slacker

The 404 178: Where it's probably bad for you

After 12 solid hours in a coma-like sleep, Wilson has been miraculously cured of consumption. It's a good thing, too, as we discuss Bill Gates' Apple ad counterattack and Michael Moore's insatiable appetite for junk food and justice, all while dodging giant cheeseburger-eating mantises!

Dan the Mantern here. At a caller's suggestion, the guys led the show off with a discussion of the new Microsoft ad featuring Bill Gates, Jerry Seinfeld and a strip mall. Apparently the 'soft spent $250 million on this ad, $249 million of which went to Seinfeld for one day of shooting. If … Read more

Sirius-XM merger won't save satellite radio

The FCC's approval Friday of the merger between satellite radio providers Sirius and XM won't solve the fundamental problems with satellite radio.

As I've written before, I was a Sirius subscriber for one year, before canceling my subscription in early 2007. It sounded bad--much worse than my current kludge of plugging my iPod Shuffle into an aux-input that connects to an unused frequency on my FM radio (don't ask...it's an '06 Subaru thing). It was a physical pain to set up. Most of all, it just wasn't worth paying $12.95 a month … Read more

Slacker Portable gets Wi-Fi update

Wednesday, Slacker announced that Devicescape Connect, a Wi-Fi management software, will be available for the Slacker Portable going forward. This seemingly innocuous communiqué is actually great news for current Slacker Portable owners (all 12 of you), and it may offer just the right amount of incentive for hold outs who were waiting on better Wi-Fi integration. The main improvement is the ability to access "captive portals," such as the one at the CNET offices that requires a user to click through a terms and conditions page in order to access the free public Wi-Fi. Another added functionality … Read more

Slacker Portable review, pictures

The Slacker Portable Player is not your average MP3 player. Rather than just providing the space for you to transfer your digital music (and sometimes video) collection, this device offers an integrated music-listening experience courtesy of the Slacker Web Player. Although the service itself is provided for free, the Portable Player is not a cheap device in the scheme of things, running well above the average price for most music players (the 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB models run $199.99, $249.99, and $299.99, respectively). But this player offers something the others don't: freedom from being tethered to … Read more

Here comes Slacker

MP3 players are great if you know what you like, own it, and want to listen to it exclusively. But what happens when you're sick of your music collection? Or when you're simply feeling lazy and want somebody else to do the programming for you?

Slacker has the answer: portable Internet radio. The company's been demonstrating its devices since the South by Southwest music conference in March, but it looks like the company's finally taking pre-orders.

You can get the basic idea just by visiting the Slacker home page, which has an embedded version of the … Read more

Slacker Portable and Premium Radio coming soon...very soon

I'll tell you one thing: Slacker sure does like to drag out its buzz. Now, you tell me: Did it work? Or are you over it already? Actually, we should give them a little leeway for making us wait so long, for a couple of reasons. First, they're starting something totally new with the whole Wi-Fi/Satellite radio-hopping thing and worked out all the kinks, which in a configuration like this, can be time-consuming business. Second, it takes some serious negotiation (hence, time) to get the type of audio permissions they need. Still, all the waiting makes me … Read more