Gadling

I liked the review, but I'm left with a lot of questions about real-life usage.

How does the 15-hour claim for battery life claim hold up in real usage? Can Wi-Fi be turned off? If so, how does that help the battery?

How broad are the 2 million tracks? Is this going to satisfy mostly mainstream users? If I create a channel based on, say, Cannonball Adderley, or Merle Travis, or Spike Jones... well, will it even let me? If so, do the other artists and tracks that Slacker adds to the channel make sense? Will I hear the same tracks over and over? Can I create stations by listing multiple artists or songs, and if so, does that help refine their selections? That's a big failing of Pandora for me; I chose one artist, not very mainstream but certainly a popular folkie with many albums on second-tier labels, and Pandora failed to suggest any other artists.

From the gallery, the controls look slick, curved, and gathered around the edges of the unit... are they hard to use; is there any fumbling? Can you operate the unit without looking at it? How about when it's in that belt clip?

It doesn't sound like this expensive music player includes a subscription to the premium option, but I'm unsure from your review. (I think it should, given the high price of the player and the low price of the subscription.) But if it doesn't, how many commercials are there? Are they after every X songs, or X times per hour, or something else? Are they annoying (do they make you reach for the volume control)? Can you skip them? What's being advertised? Was any ad inappropriate (and I don't mean "pornographic," just "out of context for the channel" -- say, is a mass retailer advertising Metallica CDs on a country channel)? On my XM inno, when I record a show, I can go into the playlist before listening and delete all the commercials. That isn't an option here?

How easy is the G2 to connect to my stereo? I assume it would be through a minijack-to-RCA connector bought separately (which is fine; my apartment is littered with them), but are the volume levels reasonable, and is any distortion apparent?

I apologize -- I'm not a regular Gadling reader (I followed the Engadget link), so I don't really know the site's context. But this reads more like a preview to me -- there doesn't seem to be a lot of real-world usage information. I'm bored with my iPod myself, for the very reason you mention -- it can't introduce me to new music -- and that's why I'm interested in XM and Slacker. Thanks for any additional insights you might provide.

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