Slacker 4 GB Portable Radio with 25 Stations (Black) | List Price: $249.99
Discount Price: $100.54
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Brand: Slacker
Binding: Electronics
Features: - 4 GB Slacker Radio and MP3 player with 25-station capacity
- Built-in Wi-Fi auto-refreshes Slacker Radio stations; music plays whether or not connected
- Plays your existing music collection (MP3, WMA, and AAC)
- 4-inch color LCD displays album art, reviews, artist bios and more
- Removable, rechargeable battery
slacker falls short [Posted on 2008-08-31]
to start off i'm a huge fan of slacker radio i love the software and everything. the device is just full of bugs. Its almost impossible to update my playlists with my comp. its slow and unresponsive. the touch strip on the side is cool but starts to get in the way if you have large hands. i would give the device a higher rating because like i said the software radio is great but the device falls short on just a few fronts.
Fastest Delivery [Posted on 2008-09-06]
It only took 2 days to get my Slacker, BUT when I tried to refresh it, nothing. It worked good till I did that. I talked with a Slacker Tech via email. I tried everything he suggested and more and it still wouldn't work. I shipped it back to Slacker, ( I had to pay posted and insurance on it). That was almost 3 weeks ago and still no sign of a new one!:(
Nice, but ready for prime time? [Posted on 2008-09-13]
Great machine, but has some limitations.
The screen is great, the concept is great. Reliability is tolerable.
Great for someone who can't afford a LOT of cd's.
You DO have to really get the monthly subscription if you want to make it worthwhile. You can really customize your "personal channels".
I liked it, but returned it.
1) NO real classical music.
2) Very limited comedy stand up.
3) Decent in other genres.
It's selection of music is iffy, if you let it choose too much, or expect it to be 100% accurate for music titles in genre, forget it.
It's artist listing for some genres is not accurate. They list some cd's by performer, not "artist". This is miserable for classics.
The device is well laid out, with LIGHTED buttons on the side.
Sound is good. Volume is good. Sometimes the sound is a bit bright, but not too much so.
You don't have to choose 15 stations. You can use fewer, and the device is supposed to know that and make more room for the channels you do have.
The 2gb one has 500mb for your own mp3s. You can also select a song as a "favorite", and it will transfer it to the 500mb area to keep it on machine.
There are some good settings you can do on the PC software to control the music a bit.
It's not exactly perfect right now, but if they corrected a lot of the irritants, it would be a great device.
Good when it works... [Posted on 2008-10-10]
I had one heck of a time just getting my Slacker to work, after that the power button the device was constantly acting up. It would be very unresponsive from time to time and caused me to drop my device, inflicting cosmetic damage. I had to get it replaced. The new one was the same way. For a whole week I couldn't use the device simply because I couldn't turn it on. The screen would light up when I plugged it in but that was it.
When the device does work it works well. The service is amazing, if you aren't familiar with it go sign up, and the portability just makes it that much better. The device is rather bulky and very lightweight. From its appearance you would think it'd be heavy and high quality, but not so much. It doesn't take much to do light damage. It's a little tricky getting used to the scroll wheel, but get used to it because the touch strip isn't a very good way of controlling the device.
For the money, considering the reliability and build it's very expensive. I wouldn't call the price justified. I hope the G2 (second generation at slacker.com) is of better quality.
go for the G2 units [Posted on 2008-11-11]
The Slacker portables bring a new dimension to music listening.
Without the hassle of ripping your own MP3s, the service allows you to create your own customized radio stations and then, by WiFi or USB, load them onto the player for your enjoyment at any time.
Many reviews have discussed the player in depth, so let me address a couple of issues in regards to the older player, the G1, versus the new player, the G2.
The G1 player is obviously bigger, and while one advantage is an easier to read screen, it is a bigger package to carry around.
The G1 player also has not had any further firmware updates since March '08, while the G2 player has had frequent updates. Therefore, some important features such as improved battery life, and better USB connectivity have not (yet) been updated for the G1. Please check the slacker forums if you're thinking about buying a G1 to see if any updates have occurred since this was posted.
The G1 player lacks an equalizer control setting, while this was incorporated into the G2 player. I can't say that the G2's equalizer is worth much, as they don't have any user adjustable settings.
The G2 player has a setting to manage the WiFi settings, whereas this has not (yet) been implemented in the G1 player. This again reflects the lack of any further apparent support for this first generation player.
As the price of the 8Gb G1 player has not dropped substantially (although for a time it was selling for less than [...] from Amazon), the G2 unit appears to be the primary hardware that is receiving support from the company.
The G1 player has had an annoying habit of occasionally having a break in audio at the beginning of a song. This has not been a problem with the G2 units. It is unknown what creates the problem, but there has not been a fix issued for the G1 unit to address this issue.
Remember, if you use the web based player at [...] ..... not all the songs that can be heard on the web player are licensed to be downloaded onto the portable players. The company says that there are they are continually gaining more licensing rights, but it is unclear what percentage of music that you hear on the webplayer can be transferred to the portable player. Even with this limitation, you can create a wide variety of stations and enjoy them on the units.
However, for your money, you will probably find the G2 unit less buggy, and better supported by the company with updates.
Click here for more details and discount information...
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