Unreleased Beats Pill Speaker Teased by F1 Driver Daniel Ricciardo

[MacRumors]

Following this past weekend's sighting of NBA superstar LeBron James carrying an unreleased Beats speaker reminiscent of the former Beats Pill, F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo has also been seen teasing the unreleased speaker at this week's Grand Prix stop in Miami.

Details on the unreleased speaker remain unknown, but it features a similar pill-shaped design to the rest of the Pill family and includes a lanyard that has not been present on previous models. The most recent model in the Pill family was discontinued in 2022, and this new one will likely include a USB-C port, updated Bluetooth specs, and other improvements.

Beats has yet to officially announce the upcoming Beats Pill, so a release date similarly remains unknown.

The Beats Pill teases come as part of a busy week for Apple's speaker and headphone brand, as Beats this week introduced the Solo 4 on-ear headphones and announced the all-new Solo Buds earphones that will be launching in June.



Article Link: Unreleased Beats Pill Speaker Teased by F1 Driver Daniel Ricciardo

 

[roar08]

Seems like an odd way to actually carry this around. I must be old.

 

[Tyler O'Bannon]

I hope people know this is totally, 100% on purpose. He's even holding it almost identically to the picture of LeBron. Even the pics are too perfect. I'm excited about this, I just hope people know this is totally 100% on purpose, marketing at its finest. I'm all about good marketing. And this is it.

 

[Elusi]

"Yeah I got one of those old Pill speakers off of eBay. You should get one too."

 

[Tyler O'Bannon]

Seems like an odd way to actually carry this around. I must be old.

It's the new jukebox. A lot of people walk around with small speakers hanging on their bags, hanging from their handlebars, or in their hand. This is make the pill functional for that. It's actually clever IMO, and I LOVED the last gen Beats Pill+ and had 2 until the batteries completely died (btw if ANYONE knows how to get the battery replaced in them PLEASE REPLY TO THIS POST).

 

[BGPL]

LeBron was recently observed carrying his around the same way. No one carries a pill speaker by the lanyard like that... and I can guarantee you that not one of these celebrities has ever used it, if it's even functional. Marketing for the weak minded folks.

 

[Attirex]

LeBron and Ricciardo paid US $10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.000 to carry new Beats speaker for 30 seconds aka celebrity endorsement.

 

[TechnoMonk]

"Yeah I got one of those old Pill speakers off of eBay. You should get one too."

Are they any good? As loud as HomePod mini?

 

[OrenLindsey]

It has to be staged, there's no way celebrities like this would walk around carrying a bluetooth speaker without being paid to do it. Also, they wouldn't let them even get their hands on it until it released.

 

[Elusi]

LeBron and Ricciardo paid US $10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.000 to carry new Beats speaker for 30 seconds aka celebrity endorsement.

Apple's loss. I'd done it for $50

 

[jb310]

Honestly these celebrity sighting "teasers" are such great marketing. Who wouldn't want their consumer products sorta-but-not-really-leaked by celebrities?

 

[roar08]

It's the new jukebox. A lot of people walk around with small speakers hanging on their bags, hanging from their handlebars, or in their hand. This is make the pill functional for that. It's actually clever IMO, and I LOVED the last gen Beats Pill+ and had 2 until the batteries completely died (btw if ANYONE knows how to get the battery replaced in them PLEASE REPLY TO THIS POST).

Huh, ok. I've never seen that, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

 

[antiprotest]

I hope people know this is totally, 100% on purpose. He's even holding it almost identically to the picture of LeBron. Even the pics are too perfect. I'm excited about this, I just hope people know this is totally 100% on purpose, marketing at its finest. I'm all about good marketing. And this is it.

I wouldn't say "at its finest." It's ordinary decent marketing.

 

[jz0309]

at least they are celebrities and not "influencers" ... and yes, I know that celebrities do influence but my comment is related to those YouTubers and so on ...

 

[JPack]

It's the new jukebox. A lot of people walk around with small speakers hanging on their bags, hanging from their handlebars, or in their hand. This is make the pill functional for that. It's actually clever IMO, and I LOVED the last gen Beats Pill+ and had 2 until the batteries completely died (btw if ANYONE knows how to get the battery replaced in them PLEASE REPLY TO THIS POST).

Not hanging from the hand, walking alone. Nobody does that, not even at a party. This just looks weird and screams product placement.

Your primary hand is for holding an iPhone, drink, bag, sunglasses, etc. Heck, even a bucket of KFC makes more sense than dangling a BT speaker.

 

[icanhazmac]

I just hope people know this is totally 100% on purpose, marketing at its finest. I'm all about good marketing. And this is it.

I'd say it is horrible marketing.

They probably pay an exorbitant amount for these "celebrities" to carry an object, with the purpose of being pictured with it. I would say the average person would have no idea what it was (it looks like a huge tampon) or if it was an unreleased product or not. The general public will only understand what it is when a tech site points it out or when a "news" outlet is paid to point it out in the post/article containing the picture.

Seems like a lot to spend for unclear results.

 

[Surne]

This phase of marketing by Apple is cringe af.

 

[Purrific]

You can tell no women were on the design team haha. It is a tampon.

 

[icanhazmac]

You can tell no women were on the design team haha. It is a tampon.

Would be a great youtube gag video, paint it red with a white lanyard and walk around with someone filming reactions!

 

[Unregistered 4U]

It doubles as an extended battery pack for the Apple Vision Pro, too. Calling it!

 

[Reason077]

This just looks weird and screams product placement.

Don’t be silly.

Daniel Ricciardo is not just an F1 driver, he’s also a venerated expert in consumer audio technology. As part of the Beats product validation team, he has been carefully evaluating the soundstage, measuring the frequency response (with particular attention to his personal favourite, the bass!), testing the reliability and range of the Bluetooth connectivity, battery life, etc, and reporting his results directly back to the engineering team.

Consumer Audio is not just a hobby for Daniel Ricciardo, it’s an obsession! He loves nothing more than to wind down after long F1 training sessions by deep-diving into the latest Beats tech.

Spare a thought for the product security team at Beats, though, whose job it is to ensure that photos of celebs using unreleased products don’t get out into the wild. Someone has very likely been fired over this.

 

[sw1tcher]

Are they any good? As loud as HomePod mini?

They're both terrible because neither one can tell you what the time is when you ask it.

 

[frou]

Wow I never thought the money Apple gouge out of me for SSD upgrades would end up in Danny Ric's pocket

 

[MallardDuck]

One of the most annoying things in the world is someone carrying around a speaker playing music in public (or worse, in the wilderness). Wear headphones.

And get off my lawn while you're at it

 

[Kottu]

In the 80s people carried around big boomboxes. Pills gonna be like that? And here I am who is worried if my Airpods pro leak any sound while travelling with public transportation.