Sunday, December 16, 2007

New Slacker Radio Due Next Month

Hey, here's an idea: the FCC should license "broadcasters" across the country to transmit music via wireless "radio waves" to cheap "receivers." The service could be free to the listener subsidized via corporate advertising, and programming might include local news and information - multiple "stations" could even deliver tailored content to specific audiences. Automobiles might even be fitted with "radios" and inexpensive portable versions could be engineered to run for days on a single 9-volt battery...

From Charlotte Observer:

So a new kind of portable player, one for more passive and budget-minded users, is slated to arrive late next month. It's called the Slacker Personal Radio, and its name is meant to refer to people of any age who just want to sit back and listen instead of actively managing their music.

The new Slacker players will come in three models, ranging from $200 to $300, depending on capacity. But the music they play will be absolutely free, contained in preprogrammed Internet radio stations instead of individually selected songs and albums. The stations will be automatically refreshed with new tunes via a wireless connection built right into the device. You'll have to be near a hot spot for these updates. But you won't need a hot spot just to hear your music, because the songs are cached on the device. And you'll never have to plug it into a computer.
Link

1 comment:

Kay said...

FlyTunes was announced at CES and appears to deliver what Slacker promises, except you don't need to buy their player, and you don't need to pay a monthly fee. It'll be available for download 1/21. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/07/flytunes-to-bring-internet-radio-to-your-iphone/