Slacker’s got a new gig going with Aha Radio, and it’s taking the music streaming service somewhere it’s never gone before… into the car. According to the official press release, Slacker is partnering with Aha to get Slacker embedded in after-market car radios manufactured by Pioneer. Slacker execs have been hinting at a partnership like this for some time, and it’s a logical next step for the streaming service. In addition to Slacker’s curated and customizable radio stations, the Slacker Premium on-demand service makes a convenient car companion. Why jack in your iPod when your car stereo already has access to a much larger music library? Unless your tastes are exceedingly eclectic, chances are Slacker can cover you between its on-demand and streaming station options.
Since I upgraded this summer to a phone capable of supporting the Slacker service, I find I’m pretty well set for my mobile listening needs. But, if I were commuting the way I used to, a new car radio with Slacker would be tops on my wish list. Aha says it’s working with automotive and CE manufacturers toward product launches later this year and throughout 2012.
Some trivia… My former Dash Navigation colleague founded Aha Mobile. And Aha actually began life as a navigation and informational app with community/social elements (which we touched on in late 2009) . More trivia, their community guy used to blog for Yahoo Mail (where he never answered my IMAP inquiries).
“More trivia, their community guy used to blog for Yahoo Mail (where he never answered my IMAP inquiries).”
The moment many years back when it became apparent that Yahoo wasn’t going to make it easy for me to get IMAP was the moment I fully understood that the company was run by a bunch of doofuses.
About a month ago I got a new Lincoln MKX which has full NAV and Microsoft Sync. In the center console I have placed a iPad2 and now can enjoy Slacker, Pandora, Tune In Radio etc no matter where I am.
What is neat is the car has built in support for Pandora and Stitcher, so I can just press the talk button on my steering wheel and say “Play Beatles Channel” and my Beatles channel on Pandora starts playing. I can even give songs thumbs up and down as I am driving.
Scott – Without pics, it doesn’t exist! ;) Seriously, let’s blog it.
Chucky, yeah between the IMAP, security, and slow search issues I migrated to gmail. I hate the UI, but it works reliably and in the ways I prefer. Ironically, I paid for Yahoo’s higher tier and ad-free mail service. If only they’d have sorted it all out, I’d have paid even more.
Who neds pics… here is video. :)
Oh, I know of Microsoft er Ford Sync. I was more interested in how you’re mounting that iPad. :)