Slacker's self-titled Portable Player has seen its release pushed back to January 31st, according to a small notice on the company's website. The player, which is intended to automatically load itself with "channels" of music over USB and Wi-Fi rather than purchases, was originally scheduled to ship by December 13th. The delay is necessary to "deliver the best possible player," Slacker claims, hinting that last-minute issues with the jukebox have stalled out the release.

Buyers are free to cancel pre-orders but will have their orders automatically updated to reflect the new ship date. The prices are unchanged and vary from a 2GB player at $200 to an 8GB player for $300. All have a four-inch screen and access to both free and paid downloadable radio streams from Slacker. [via Orbitcast]