Since we got our hands on the Playbook here at PocketBerry last week, we’ve been trying to keep you informed and up to date with the unit as well as applications for it. One app that we’ve taken likening to which came preloaded with the device is the Slacker Radio app. As most of you know, Slacker Radio is one of the most popular streaming audio applications for blackberry and now that it is available for the PlayBook, I can see it being a regularly used app.

For those unfamiliar with Slacker, Slacker is an application that streams 100’s of pre-created genre playlist stations by music experts or allows you to create real-time playlist directly from your PlayBook. Slacker Radio requires a username and password but once you have created your ID, the music plays to your desired liking. With Favorite and Ban song options, you can decide what you want to hear while Slackers algorithms behind the scenes will evaluate what to play next to ensure you a pleasant radio listening experience.

Slacker Radio offers an array of features which allows you to view the Artist’s Bio, Album Review, and even Lyrics to anything your listing to. Slacker even offers an ABC News Update on the hour every hour which can be turned on or off to keep you up-to-date with current events while you zoned into your music playlist. Slacker’s premium version for paying users, Slacker Radio Plus, offers all of that with unlimited song skipping, unlimited song requests, and no advertisements.

The Slacker Radio interface for the BlackBerry PlayBook is simple to play with yet advanced enough to have search options amongst other things. My favorite feature is how well it ties into the playbooks hardware design. The volume buttons on the top of the playbook will raise and lower the volume no matter screen you’re on or even if the PlayBook’s screen is off and locked out. Same applies for the play/pause button between the volume keys. It doesn’t simply just mute it, it will pause it for you. Another cool native feature is built into the application switching. If for example, you open a video file or a song from another application, it will automatically pause Slacker so the audio doesn’t play over one another. A big thing I haven’t mentioned yet while were talking about the audio is the quality. The Audio quality streams at such high quality considering how fast it loads from song to song. One thing that I am not happy with is how the window will not resize for portrait mode. Not sure how important that is for some considering the application will generally be operating in the background or that’s how I listen to music at least.

Over all, the app is great and does what it needs to do. Let’s not forget this is the first build for the playbook and despite that we are still happy with it as we see what it can do now and not forgetting the potential with more updates to come. The clarity is great, the user interface is smooth, and it’s optimized for the users comfort. We look forward for what’s next to come from Slacker.

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3. Search your favorite music artists with Slacker Personal Radio
4. Slacker Adds Song Lyrics to “Radio Plus” Service
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7. Hands on with Slacker Radio 3.0
8. Slacker Radio gets updated to v2.0.91 now supported the Storm2
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