Some of the Slacker crew is here in DC today and, while I couldn’t swing a meeting, we did carve out time for a brief phone call. Basically, much of what Mari loves from her Slacker Portable hardware will be ported to the Blackberry platform next month. Unlike Pandora‘s mobile solution, Slacker copies playlist songs down to a device. Though you’ll obviously need a network to populate your mobile, once loaded, you’ll be able to listen on the subway or plane without worrying about connectivity. The basic ad-supported service will remain free, and an ad-free premium service will also be offered. RIM’s serious about reaching beyond their traditional business-oriented base by bringing the noise multimedia (also see TiVo).
DECE: The DRM Clearinghouse
I’ve enjoyed watching the DECE (“Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem”) discussion unfold – it makes for good entertainment. A decent amount of the commentary has been the typical knee-jerk “DRM sucks” response you’d expect. And while it may be partially true that this industry alliance (Sony, Best Buy, NBC, Comcast, etc) was formed to fend off … Read more

