If you sign up for the new premium radio service, you can skip as many songs as you want and you get no ads. Of course, for $7.50/month it may not be worth it for everyone.

Slacker has also (finally!) launched the portable music player after several months of delays. They're available for pre-order on the official Slacker web site, and are expected to begin shipping by December 13th.

The slacker portable players are a bit expensive as well ($200 for 2GB, $250 for 4GB, and $300 for 8GB), but I pre-ordered one of the 8GB units and I'll post a review on my Slacker music site as soon as I receive it. There's also a Slacker forum on my site that's starting to get pretty active.

Dave.