CES: Slacker Radio… And Zing Updates

Mari and I spent some time with a Slacker rep last week. She’s more fired up than I am… While I’m a fan of Slacker’s music streaming site and their business model for hardware service is interesting (though I’d want the premium tier), the device bulk (compared to the competition) turned me off. However, I’ll reserve final judgment until I’ve had a chance to live with the Slacker Radio…

Now on to Zing. A little refresher: Zing is the company behind the Sirius Stilleto(s), Sansa Connect, and (unreleased) Pandora portable. Last summer, they were acquired by Dell… While Dell has dabbled in consumer electronics before (TVs, DAPs, PDAs), I wouldn’t exactly say they’ve been successful and figured Zing was done.

As we keep mentioning, CES is about the people. TiVo Shanan and I met up for an event and connected with a former TiVo co-worker of hers. Turns out he’s employee #3 at Zing, so of course I quizzed him the rest of the evening. Bottom line: Zing is alive and well as an independent unit within Dell. And it sounds like they’ve been busy…

Zing trivia: The little hump in their devices that looks like an antenna is actually hollow. It was a design decision made to emphasize wireless capabilities, though wasn’t actually needed for reception. Clever!

What appeals to me from all these guys is the music discovery aspect. It essentially works like TiVo’s thumbs up/down show rating that results in recorded suggestions, but seems much more practical and relevant when dealing with music. I’m also lazy and appreciate others assembling playlists for me. Hopefully, some hardware ends up in my hands soon.