News February 27, 2010

Slacker Radio 3.0 for BlackBerry & Android Brings Faster App and Improved Wireless Station Caching

It’s really no secret that many of the Gear Diary team are simply loving Slacker Radio on their smartphones. If you really want a great take on how Slacker can be customized to fit into your lifestyle, just read’s Dan’s recent post on how much use he’s been getting from Slacker. Well, guess what? If you are an Android or BlackBerry smartphone user, you have even more of a reason to download and use Slacker with the 3.0 software upgrade that brings improved wireless station caching.

That means you can save, or cache, your favorite Slacker Radio stations (and all those great custom mix stations you’ve set up!) and then listen to them wherever you are — regardless of whether you’re connected to a wireless network. Streaming Slacker over bluetooth to your radio while driving? Don’t worry about those “dead spots” where you lose cellular connection again. Riding the subway? Just play your cached stations and keep the tunes comin’. The upgrade also brings a smaller app size on your smartphone, enhanced interface and faster startup.Go to Slacker.com on your BlackBerry or Android device – or search Android Market for the free upgrade (the Slacker Radio update to 3.0 is not yet available through BlackBerry App World). Read on for the full press release and additional details on the 3.0 Slacker update.

Features:

Slacker Radio 3.0 for BlackBerry & Android smartphones:

• Updated interface

• Faster application startup time

• Significantly smaller application size

• Improved touch interface for BlackBerry & Android Storm

• Greatly improved battery life

• New settings menu options

• Tabbed info view for lyrics, reviews and biographies

• Context Aware – click a highlighted artist name in a text message or email to enable direct launch of a related Slacker station

• Create custom stations based on artists or songs

• View album art and photos

• Rate songs as favorites

• Ban the songs and artists you don’t like

Slacker Radio 3.0 with Slacker Radio Plus:

• Wireless station caching – listen to Slacker Radio without a Wi-Fi or mobile network connection

• Greatly improved battery life on cached station playback

• Auto Station Refresh – effortlessly updates cached stations overnight

• Unlimited song skipping

• Ad-free listening

• Complete song lyrics*

• Unlimited song requests for creating stations

Gear Diary Slacker Radio 3.0 for BlackBerry & Android Brings Faster App and Improved Wireless Station Caching photo

Press Release:

Enhanced and Streamlined Slacker Radio 3.0 Provides BlackBerry & Android Smartphone Owners with Personalized Radio On-the-Go

Slacker, Inc. today announced the availability of Slacker Radio 3.0 for BlackBerry & Android® smartphones. Music lovers can now cache their favorite Slacker stations wirelessly directly to their BlackBerry & Android smartphones to enjoy personalized radio on-the-go regardless if they are still connected to a wireless network or not. Slacker Radio for BlackBerry & Android 3.0 is available today by visiting Slacker.com from a BlackBerry or Android Web Browser and will soon be available on BlackBerry App World and Android Market.

With Slacker Radio 3.0 and a Slacker Radio Plus subscription, music enthusiasts using a BlackBerry & Android smartphone can wirelessly cache their favorite stations simply by selecting “Cache Station” from the menu within the application. Listeners can choose to manually cache their favorite stations or use “Auto Refresh,” enabling BlackBerry & Android smartphones to automatically wake during overnight charging and refresh station content, providing new music daily with no additional effort.

Cached stations are stored on the memory card of the BlackBerry & Android smartphone and can be played on subways, planes and all destinations in between with no network drop-outs and minimal battery usage. Along with station-storing capabilities, Slacker Radio Plus features ad-free listening, song lyrics, unlimited song skipping, unlimited song requests and more.

Listeners of the free Slacker Basic Radio service will be able to play cached stations for up to 14 days, providing the opportunity to try the full benefits of station caching on their BlackBerry & Android smartphone, risk-free.

“BlackBerry & Android smartphone users can now benefit from the convenience of wirelessly caching their favorite Slacker stations,” said Jonathan Sasse, senior vice president of marketing at Slacker. “This addition makes it even easier to store music directly on their smartphones to get the most out of the Slacker Radio experience and truly listen to their music everywhere they go.”

The millions who listen to the free Slacker Basic Radio service will continue to enjoy an unparalleled music experience with new enhancements in the 3.0 version, including improved battery life, faster application startup and an updated interface. With access to a song library that is nearly four times the size of the leading competitor, BlackBerry & Android smartphone owners can use Slacker Basic Radio or Slacker Radio Plus to create their own Personal Radio stations or listen to and personalize over 120 expert-programmed genre stations.

Slacker Radio 3.0 for BlackBerry & Android smartphones:

• Updated interface

• Faster application startup time

• Significantly smaller application size

• Improved touch interface for BlackBerry & Android Storm

• Greatly improved battery life

• New settings menu options

• Tabbed info view for lyrics, reviews and biographies

• Context Aware – click a highlighted artist name in a text message or email to enable direct launch of a related Slacker station

• Create custom stations based on artists or songs

• View album art and photos

• Rate songs as favorites

• Ban the songs and artists you don’t like

Slacker Radio 3.0 with Slacker Radio Plus:

• Wireless station caching – listen to Slacker Radio without a Wi-Fi or mobile network connection

• Greatly improved battery life on cached station playback

• Auto Station Refresh – effortlessly updates cached stations overnight

• Unlimited song skipping

• Ad-free listening

• Complete song lyrics*

• Unlimited song requests for creating stations

Pricing and Availability

Slacker Radio for BlackBerry & Android 3.0 is available today by visiting Slacker.com from your BlackBerry or Android phone’s Web Browser. Slacker Radio Plus is available for as low as $3.99 per month and can be purchased from within the Slacker Radio application or by visiting http://www.Slacker.com/RadioPlus from a desktop web browser. Please visit www.Slacker.com for additional details.

Slacker Radio 3.0 for BlackBerry & Android is compatible with BlackBerry & Android smartphones model 8500 and higher** including all BlackBerry & Android Bold, BlackBerry & Android Tour and BlackBerry & Android Storm series and most newer BlackBerry & Android Curve series smartphones.

About Slacker, Inc.

Slacker is the world’s first Personal Radio company offering “Your Radio Everywhere.” Slacker allows music lovers to play highly personalized music online at the Slacker web site or on the go with Slacker Personal Radio players and mobile phones. Slacker mobile applications are currently available for Android, BlackBerry & Android smartphones, Palm web OS, and the iPhone. For more information visit http://www.Slacker.com/everywhere.

For regular Slacker updates follow us at www.Twitter.com/SlackerRadio, become a Fan on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/SlackerRadio or visit www.Slacker.com.

(**Note: the BlackBerry 8830 is not currently supported for Slacker 3.0)

Slacker and Slacker.com are registered trademarks of Slacker, Inc. All other trademarks and product names are the property of their respective companies.