Slacker for BlackBerry updated to version 2, iPhone to follow

By on May 30, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Software May 30, 2009

The winners of our recent Slacker Radio Plus giveaway won’t be the only ones excited to learn that Slacker Radio’s mobile app has just received a major upgrade. Version 2, 2.0.2 actually, is now available and it includes a variety of bug fixes and enhancements. Highlights include faster performance / app response and much (MUCH) shorter gaps between songs. Transition gaps were one of the few complaints users had with Slacker but now once the app gets rolling, users can move through that 4 million-track library with almost no interruption. The BlackBerry version is available immediately via direct download (uninstall the current version, reboot and visit http://www.slacker.com from your BlackBerry browser) and it will show up in BlackBerry App World this coming week. Likewise, the updated iPhone app is currently awaiting approval and should hit the App Store this coming week as well.

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  • Moe

    Gotta love slacker with their 4 million songs and regular updates, go slacker, fuck pandora.

  • Tom

    Seems just as slow navigating on my 8330 as before. Also, wish they’d let u send slacker to the background when signing in. It closes it.

  • Tom

    Check that, you can send Slacker to the background when signing in. Thank you!

  • Chris

    I think this is the first time an app like this has been made available for the BlackBerry before becoming available for the iPhone. At least it feels that way.

  • Astromanaught

    Can we PLEASE get a windows mobile app? is it really that hard? i know that it can be made? and i know it can look good! look at yahoo go! its beautiful. Please dont leave us in the rain!

  • jeeverz

    still doesn’t work in Canada ? go away

  • http://www.techstbooks.com Colin

    Very slick. I just downloaded it and 30 minutes later, I have slacker replacing pandora as my go to music app

  • http://www.ryaninc.net ryaninc

    How about an Android version? Seriously, any day now would be perfect.

  • alen

    will the iphone version support caching? i take the subway and love slacker on my work issued BB 8330

    and you can run it in the background. just press that last screen button to the right of the wheel and left of the hang up button. whatever it’s called.

    and the old version was pretty flaky

  • Erica J

    Works great over WiFi but sadly no real improvement over EDGE at least in my area.

    Constantly cuts in and out over EDGE which can be annoying.

    I’m willing to sacrifice a slight reduction in fidelity for a service that works better and smoother over 2.5G.

  • dk

    ***Quick question for Big Red gurus… After the last review of Slacker, I chatted with a VZW manager buddy and asked him about Slacker and the ‘unlimited’ to the handset data. He told me that anything that used the web browser was included in the ‘unlimited’ but that if the application created it’s own connection to the EVDO, it would count against your 5GB limit. That’s why, he told me, the Sling App was so easy to get upset about. It didn’t use the browser.

    Any take on that? A monthly potential for data consumption? How thin or not-so-thin is a slacker stream? 32kbps? 64kbps? Something else?
    Is someone inside Big Red Corp telling their managers just enough to make people shy away from these potential data hungry apps or is there truth to this story? He told me that’s what he has been told and hasn’t pushed the issue.

    With a little rounding… A typical MP3 at 128kbps is ~4MB for a ~4 min song. As such, 15 songs per hr at 4MB, would be 60MB her hour. If you listened to Slacker audio content for just 2 hrs a day during the week (ie commute) and a good portion of the weekend days, you could quickly (if you used Slacker like my teenage step daughter uses her iPod) find yourself consuming ~5GB of data just for your fav music app.

    Hence my concern.

    Your take?

    Taking my streaming self and a cup of java to some morning sunshine with the printed paper until my favorite is on a reader…

    Thanks.

  • dk

    Additionally, having spent about 30 minutes on the Slacker site, I see nothing in the FAQs about bitrate, no matrix to differentiate the free radio / radio plus / premium options.

    I’ve opened a ticket with their customer support regarding transportability across laptop(s) and BB Storm offerings.

    when I get a reply (“within 2 business days…”) I’ll post it here.

    Thanks.

  • dk

    According to Slacker, the Radio Plus is the subscription service for any device. The Premium service is for their music player only. As such, all music is streamed to a mobile device unless it is Slacker’s.

    I received no information about bitrates and bandwidth consumption.

    And, unfortunately no replies here.

    Anyone?

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