By Yinka Adegoke
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Is it an iPod? Is it an old-fashioned transistor radio? These are the questions the Slacker portable digital music player will have to answer when it hits U.S. stores this month in time for the lucrative holiday season.
Owners of the more than 160 million iPods out there no doubt love their sleek digital music players and their favorite music. But even favorite music gets old, and that's where the new Slacker G2 comes in.


The $200 Slacker is a new Web radio-enabled player whose makers hope will go one better than the iPod by helping music fans to update their songs while on the go -- and for free.

Here's how it works: Users pick from a variety of pre-programmed and personalized stations on the Slacker website (www.slacker.com), ranging from those that play classic jazz to ones that play the latest indie rock hits.

They can then save their favorite stations to the Slacker -- about the size of a small deck of cards with a 2.4-inch color screen -- by linking to their PC either via a standard USB port or by a wireless Internet connection.

The Slacker G2 comes in a 4GB version that carries 25 stations, or around 2,500 songs, with around 1GB of personal storage space for MP3 audio files. There is also an 8GB version that carries 40 stations, or 4,000 songs, has 3GB of personal storage and sells for $250.

WiFi access makes the device particularly elegant since it refreshes your player with new music for each station saved on the player every time you connect. Once an updated station is saved, users can skip ahead on songs, or save the ones they like to a personalized station on the Slacker player.

UPDATING, WAITING

But the process has a few hiccups. For one thing, the updating time can be lengthy.

It took around 40 minutes to update just 10 radio stations when this reporter tried, after having listened to just a couple of stations for a few minutes each.

A Slacker company spokesman said the service adds the most "depth" of new music to the stations the user listens to the most. So for instance, if one listens to just three of 25 stations, then those three will have more new music added than some of the other stations listened to less often.

Slacker is not without its critics. One comment posted on the tech site CrunchGear noted that users may already have a Web radio device in their pockets.

"All the new smart phones can play Internet radio, and you can get all the radio you want free from Pandora (or) Last FM," a user nicknamed Ray Fix said.

It's worth noting most phones do not "cache" or save the radio stations on the player like the Slacker does. This means the stations can be listened to while on the subway or on a plane just like an MP3 player.

Another feature for music fans when songs play is the album artwork pops up and the user can click on up-to-date artist/album reviews. This is especially useful for discovering and learning about new artists.

From subscription services to satellite radio, the menu of portable music players vary, and Apple Inc's iPod remains the player to beat. Slacker's niche is that the full service provides portable music for free -- with no monthly subscription fees or download charges.

With an iPod the user typically must buy songs to download off the iTunes store or transfer their existing MP3 songs from their PCs.

There is a premium Slacker service for $7.50 a month for a year, which gives the user more control and the ability to create playlists of their favorite songs.

The start-up company from San Diego will roll out the first players in Best Buy stores later this month. Executives hope the first version will sell around 100,000 pieces by the first week of January.

(The PluggedIn column appears weekly. Comments or questions on this one can be e-mailed to yinka.adegoke(at)thomsonreuters.com)

(Editing by Maureen Bavdek)
© Copyright 2008 Reuters.