Slacker Player reviewed by Mossberg

Walt Mossberg got to play around with a prototype of the Slacker Radio, a new concept in portable music players. Allowing users to customize internet radio stations as well as load on their own music, the Slacker Player connects via WiFi and stores tunes when out of your network.

Many of us, myself included, have high hopes for the player. Unfortunately, Mossberg’s take on the prototype was lackluster, filled with words like “chunky,” “buggy,” and “unreliable.” The company did promise all the issues he reported will be fixed before release (which is already late). Mossberg sums up the Radio’s woes:

“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.”

While every player has its limitations, I’d really like to see Slacker have some success with this concept.

Read [All Things Digital]