Beats

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Minecraft, Beats has announced a special edition of its Solo 4 headphones. They cost the usual $199.99, but you get a custom black and green design with Minecraft-y pixels everywhere. The case has a matching pattern, too.

You can buy the special edition starting July 18th.

Apple’s new Beats Pill has already leaked and said to include up to 24 hours of battery life, better bass, water and dust resistance, faster and more reliable device pairing / switching, and integrated Find My tracking on both Apple and Google’s networks.

Here’s our first listen of the Beats Solo Buds.

Preorders for the Solo Buds, Beats’ most affordable true wireless earbuds yet, start on June 18th. The Solo Buds strip out features like noise cancellation, and their tiny case doesn’t even include extra battery power. But you’re left with a pair of earbuds that should prove very comfortable. As for how they sound, I’ll have a review up sometime next month.

iOS betas have a long history of revealing upcoming Beats products. True to form, today’s iOS 17.5 release candidate build contains images and animations of the Beats Pill portable speaker that’s been seen on the arms of star athletes in recent weeks.

I wouldn’t expect it soon soon, but it’s clearly on the way.

Beats’ very orchestrated teases of a new Beats Pill portable speaker are continuing this week. F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo was seen carrying it in the exact same way that LeBron James did last month.

‘Tis the season for new speakers, after all.

They look nearly identical, which isn’t fun considering we’ve been waiting nearly eight years for them. Similar to last year’s Beats Studio Pro refresh, Apple is reportedly sneaking in spatial audio, lossless USB-C audio, and other tweaks, according to MacRumors.

It’s fascinating to me how independent Beats still is. Nearly nine years after Apple announced its acquisition of the brand co-founded by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, today Beats released a design video for the Studio Buds Plus. In it, you hear this:

“Our proprietary chipset makes them super simple to use. It offers a host of native features to both Apple and Android users. In fact, we’re the only company to offer this.”

This is an Apple-owned business highlighting that it’s not using the same silicon as AirPods. (I love how Beats illustrates the point with a vinyl record.)