The boys over at Wired got their hands on a brand new Slacker Portable, and they absolutely love it. Specifically, Wired says it "totally rawks."

Among their list of reasons for giving such a glowing review is the solid construction, clean sound (since it uses the AAC Pro v2 codec) and the fact that it's a cure for "music collection boredom."

Things they didn't like? The wacky touchstrip (and subsequent lack of touchscreen - probably my biggest gripe from the limited amount of time I spent with it), and the fact that the cached stations don't leave much room for your own music collection.

Wired leans much more towards the positive end of the spectrum than the likes of Walt Mossberg - but the simple fact that Walt didn't say he hated the device is glowing in itself.

[Wired]

Well, the day has finally arrived, and not a moment too soon - the long anticipated Slacker Portable is shipping today, according to LAPTOP Magazine.

Some folks already have their Slacker Portables because the company decided to send out pre-launch units to those who preordered the product. But it's finally available now for the rest of us (check out my hands-on photos from CES here).

Even more interesting is the interview that LAPTOP had with Slacker's VP of Marketing Jonathan Sasse, where he hinted that the "mobile application" of Slacker will be coming later in 2008. That "mobile application" of course will be the satellite-enable cardock.

The interview gives some very intriguing insight into how Slacker differentiates itself from other forms of "radio." I've conveniently included a snippet of interest after the jump, but you're welcome to read the entire interview for yourself.

[LAPTOP Magazine]

We've seen computer-generated mockups floating around the internets for a while now of what Slacker's Dock would look like, but we never had a the chance to see one up-close and personal. That is, until last week... and it's completely different.

What you see here in these (highly uninspired) photos is Slacker's Dock. Noticeably absent from the mockups is the buttons along the bottom and along the side. In chatting with the Slacker guys, they found that the buttons simply made the dock too big for use on the dashboard. So Slacker decided to dedicate a majority of its functionality to the remote.

I'm not convinced this was an entirely great decision, but I'm withholding judgement for now.

Part of my problem is that with all the plug-and-play radios I've tested, I always find myself just using the controls on the radio itself, and rarely using the remote. The remotes usually just get stashed away into the center console, never to be seen again.

Slacker did do a couple ingenious things with this dock though.

First, the remote tucks neatly behind the Slacker Portable into the dock. So if I feel the need to reach for my radio, I can grab the remote and start using it. This also keeps me from hiding the remote from myself.

Second, the dock serves as both a Home Dock and a Car Dock. There's no need to buy two. The back features the standard four-screw connection that fits many suction-cup/vent-clip mounts, or it will stand by itself nicely on your desk. For most people though, the dock will probably just stay in the car.

You can still use the controls on the top of the Slacker Portable, so most of the necessary functionality is still there. But personally, I think I would've liked to see a row of buttons for preset channels. Still, I'm withholding final judgment until I can actually drive around with the device.

Enter the Squeezebox Duet. It's a wireless multi-room digital audio receiver. Play your entire MP3 collection, or stream Internet Radio from various online services - including Pandora, Rhapsody, and, yes, Slacker.

The Squeezebox Duet provides the kind of functionality you'd normally expect to see on a $1,000 system, for less than half the price. Plus, it includes Slacker. And I don't just like Slacker, I love it.

It's called the "Duet" because the device includes a separate Controller and Receiver. The Controller has a bright iPod-esque 2.4" display with album art and other goodies. So you no longer need to walk up to the receiver to change the tunes (convenient if you're using it for multi-room purposes). You also don't need your computer to be on (or connected) to listen to your personal collection or other services - they let you store your MP3s in an online "music locker" - so it's pretty darn convenient as well.

Oh, and it won a CNET Best of CES award.

The Squeezebox Duet isn't available for sale yet, but when it is, it'll run for $399. That's a decent entry price, especially for consumers who are into home entertainment systems.

Anyone want to guess when these types of products will be the "home radios" of the future?

Check out more pics, with the fully functioning Slacker service running, after the jump...

Audiovox this week unveiled its RCA-brand "Infinite Radio" series of tabletop internet radios.

Each tabletop radio features regular analog AM/FM, USB Host, WiFi 802.11b/g, and direct access to a custom Web radio aggregation service and to Slacker’s personalized Internet radio service.

The RCA RIR200 retails for a suggested $99, but the $149 RCA RIR205 adds a companion “WiFi enabler,” a transmitter/receiver that plugs into a wired home-network router and removes the need to use WiFi setup software.

The interesting thing is that the Slacker service is embedded into these devices. Slacker has an API that allows the service to essentially be built into any internet connected device. This is just one example.

Check out a bunch more photos after the jump...

Slacker didn't have a booth at CES this year, but they were still there holding private product demonstrations and showings of their ultra-slick Slacker Portable. This was brilliant because it was separated away from the hustle and bustle of the Las Vegas Convention Center, allowing for a truly in depth discussion (and understanding) of Slacker's business and products.

One of the core goals of Slacker is to be heard everywhere. They're not relegating themselves to the confines of their own device/service ecosystem. What Slacker is doing instead is getting their service embedded wherever someone can listen to it. That not only includes listening on the PC, but also through various Internet Radio enabled devices.

We'll see a bit more on the other Slacker-enabled devices shortly, but for now let's focus on the Slacker Portable.

Follow the jump for much more...

Yes, that's a double-negative in the headline. In other words Uncle Walt, the leader of all tech writers, isn't necessarily against the Slacker Portable, but he's also not in love with it... yet.

Walt Mossberg (who yelled the infamous words, "I don't give a fuck about your stock price!" at XM's former CEO Hugh Panero a few years back) overall seemed to find the Slacker service/player intriguing. His biggest problem - granted, it was a prototype he was playing with - was the bugs that need to be worked out of the player.

"The two prototype Slacker units I tried, however, were hobbled by bugs and glitches that the company must expunge by the release date, which was originally slated to be this month. For instance, the players sometimes failed to wake up after going to sleep, requiring a reboot. The touch strip was unreliable. One player failed several times to connect to my account. Battery life is well below Slacker’s goal of 12 hours between charges. The company says it is aware of these problems, and pledges all will be fixed."

Which explains why the Slacker Portable player has been delayed. Still Mossberg seems to like what he sees so far, but his hope for the service itself is that the ads aren't too annoying.

One interesting thing to note: he compared the Slacker service to Rhapsody and of course to Sirius and XM:

"And both the Sirius and XM satellite-radio networks offer portable players for listening to their stations, although the stations can’t be customized."

I think that's an important distinction. Slacker is meant for consumers who have no desire to program entire playlists of music - but it still has an easy way to customize the music you're listening to.

Satellite Radio on the other hand has absolutely no interactivity. There is a growing desire by consumers to increase control over their media experiences. Sirius and XM need to come up with solution for this, to create the feeling of interaction and control, because the influence of this trend in consumers' thinking is significant and real. I'm not sure how, I just know what, needs to be done to adapt for future trends.

But I digress.

Watch Mossberg's quickie video review below...

[All Things Digital]

This almost comes as a surprise, but it was so down to the wire for the folks at Slacker that I wasn't holding my breathe.

According to Engadget, people who pre-ordered the Slacker Portable just received notification that the device will be delayed from its original ship date.

The original official ship date was December 13th, but now that's been bumped up to January 31st, 2008.

Slacker's reason is "in order to deliver the best possible player," which is marketing lingo for "oopsie, we found a boo-boo and need to fix it." Either version is good enough reason to wait another few weeks in my book.

[Engadget]
Thanks Sean!