Internet radio service Slacker has made good on their promise to deliver a Blackberry client. Unlike Pandora on the iPhone, which only streams music, Slacker has the ability to both stream or download tracks. Meaning, it’s possible to load up the Blackberry microSD card with your favorite “stations” before commuting via plane or subway. I did take a very brief look at a beta build prior to CES (pics of Melissa’s Curve below), and quite like the look and feel. Audio playback exhibited some stuttering, but I’ve been told this particular handset’s performance has been greatly improved with the latest build.
What I didn’t know, prior to the show, is that a free iPhone client was also in the works. And, apparently, development has progressed quite nicely because we may see it available on the iTunes App store as early as today. While the Slacker G2 and new Blackberry client both cache content, Slacker’s iPhone software purely streams… providing new competition for Pandora. Although, folks may prefer the less intrusive graphical Pandora advertising over Slacker’s audio commercials. (Slacker Radio Plus, at $3.99/mo, does away with all advertising. Plus, it enabled unlimited song skips and requests.)