This article reads like a press release or a news article and may be largely based on routine coverage .(March 2017) |
Developer | Apple Inc.(since 2014) |
---|---|
Manufacturer | Beats Electronics |
Type | Wireless speaker |
Discontinued | January 2022 |
Input | 3.5 mm audio input Apple Lighting (Pill+ Only) |
Connectivity | Bluetooth |
Successor | HomePod |
Beats Pill is a brand of portable Bluetooth speakers produced by Beats Electronics. [1] The Pill was released in 2012. The devices include 3.5 mm audio input and output jacks and charges over a Micro USB port. [2]
Serving as one of the company's first self-developed products after the end of its exclusive manufacturing deal with Monster Cable Products, [3] the Beats Pill was designed by Robert Brunner's studio Ammunition Design Group, and carries a capsule-based design roughly 7.7 inches (20 cm) in length. Its appearance is characterized by curved surfaces and a gloss finish. The speaker contains minimal controls; the logo serves as a multi-purpose button for starting and stopping tracks, and the only other buttons are volume keys and the power button. [4] [5]
The Pill uses Bluetooth to connect to a device (such as a smartphone), and also supports near-field communication for device pairing. It also includes 3.5mm audio input and output jacks. The Pill charges over a Micro USB port, and comes with a USB AC adapter. The device also includes a microphone so it can be used as a speakerphone. [4] [5] The Pill is also an aptX-certified device. [6] In 2013, updated versions of the Pill, Beats Pill 2.0, were released. The new models have longer battery life, a port for charging other USB devices, the ability to pair Pills together with near-field communication (NFC) to play the same audio either individually, or handling left and right stereo channels respectively, character stands, and a new, larger "XL" version. [7]
On June 3, 2015, Beats voluntarily recalled all Pill XL models, citing that in rare cases, the battery may overheat and combust. [8] [9]
The Beats Pill+ was unveiled in October 2015, as the first revision to the product released under Apple Inc. ownership. The Pill+ is slightly larger than the previous model, and carries a refreshed design with top-mounted volume controls and a Beats logo button. The Pill's speaker hardware was redesigned to improve sound quality. The Pill+ uses Apple's Lightning connector instead of USB, and can charge supported iOS products from its battery—which has an increased capacity rated for 12 hours of use on a single charge. The Pill+ has a companion mobile app for iOS and Android devices, used for pairing speakers together (in place of NFC), and allowing multiple users to alternate playing music on a single Pill ("DJ mode"). [10] [11]
Playing off its design, initial marketing for the Pill used the tagline "Just what the doctor ordered". [4] As with other Beats products, the Pill was promoted primarily through celebrity endorsements and product placements in pop music videos, such as Britney Spears' "Work Bitch", where the speaker is used as a ball gag on a dancer in a BDSM-themed scene. [12] In April 2013, a limited edition, Nicki Minaj-branded pink version of the Pill was released, as introduced in her video for "High School". [13]
A commercial for the Beats Pill starred Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams; reprising their music video for "Blurred Lines", it featured scenes of female dancers using the speakers as a prop. The United Kingdom's Advertising Standards Authority received 97 complaints over the ad, alleging that it contained sexually suggestive imagery. The ASA ruled in October 2013 that "taken as a whole, the ad did not show sustained, overtly sexual or provocative behaviour". However, it did deem the advert to be inappropriate for airing before 7:30 pm. [14] [15]
Another campaign featuring anthropomorphic versions of the speakers debuted during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, which were voiced by musicians such as Chris Rock, Eminem, and Tichina Arnold. Follow-up ads in the campaign included references to events that occurred during the show, [16] [17] [18] and one where Siri refuses to invite the characters to attend a party being held by Dr. Dre to celebrate the company's sale to Apple. [19]
The 2014 film Transformers: Age of Extinction features a product placement where the character Joshua Joyce turns programmable matter into the Pill and offers it to another character. It received a "worst product placement" award as a result. [20]
The Beats Pill was met with mixed reviews; while praise was received for its hardware design, ease-of-use, and the levels of volume it could produce, the Pill was primarily criticized for its audio quality and price. PC Magazine in particular criticized its handling of bass, concluding that it "offers a unique form factor and doubles as a good speakerphone, but it simply doesn't offer good enough sound quality to justify its $200 price tag. While you might get a reasonably loud and clear listening experience on one track, the next might pop distractingly and force you to tweak the volume just because it has slightly more bass." [5] Wired felt that the Pill's difficulty with bass was ironic, given that the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones had emphasized the low-end as its "sonic signature". [21]
CNET was similarly mixed, noting unique features such as its "striking design", NFC support, the ability to serve as a pass-through device for other audio systems, and its "relatively detailed sound (notice the use of the word 'relatively') with respectable bass compared with other tiny speakers in its class." However, connectivity issues were noticed with devices running iOS 6, and its review score was later revised from 3.5 to just 3 out of 5, citing the introduction of competing products offering equivalent or better sound quality and a lower price than the Pill. [6]
In a brief demo, The Verge felt that the Pill+ was "the most attractive-looking and sounding speaker that Beats has ever made", noticing that its design refinements felt influenced by Apple's corporate hardware design language, and that in terms of audio quality, "for lack of a better way to describe it, there was space in between all the sounds coming out of the speaker, whereas most others tend to crush all the different frequencies together." [22] PC Magazine felt that the Pill+ offered a "clean, well-defined, balanced listening experience", but that since their drivers were not angled upward, "you miss much of the definition the tweeters bring to the table unless they happen to be lined up with your ears." It was argued that the Pill+ was lacking in "power and bass depth" for its price point, but that its "clean audio delivery" made up for it. [23]
A boombox is a transistorized portable music player featuring one or two cassette tape players/recorders and AM/FM radio, generally with a carrying handle. Beginning in the mid 1990s, a CD player was often included. Sound is delivered through an amplifier and two or more integrated loudspeakers. A boombox is a device typically capable of receiving radio stations and playing recorded music. Many models are also capable of recording onto cassette tapes from radio and other sources. In the 1990s, some boomboxes were available with MiniDisc recorders and players. Designed for portability, boomboxes can be powered by batteries as well as by line current. The boombox was introduced to the American market during the late 1970s. The desire for louder and heavier bass led to bigger and heavier boxes; by the 1980s, some boomboxes had reached the size of a suitcase. Some larger boomboxes even contained vertically mounted record turntables. Most boomboxes were battery-operated, leading to extremely heavy, bulky boxes.
Bose Corporation is an American manufacturing company that predominantly sells audio equipment. The company was established by Amar Bose in 1964 and is based in Framingham, Massachusetts. It is best known for its home audio systems and speakers, noise cancelling headphones, professional audio products and vehicle sound systems. Bose has a reputation for being particularly protective of its patents, trademarks, and brands.
Monster Inc. is an American company that manufactures and markets about 6,000 products, but is best known for audio and video cables. It also produces speakers, headphones, power strips, mobile accessories and audio devices for automobiles. The company was founded by an audiophile and engineer, Noel Lee, in 1979 by experimenting with different ways to build audio cables. It grew by doing demonstrations to convince the industry that audio cables made a difference in audio quality and by establishing relationships with retailers that were attracted to the cable's profit margins.
A headset is a combination of headphone and microphone. Headsets connect over a telephone or to a computer, allowing the user to speak and listen while keeping both hands free. They are commonly used in customer service and technical support centers, where employees can converse with customers while typing information into a computer. They are also common among computer gamers and let them talk with each other and hear others while using their keyboards and mice to play the game.
Wireless speakers are loudspeakers that receive audio signals using radio frequency (RF) waves rather than over audio cables. The two most popular RF frequencies that support audio transmission to wireless loudspeakers include a variation of WiFi IEEE 802.11, while others depend on Bluetooth to transmit audio data to the receiving speaker.
Beats Electronics LLC is an American consumer audio products manufacturer headquartered in Culver City, California. The company was founded in 2006 by music producer Dr. Dre and record company executive Jimmy Iovine. Since 2014, it has been an Apple subsidiary.
The ZiiSound, Inspire and Creative Wireless Speakers is a range of wireless speakers by Creative Technology, which utilizes Bluetooth technology and apt-X audio codec for high-quality wireless streaming of audio.
UE Boom is a portable speaker manufactured by Ultimate Ears, supporting Bluetooth and wired connections. UE Boom has been praised for its industrial design, loudness, battery life, speakerphone capability, and its suitability for outdoor use, but criticized for its comparatively high price.
Sound Blaster Roar is a portable Bluetooth speaker manufactured by Creative Technology Ltd. The speaker was launched on 27 February 2014 at the IT Show 2014 in Singapore. It has got two amplifiers one for driving the low and medium frequency and the other for high frequency. There are five drivers in the speaker, one 2.5" woofer, two passive radiators and two front 1.5” high frequency drivers.
The Sound Blaster X7 is a USB audio device that can work without a computer. It was announced on 3 September 2014. It supports Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X computers but requires a power supply to work. The Sound Blaster X7 has the SB-Axx1 sound chip built-in. Android and iOS devices can change SBX Pro Studio audio settings with the Sound Blaster X7 Control app.
The Phab 2 Pro is an Android smartphone in a phablet form factor, developed and produced by Lenovo and first released in November 2016 at an MSRP of US$499. The device is notable for being the first consumer smartphone to support Google Tango augmented reality (AR) technology.
The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are a pair of Android smartphones designed, developed, and marketed by Google as part of the Google Pixel product line. They collectively serve as the successors to the Pixel and Pixel XL. They were officially announced on October 4, 2017 at the Made by Google event and released in the United States on October 19. On October 9, 2018, they were succeeded by the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL.
The Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium is an Android smartphone manufactured and marketed by Sony. Part of the Xperia X series, the device was announced to the public on April 16, 2018, featuring a 4K HDR display and a MotionEye™ Dual Camera.
SoundSticks are multimedia speakers sold by Harman Kardon, originally co-developed with Apple Inc. They were released in July 2000. They are a 2.1 system with a pair of satellite speakers and a subwoofer called the iSub, which was originally available first in October 1999 as a standalone product. They were designed by Jony Ive and have received numerous accolades for their industrial design. Harman Kardon released updated versions in 2004, 2009, 2012 and 2020.
AirPods Pro are wireless Bluetooth in-ear headphones designed by Apple, initially introduced on October 30, 2019. They are Apple's mid-range wireless headphones, available alongside the base-level AirPods and the highest-end AirPods Max.
AirPods Max are wireless Bluetooth over-ear headphones designed by Apple, and released on December 15, 2020. They are Apple's highest-end option in the AirPods lineup, sold alongside the base model AirPods and mid-range AirPods Pro.