I agree this is a great player, few commercials (they last like 3 seconds) and great quality. BUT, GRRRRR…6 more gigs for $20, I am so pissed I didn’t wait. Oh well, so goes Woot, that’s the chance you take. Otherwise, this was my best Woot purchase EVER!!!
Bob
Ignoring all the possible tech. difficulties and in for one.
Just in case anyone is on the fence, you can always utilize the “live chat” support on slacker’s website and talk to a live agent. They were very helpful. Just click on Customer Support, on the new window, click Customer Support again. Select Live Chat and it will connect you to an agent.
I can hardly wait to cancel my XM Radio!! I hate having to call XM and reaching someone outside of the US. They have ticked me off twice now regarding my sign-in to their site and how they automatically renewed my 3-year when I added on an additional unit (woot’s Delphi Skyfi2 XM Receiver) last year a x-mas. So for these reasons, I pretty excited to cancel. I hope the slacker portable is as good as it is for those that love it. My biggest problem with the zune is downloading songs or transferring them, I don’t have that kind of time. I almost pulled the trigger and got an XM portable last year, I’m so glad I didn’t! Thanks Woot for selling the Slacker, it’s just my style (music wise, that is)!!!
BTW… this unit allows up to 4GB for your personal mp3, per Slacker support, for this particular unit.
I was just about to buy the Slacker G2 for $250, but then encountered this Woot!
$75 is a lot less than $250, and I’ve been ready to make the plunge for sometime now.
XM lost my interest when they were swallowed by Sirius, when they canceled favorite stations like Fine Tuning, and Beyond Jazz.
I’ve been using Slacker online for over a month now, so this is the next step to bringing my music back to my car. I’ll just plug this into my XM radio’s aux input jack, and Voila! Slacker in my car!
So now my question is will I be able to connect this to a 12 Volt power supply, or will I have to figure on recharging it every night?
negative. Over wifi it connects via DHCP. there is something you need to understand then the USB situation makes sense.
YOU DO NOT SYNC THE SLACKER OVER USB EVER
It just does not have that ability. IT can ONLY sync over the internet DIRECTLY.
when you connect via usb your NOT using the computer to sync. your only using the computer usb connection to gain access to “ICS” or internet connection sharing.
ICS requires 192.168.0.1 NOT THE SLACKER
its probably part of the security (if the COMPUTER actually synced the files would need to reside somewhere on your computer at some point and therby be open to hacks)
by using ICS they use the SAME “direct internet download” that it uses over wifi.
I have had all 6 of my active slackers sync at the same time on my router. No problems. they each get a different ip address.
IE there is no reason to use the USB connection at home just use the wifi its easier and transparent.
actually there is NO other options on the market. the slacker is singularly unique for right now at least.
as for car quality. you have to jack up the volume. the slacker does not have a lot of “oomph” out the head phone jack. in both my cars I had to turn it all the way up when I plugged into the aux port and then it sounded just fine.
I think so, though haven’t tried it. You would need a cig lighter->small USB cable adapter. I think they do make these, but you’ll have to look around on the internet to find one. Try newegg.com or similar.
I got this during a woot off. Gave it to my sister’s boyfriend for christmas. I felt like an ass because i didnt realize it wasnt a touch screen, and it was over half and inch thick! A waste in my book.
A waste for people who don’t properly research products before purchasing…
trust me the web player is seriously messed up it just your not likely to encounter the problem. there is something wrong with there log in log out links. Most people have one slacker they log in it remember them and they are good to go.
I have 7 slackers. everything I manage to get the web player working if I TOUCH “sign out” to try and log in as someone else all hell breaks loose 
Some more information on the slacker I see a lot of people asking how hard it is to set up so I am going to type a walk through for you. If you follow these instructions you should be good to go and its REALLY easy.
Ok first open your slakcer make sure it works. (don’t forget the battery disable tab on the back) Plug in the charger let it charge
NOW goto slacker.com you will NEED both java and flash.
click signin and then create account.
Fill out the information
when your done you will now be logged in.
now got to the PORTABLE button on the left bottom of the web player click it.
at the bottom is a link for if you already have a device click that
now on your slacker hit the HOME button (top right side house graphic on the button itself)
scroll down to settings and then to ABOUT
in big yellow letters at the top of the screen will be your ID NUMBER (2 sets of 4 alphanumeric character)
enter those into the page your at on the computer (case does not matter) click next or whatever.
its going to show you the options click SAVE or DONE to confirm.
your slacker is now connected to your online account.
now goto stations and click on Today’s Hits
on the right side click SEND TO PORTABLE
now for some this is it for others not. goto the PORTABLE button.
on the right side you will see STATIONS ON PORTABLE
I want you to click the X REMOVE button for all but today’s hits.
Click save
NOW goto your slacker and hit that home button again till you at the main menu
scroll down to CONNECT and select it
it will do some things and then DISPLAY the SSID’s of the routers it can see goto YOUR router and select it (if your passworded it will prompt you for this)
thats it. leave the slacker sitting next to your router till its done (5-15 minutes)
this will also auto download the new update.
NOW when thats finished (it will slacker your slacker is refreshed and ready to go) click home to go back to main menu.
now unplug the power supply (important the slacker will NOT shut down if its connected to power) and turn off the slacker (just push down the power button and release immediately) sometimes it can take a few times if your slacker is busy)
it will say shutting down and then immediately go to upgrading your slacker.
let this run (you can plug the charger back in now if you wish) 5-10 minutes tops
when it reboots make sure it plays. THATS IT your now DONE
goto the web player explore find good stuff. click SEND to portable to que it up for sync to the portable.
when your manually editing don’t sync till your all done. the first time you add a station the sync will be longer subsequent updates will take 30-90 seconds with longer updates taking maybe 3-5 minutes tops.
From now on when you get home at night just PLUG IN your slacker. When it senses external power it will automatically seek out a wifi connection and SYNC with NO input from you its totally transparent and automatic once your done the initial setup.
It will connect to any wifi connection AFTER you have select it and told it to connect to that. it will not connect to any wifi without your initial permission. after you give it the go ahead it will form then on automatically use that wifi connection if its available.
Mutliple units in the household are FINE no problems EXCEPT if you try to log in and out of multiple accounts on one computer. There is something hinky on there end that breaks this otherwise you should NOT have a problem
when you FIRST get your slacker you might have some trouble connecting since if you got YOUR slacker that day so likely did many other wooters. IE the servers will be bogged down.
When I got mine I had ZERO luck getting it to connect but the next morning all was well and it went flawlessly and has been flawless ever since.
Once you have your stations to your liking your going to find that you NEVER really have a need to log into the web player at all.
Some descriptions
its not an mp3 player. its a RADIO with some mp3 player like features. Think of it like that and all the issues are suddenly no longer issues.
6 skip limit on an mp3 player is a WTF kind of thing.
6 Skips on a radio is like WOW I can skip a song on the radio!!
See what I mean? its relative. Think of it as a RADIO and its amazing.
it will NOT likely replace your mp3 player anymore than your stereo or car radio will but it can COMPLIMENT your mp3 player greatly.
I downloaded a lot of new music I never would have thought of without the slacker.
its really a great device! I bought this 8gb version (I wanted to get it for $100 on amazon but now its $115 and I STILL wanted it (no money) but when I saw it here for $75 I snapped it up immediately.
I will probably still only use the 10 or 11 stations I use now on the 8gb version when I get it but with 4gb of space for slacker stations they should end up being a lot DEEPER in content with that much more space.
If you can afford $75 and love music you absolutely will NOT be disappointed with a slacker purchase a truly unique and wonderful gadget.
I REALLY hope they can survive !! gen 2 hardware is a good sign that they at least are not suffering. and they new cheaper plus service is nice though I wish they would let me pay in 6 month installs as I just don’t have $48 to spend all at once right now but then again the 6 skip limit is an extremely minor issue to me.
OK one more thing a lot of this is fixed with the latest update IE now the G1 and G2 all get the same content
but there is one problem left. SOMETIMES music you find on slacker.com WILL NEVER PLAY on your slacker portable.
THIS IS NOT slackers fault. The LICENSING slacker has means a label or artists can say DO NOT put my content on the portable.
Now there is ANOTHER problem. the solution seems easy when I click send to portable a warning pops ups says be warned these artists will not show up on your portable.
alas this does not happen. again NOT slackers fault. Part of the compulsory contract they have with the labels says they are FORBIDDING from disclosing to yo what songs can and can not goto the portable. (don’t you just love music labels)
this is actually pretty rare and will go un noticed by most people but it can result in oddities.
For example I love asian music (thai cantopop jpop etc…) so I was delighted when I saw they had Kelly Chen and a few others. so I made a station and to my dismay when my asian only custom stations started playing madonna steffani duran duran inks etc… I was like What the Hell ??
but on the web player I could not BAN those artists since they were NOT in the line up. You see they were not allowed to TELL ME what artists I can not have so they were force to “fill in” with random artists cute again though NOT slackers fault and pretty rare.
to avoid this don’t listen on the web player sync and use the portable (I like the portable more anyway thats why I bought) or just don’t go yelling to support if you notice if there is nothing they can do about it.
Enjoy your slacker.
2 years? That is such nonsense! Why do people come on here and lie like this? Apparently you need to spend some time reading “HOW TO USE THE SLACKER PORTABLE”
Mine downloads new music every day and when songs are released to regular radio station they show up on my Slacker stations. There are channels that play currents and there are many that do not.
I don’t know after reading through some of the post in this thread. I think some of you are too darn stupid to use this device. Slacker can’t resolve end users stupidity and there is an awful lot of it in this thread!
It charges via USB. Run down to your local dollar store or the like, and pick up a RAZR or Blackberry car charger. It’ll work fine.
Wrong, wrong and wrong.
Oh Brother? Didn’t you bother to read the description of the device, did you not bother to check out the spec in terms of the size?
This is Slacker fought though that you didn’t do your part as a shopper! Gotcha!
Ignorance isn’t always Bliss!
well he may not be lying so much as does not know how to configure it.
I was impressed that today’s hits plays so many released in 2007 2008 songs its how I found so much music I would not have found othewise.
MOST artists over 5 years old I am already aware of and have what I want from them its the NEW stuff I have no experience with and the slacker is so good about.
it has also found some older stuff thats new for me.
Give it time its a wee repetitive the first few days but USE THE HEART AND HATE buttons often. use hate more than heart I only hear songs I REALLY REALLY like.
after a few days syncing maybe 2 weeks it will start to EXPAND the library and starts to get REALLY impressive. (it has to LEARN from you so give it time)
It will (depending on the DEPTH of the station) download 100-300 songs PER station if we assume 150 songs to be conservative (after a few weeks of syncing) thats a potential of 6000 tracks
how many tracks do you have on your MP3 player? somehow I doubt you have 6000
Hey I’m not doubting your experience but I just tried logging out and logging back in without any problem. I’m thinking you have something messed up with your browser cookies, either a setting in the browser or some anti-virus software on your PC.
Yeah if you want to give them benefit of the doubt! LOL
But have you ever seen so much misinformation about a product for so many posters?
for a regular sync a stint i drive through MIGHT be enough but it would be “close” my daily updates typically take 3-8 minutes depending on how much I banned and hearted) in fact hang on I will sync it right now and see how long it takes
Initial connection to acquisition of signal 29 seconds add a few more seconds if you have OK a new connection a little more if you have to enter encryption.
Beginning download at Ok mine finished in 1:15 seconds but clearly it did not really get much of anything (I just synced last night 8 hours ago so that explains that I will try to remember to time it again tonight.
if you sync daily they are VERY short maybe not quite short enough for a drive through but possible at 3-5 minutes.
in for 1. my first woot! i’ve been waiting for a couple months for something that really interested me and didn’t sell out before sunrise.