So... why are you still reading this?

[Via ZatzNotFunny]

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.