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I recently came across this phrase in the Princeton study books, and its English equivalent was supposed to be "What's up?". However, after some questioning I found this is probably not the case. A friend, Valentin, said it means "What's news?" whereas my other friend, Olya, said she had never heard it.
What is the nature of this strange word and when does one use it?
Что слышно. (What is heard? What is being heard?)
It's a very close translation of 'What's up' (its literal meaning).
But this is used as a greeting formula so if you want your translation reflected not mere a literal meaning (sometimes it is necessary), you should use something an average person would say in similar circumstances.
You can ask "Что слышно?" when you really want to know about something, i.e. it would be a real question that requires an answer. If you just want to say something like "How do you do?" or "How are you?" you should pick something else.
'What news?' (Какие новости?) is usually preceded by "Ну, ..." ("Well, ...", "So, ...", etc).
Crap I already misspelled it even though I've written it a thousand times! Silly me.
So, if I said:
"Ну, что слышно?" that would be alright in the context?
It does mean "What's new?". :)
There are also "Что нового?" and "Что новенького?".