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Hands-on Slacker Radio for BlackBerry 3.0 beta

We tested out wireless song storage, a new feature in Slacker Radio for BlackBerry 3.0 beta.

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Jessica Dolcourt Editorial Director, Content Operations
Jessica Dolcourt's career with CNET began in 2006, and spans reviews, reporting, analysis and commentary for desktop software; mobile software, including the very first Android and iPhone apps and operating systems; and mobile hardware, with an emphasis on iPhone and Samsung. Jessica was one of the first people in the world to test, review and report on foldable phones and 5G wireless speeds. Jessica began leading CNET's How-To section for tips and FAQs in 2019, guiding coverage of practical advice on expansive topics ranging from personal finance to phones and home. She holds an MA with Distinction from the University of Warwick (UK).
Expertise Team leadership, audience engagement, iPhone, Android, iOS, tips and FAQs.
Jessica Dolcourt
2 min read
Slacker Radio for BlackBerry
Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

At November's CTIA show in San Diego, Slacker outlined a plan for its music-streaming Slacker Radio apps for BlackBerry, Android, and iPhone. A few months later and several cities over, my colleague, Jasmine France, takes you through a hands-on look at Slacker's embellishments to its iPhone app (caching!) from CES in Las Vegas. In the meantime, I've been tooling around the most recent beta version of Slacker Radio for BlackBerry 3.0.

At CTIA, Slacker told us that version 3.0 of its BlackBerry app would soon be able to sync cached stations over the air, through a data or Wi-Fi connection. Previous versions required you to hook up the BlackBerry to the computer through a USB cable in order to get the music station stored offline. As we noted then, over-the-air caching is an addition we've been waiting to see.

So how does syncing work? Caching stores music information on your SD card. After we cached a station (a menu option when you're playing) we were able to sync it by choosing to "refresh cached stations." This took several minutes for one station over a moderate data connection, but would be much faster over a strong Wi-Fi connection, for example one from your home or office before you depart on your daily commute. We'll take the wireless syncing, but will look forward to speed improvements in the future.

Yet there's one big catch with cache. When it comes out, Slacker Radio's caching will only be available for those signing up for the roughly $4-per-month subscription to Slacker's premium Radio Plus service. However, a trial will let version 3.0 users try out caching for free. In addition to storing tunes, Radio Plus also provides lyrics and unlimited skips and requests, and is ad-free. Look out for Slacker for BlackBerry 3.0 to hit App World in a few weeks.

Slacker caching on the iPhone, Android, and more (photos)

See all photos