Comments on: Slacker for BlackBerry Hands-on Impressions

By: Lissy

Lissy — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:38:51 +0000

NM I figured it out

By: Lissy

Lissy — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:28:26 +0000

I can’t figure out how to shut it off. When I use the “back” button, which usually ends whatever task I was doing, the slacker still plays

By: CD

CD — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:29:38 +0000

The slacker.synclauncher.exe is on your Blackberry.
When connected to a Windows PC via USB, the Blackberry provides two disk volumes to Windows. One is the internal memory, one is the Media Card.

I go to drive “S:\” and double-click slacker.synclauncher.exe

The first time, this transfers a lot of data, 100 songs per cached station. Mine is over a Gig with 12 stations cached.

After that, a sync only changes some of the cached songs, so it doesn’t take anywhere near as long.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:14:13 +0000

I miss be missing something. In the “caching” instructions above it says “then on your PC, select the option that says “Sync Slacker Stations.” This application is installed on my Blackberry not my pc. Therefore there is no options on my PC related to Slacker Radio for caching or anything else. Am I missing something??

By: ed

ed — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:49:03 +0000

Slacker used to crash my curve all the time. Their updates tend be more and mores table. They have now released a 2.0 version in the last few days which has not crashed my curve yet. Make sure you are running the latest.

By: Ana

Ana — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:28:51 +0000

I downloaded slacker on my Blackberry Curve 8330 and it will make it turn off from time to time. This is happening to my husband’s blackberry as well. What could it be. It just freezes and reboots the phone.

Any suggestions, I really like the Slacker!!!!

Ana

By: CD

CD — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:07:57 +0000

I changed my mind about the speed of the caching.
I checked it again, and it is coming in at 143KBpS on my 1.5Mbps DSL line.
That’s ~full speed.
The cached data is 960MB on my 4GB SD card.

I love this product on my Blackberry Bold.

By: CD

CD — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:40:17 +0000

I love the caching, although even the online GPRS (no 3G here) play is better reception than normal radio in my area.

I plug my Bold into an “aux adapter” from Logjam Electronics that I originally used for a Sony NetMD and then iPod, for use in my car.

My music goes mute, and I can hear a little tiny ring tone from the Bold on incoming calls. Lack of music is really my cue. I can answer the call on a BT headset, but I haven’t figured out how to answer if I don’t have my headset on. When I hang up the call, the music is unmuted.

The online caching update is dog slow, though. It took 133 minutes to cache seven stations. uncache doesn’t work, as nearly as I can tell. You have to “reset account” and start over, so the 133 minutes was for a full load.

700 songs on my Berry. That’s more than I need to listen to over a period of a month or so, and the refresh is fresh, not the two year old songs on my ipod collection.

This is nearly perfect.
I signed up for the subscription,even though I had no issues at all with the free version. I want to pay them, so they stay in business. This beats sat radio hands down. The sat radio cuts out in the mountains around here.

Oddly enough, the only radio station that comes in around here is KCBS news, so that fills the one lack in cached Slacker for me.

–
Clarence A Dold – Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

By: Slacker Radio Comes to the BlackBerry Storm - Officially! at SmartPhoneCool.com

Slacker Radio Comes to the BlackBerry Storm - Officially! at SmartPhoneCool.com — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:00:10 +0000

[...] you know, I’m a big fan of Slacker. Now, my BlackBerry Storm friends can share in the same level of excellence from Slacker Radio that [...]

By: Slacker Radio Comes to the BlackBerry Storm - Officially! | BlackBerry Cool

Slacker Radio Comes to the BlackBerry Storm - Officially! | BlackBerry Cool — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:00:57 +0000

[...] you know, I’m a big fan of Slacker. Now, my BlackBerry Storm friends can share in the same level of excellence from Slacker Radio that [...]

By: Bob Bellin

Bob Bellin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:49:35 +0000

It locks up on my 8330 (curve) and also caused e-mail conflicts. Once I removed it everything was fine. It may work better on the Bold and Storm, but Sprint store tech said that she has heard anecdotally that it’s buggy.

By: Richard G.

Richard G. — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:20:15 +0000

I recently got the BB 8350i and I constantly get a white screen when trying to boot up. I believe this is an issue with the app though, as others have reported the same issue in Crackberry’s forums as well.

By: dan smith

dan smith — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:17:52 +0000

Please change the strapline from anywher to ‘only in the US’ to reflect the unfortunate facts for you international visitors

By: Monday Giveaway: 10 FREE SLACKER RADIO PLUS SUBSCRIPTIONS | BlackBerry Cool

Monday Giveaway: 10 FREE SLACKER RADIO PLUS SUBSCRIPTIONS | BlackBerry Cool — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:00:02 +0000

[...] is a big fan of Slacker, the streaming radio application for BlackBerry and desktop (check out Nan’s Slacker impressions). Always the enterprising sort, Nan was able to convince the kind team at Slacker to give [...]

By: Nan Palmero

Nan Palmero — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:59:23 +0000

@Ron K if the issue persists, try hitting up the Slacker Forums, their tech gurus are very attentive – http://forums.slacker.com/slacker-blackberry-application-f173.html

By: Ron K.

Ron K. — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:44:52 +0000

Thanks for the reply back. I will reboot my device & it should do the trick hopefully. If there is anything else I need to know more regarding the un-caching on free space, I’m all ears. Have a good day!

By: Nan Palmero

Nan Palmero — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:50:06 +0000

@phreqd glad you like it, station streaming works really well and is BlackBerry exclusive.

@jawman I’ll be getting my Storm soon. As soon as I do, I’ll try to get that sorted out. Thanks for the heads up! I’ll likely check in with the forums at http://forums.slacker.com

@greg a I’m so glad we’re in agreement, an equalizer is a brilliant idea, too!

@Sam Bradley Hey Sam! Isn’t the caching amazing? It is especially helpful for you, since there is only 1X coverage in that part of TX. The caching is also supposed to be quite conservative with the battery. Try it and let me know your findings, please.

@Northern Slacker Wannabe I’m with you and I’m very sorry. If you want to listen to Slacker on your computer, at least, do a Google search for HotSpot Shield.

@Ron K If you decide to uncache a station, it should free up more space on your memory card. Try it and then do a reboot on your device to see if it clears. It should. Thanks!

By: Ron K.

Ron K. — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:12:58 +0000

If you decide to un-caching/removing a station from your memory card, does your memory card free up more space or does the space stay the same? I’m just curious because when I do this option, my “free up space” does not increase. I like to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

Ron K.

http://www.myspace.com/ronk73

By: Nan Palmero

Nan Palmero — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:34:37 +0000

@nobody great info overall, thank you!

@phreqd glad you like Slacker for Blackberry as much as I do, you’ll love the station caching, it really takes Slacker to a whole new level.

By: Northern Slacker Wannabe

Northern Slacker Wannabe — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 05:03:11 +0000

Downloaded the program and installed it, got as far as “buffering” before I realized something was wrong. After doing a bit of digging around online I found out that Slacker is not licensed to broadcast in Canada… such bull. Guess I won’t be able to use this new App until they cut away the months or potentially years of red tape.

The politics behind issues like this piss me off sometimes

By: Sam Bradley

Sam Bradley — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:59:36 +0000

Nan — Cool stuff. 100 song cache seems crazy. Blows my mind that it is cool with DMCA, but it must be.

To be honest, I never listen to music on my Curve. I’m a bit battery paranoid. However, you may have pushed me to try it!

By: greg a

greg a — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:16:45 +0000

Slacker Radio is great and the best I’ve used. The quality is excellent. I plug my BB direct into my car and it sounds awesome.
In my view the one thing desperately needed is an equilizer.
A nice to have would be to hook into the main menu,
like the BB “Now playing” entry to jump right to slacker from any app.

By: Jawman

Jawman — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 18:53:00 +0000

It works on the Storm with the link from Shaeflan. (thanks)

Only one problem with the Storm. (maybe others?)
I can’t get it to play from the speaker. It defaults to the internal speaker, and I have no way to switch that to the external speaker.

Any one have some suggestions for me to try?

Thanks

By: Phreqd

Phreqd — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:34:13 +0000

Works very well on my Bold. I haven’t tried caching stations, but just free play with already made up stations works fantastic. I’ll have to take note to see how it’s affecting my battery so I might end up caching afterall. A winner of a program and I’m normally not a station streamer.

By: Nobody

Nobody — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 07:37:51 +0000

Running low on system memory wouldnt cause a device shutdown or reset. It would cause all of your e-mail/test/call logs to be deleted.

On your device, go to Options – Status. Look at “File Free”. it is in bytes, so drop 6 digits from the end. if the number is more than 6 you should be good.

By: Nan Palmero

Nan Palmero — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 04:44:29 +0000

@brayndeded sounds like you might be running out of system memory. Since the 8830 has less memory (64mb or so) you might considered deleting apps, photos and other items on your device. Additionally, consider caching stations for a better experience.

By: brayndeded

brayndeded — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 04:32:35 +0000

I just upgraded to 4.5 on my 8830 a few weeks ago and slacker was the main reason i did it. I was so excited to get it, but now Im frustrated with it cuz it will play a few songs, then just stop, and sometimes just shut down and even reboot my 8830. Anyone have any help on this? When I signed up, I checked ‘yes’ for allowing slacker access and all that.

By: Ron K.

Ron K. — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:53:41 +0000

The Slacker application is awesome! I have a Blackberry Curve 8330, OS 4.5 and it works great. The wait was definitely worth it and I have not had any problems since I downloaded the app. In my opinion, Slacker easily beats out Flycast, Nobex, & Pandora by far. Thank you Slacker Radio & keep up the great work!… =)

http://www.myspace.com/ronk73

By: Carly

Carly — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 02:57:11 +0000

8120 on 4.5. If I’m using slacker for an uncached station my phone goes to voicemail. No ringing, no motifications of VM, email etc. Anyone else have this problem?

By: Nan Palmero

Nan Palmero — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 01:50:34 +0000

@trafsta I believe that it is a music licensing issue not Slacker. I’m sorry you can’t have it yet.

@rayg ah speed, it is like never having enough money or never being too good looking. I wouldn’t mind a speed boost myself.

@ed might you consider removing some apps that you don’t use on your Curve? It might feel a bit better.

@jarbro @Martin the easiest thing to do is make the custom stations on your computer, then when you login on your BlackBerry, they should all be there.

@jandyf I am running on a BES and mine works as does our CEO. I believe it is a BES settings issue, not BES all together. Slacker forums is very helpful and should be able to help you get it sorted out. I’m sorry for your difficulties, I’d be frustrated too.