New Firmware 1.9.14 has been released for G2 (12/19/08)

[DoublEE]

From Slacker forum:

Good afternoon,
We have released a new Firmware for the Slacker G2 Portable Radio Player. Please make sure that your portable is charged more than 50% of full battery power. After you refresh your stations, it will download the firmware update. To initiate the update after refresh is complete, please hold down the Play/Pause key for a couple seconds to turn it off. When it powers off, it will then turn back on and install the update.

There are a lot of new changes with this update. Please let us know any feedback you have.

USB Connection -
When you connect to USB it will now allow you to Refresh and charge your player WHILE YOU LISTEN to your radio stations. By default, it will attempt to connect to ICS, this can be disabled so that it only connects to charge the player.

If you are connect to the PC and you want to transfer your own MP3 files, scroll down to the "Connect" menu and select it. This will give you a choice of Refresh Stations, Transfer MP3 files. NOTE: You can not listen to music while in MP3 mode. This is a limitation of MTP. To go back to refresh mode, you can click on connect again, and choose Refresh Stations.

If you do not want it to auto-connect when you connect to Wi-fi or USB to refresh, then you can go into the Settings Menu item, and then to Advanced Settings, and Auto Refresh. If you turn it OFF it will not auto-connect at all for USB or Wi-Fi. There is no way to select to have it on for one, and off for the other.

EQ Settings-
We have vastly improved the EQ settings for better sound quality. Please try these out and let us know how you like them.

UI Changes-
Many pretty UI changes. New connection screens, battery level screens, etc.

And of course, the normal "Misc Bug fixes".

Best regards,
Rome E
Slacker Support

 

[out of control]

I got the update. Went well. Downloaded at end of refresh. Hard manual shut down/turn on. Player update>station update(since I did some rearranging).

I'm sure DAB will be thrilled about the ability to turn off auto refresh on the wifi. Actually I see it is defaulted to off now. So many users must have asked for that.

Is it just me, or is the text on the now playing screen slightly larger

Player appears to be booting up way faster. At a couple seconds now. Which I am very excited about.....

 

[DAB]

Wow, I've been so busy today I've just found out this news and I am running my refresh now to get the download. We had our Christmas Party for the agency today and with 110 employees it was a big shindig. Tell you one thing my holiday music channels were a hit for the staff. I wonder how many of these devices I probably sold for Slacker today? LOL

Anyway these updates are GREAT news for me! Wonderful!!!

 

[sportboy]

Can theses filmware updates be done via wifi? I'm a Mac user, thats why I'm asking. Still haven't ordered yet but getting closer.

 

[DAB]

Can theses filmware updates be done via wifi? I'm a Mac user, thats why I'm asking. Still haven't ordered yet but getting closer.

Wifi or USB either one!

 

[DAB]

I'm sure DAB will be thrilled about the ability to turn off auto refresh on the wifi. Actually I see it is defaulted to off now. So many users must have asked for that.

How ironic is it that you and I were just having this conversation and a few days later they release and update giving me exactly what I wanted. This is perfect and will make my Slacker G2 even that much more enjoyable. Now I can charge it without having it refresh and reshuffle my stations until I am ready to do it.

I don't find the text any larger, but do like all the new logos for the various things like charging etc that they added.

 

[out of control]

The large charging icon is kind of cool looking. It is unusual for me to be able to hit play while it is charging. Not that I even use that. We can also scroll the menus while it is charging AC which we could not do before. Not sure about usb have not tried it yet. I'm not sure about the boot up time thing since the update. After the update it seemed to be way faster. When I went to the gym, and powered it up. It was the usual boot up time prior to update. Maybe a internal clock can tell when it was off for only a little while it will boot up fast. Then if the internal clock says "i have been off for a long time" then it does the slower boot up. I'm not sure. I do know at times it boots up way faster. Prior to the update it was always a more slow boot up.

 

[DoublEE]

How ironic is it that you and I were just having this conversation and a few days later they release and update giving me exactly what I wanted. This is perfect and will make my Slacker G2 even that much more enjoyable. Now I can charge it without having it refresh and reshuffle my stations until I am ready to do it.

I don't find the text any larger, but do like all the new logos for the various things like charging etc that they added.

It just goes to show what everyone at DRC already knows...DAB speaks and people listen. :flex:

 

[DoublEE]

The large charging icon is kind of cool looking. It is unusual for me to be able to hit play while it is charging. Not that I even use that. We can also scroll the menus while it is charging AC which we could not do before. Not sure about usb have not tried it yet. I'm not sure about the boot up time thing since the update. After the update it seemed to be way faster. When I went to the gym, and powered it up. It was the usual boot up time prior to update. Maybe a internal clock can tell when it was off for only a little while it will boot up fast. Then if the internal clock says "i have been off for a long time" then it does the slower boot up. I'm not sure. I do know at times it boots up way faster. Prior to the update it was always a more slow boot up.

Yeah, I read some people claiming the boot up was now 5 seconds. Not for me. If the G2 is off for a decent amount of time the boot up is still around 20 seconds or so.

 

[out of control]

My player is definitely booting up in a couple seconds. Like I said though it is not doing 100% of the time. I'd like a official word on what causes it to do a fast boot up versus a slow boot up. Guess I'll have to post that in Slacker for a RomeE response.

 

[out of control]

In regards to boot up time here is a response from Patent Guy in slacker forum......

Based on posts by Slacker Support, the G2 has three states: Full on, Standby, and Sleep. The G2 is in standby for 2 hours after it first leaves the full on state. It leaves the full on state by pressing the pause/play button to turn it off or by leaving it on pause for two minutes without power plugged in. The G2 will quickly (a few seconds) return to full on state from standby. The G2 consumes some power in this state.After being in standby for 2 hours, the G2 goes to sleep, which is a power conserving mode. Turning on the G2 requires that the G2 restart, which takes a lot longer than coming out of the standby state.

I was not aware of this. So I guess I'll have to play around with it. I usually turn off by holding down the play/pause button for multiple seconds. I guess at this point I am curious if I am getting out of the car for less then five minutes. If I just hit pause for a moment. How long will the player stay active, and on in that pause mode ? I don't understand yet. If I turn it off will it have the fast boot up mode for the next two hours ? Then after that it goes to a hard shut down. Where turning it on would start the slower boot up speed.

I just want this to be simple like the old SL100. You could turn off in sleep mode, or do a hard shut down. I'm not clear on the G2 shut down rules, and procedures.

 

[DAB]

I was not aware of this.

I knew this from reading the Slacker forum as I've seen the support guys say this several times. Patient Guy is exactly correct. However, I am finding that since the update mine is behaving different to some degree.

For example before if I paused and then locked it, stuck it in my case and if I came back before 2 hours had passed and hit the pause/play button it would almost immediately turn back on from sleep mode within 5 seconds. If it had been longer than 2 hours then it would have to do a start from off and this would take 20 seconds. Also if I pushed and held down the pause/play button it would say shutting down and of course when I hit that button again it would have to come back from off so it would take longer 20 seconds to start.

Now with the new update, I find if I hold the pause/play button down till it says shutting down. If I then come back at anytime within 2 hours it will come back on within 5 seconds. The only time that is not true is if it is longer than 2 hours. So it seems holding the pause/play button doesn't actually turn the device off anymore like previously.

So, now there appears to be full on, sleep mode (from pause or by holding the pause/play button) and off mode which only happens if the device sits idle for over 2 hours.

 

[out of control]

I knew this from reading the Slacker forum as I've seen the support guys say this several times. Patient Guy is exactly correct. However, I am finding that since the update mine is behaving different to some degree.

For example before if I paused and then locked it, stuck it in my case and if I came back before 2 hours had passed and hit the pause/play button it would almost immediately turn back on from sleep mode within 5 seconds. If it had been longer than 2 hours then it would have to do a start from off and this would take 20 seconds. Also if I pushed and held down the pause/play button it would say shutting down and of course when I hit that button again it would have to come back from off so it would take longer 20 seconds to start.

Now with the new update, I find if I hold the pause/play button down till it says shutting down. If I then come back at anytime within 2 hours it will come back on within 5 seconds. The only time that is not true is if it is longer than 2 hours. So it seems holding the pause/play button doesn't actually turn the device off anymore like previously. I should play around with that more. I'm still not used to it, and the firmware update has me a little confused. As I was already confused before the update. The manual did not really reference this.

So, now there appears to be full on, sleep mode (from pause or by holding the pause/play button) and off mode which only happens if the device sits idle for over 2 hours.

OK. I think I understand. If turn it off seeing the shuting down screen. For the following two hours if you turn it back on it will become active in a few seconds. That this would also be the case if I just hit the pause button, but if I wait longer then two hours whatever I hit. It will take the longer boot up time. I will have to play around with it more. I was confused about this both before, and now after the update. So I guess nothing has changed it that regrads. The manual did not reference very much on powering features. :flex:

 

[out of control]

I am doing my first refresh since the update. Also to be sure the plus is working OK in refresh. I have noticed some more changes with the update when connecting usb. I have auto refresh set to "on". This allows the player to power on when usb is plugged in. "Off" will not power up the player when you plug it in to usb. Which is fine, because when I connect it to usb I want it to connect, and refresh.
What I really wanted to mention though is......Now with the update. In usb connection it does not auto connection anymore even with auto refresh turned "on". Once the player is plugged into usb you have to select "menu">then select"connect">it then starts to connect, and sign in>refresh. At first it gives you a screen telling you to do this connect selection, but it pops up very quickly. Due to this change it took me in a little tail spin, and I did not get it until the second try. The display screens are also different, but I like the new look. Connecting to usb takes more effort now, but no big deal. You just have to make two selections.

 

[DAB]

Wifi updates exactly the same, though we do get the new screens. I sort of liked the older screen better, but long as it works I won't complain.

I really do like being able to charge it without it auto-refreshing. This is best part of this recent update and has insured virtually no repeats since the stations don't get reshuffled.