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]