By: Antoinette Alston, contributing intern The latest Beats By Dre product is a wireless speaker with Bluetooth capabilities, “Beats Pill+,” will cost you $229.95 and is only available in the colors black and white. Its bigger, packs a powerful sound, and offers a new app along with it. The speaker will be available at retail stores and on Apple.com next month. Some major improvements are its buttons, which are now located on top of the device. It has two tweeters and two woofers, compared to its previous design with four speakers. The Beats Pill+ (or Pill 2.0) design is still accessible and convenient with a slim appearance, ability to fit into almost any bag with a 12-hour battery life, and takes just about three hours to get a full charge. The speaker even comes with a USB so you can charge your iPad or iPhone while the music is playing. Engineers of the Beats Pill+ used a two-way active crossover. The company president Luke Wood stated, “Everything is very specific and concise as to what is going to what speaker.” Wood continued saying, “We think that gives us the control over tonality and the kind of sound field dispersion you don’t get with other technologies.” Another announcement that was made today was the new app for iOS and Android devices. The app will allow you to control two Bluetooth speaker devices at the same time while pairing them in Amplify or Stereo modes. A DJ mode lets you and a friend control the music that is being played. A product recall announcement, back in June 2015, allowed customers who bought the larger Beats Pill XL in January 2014, to return it for $325 or get that amount in store credit at the Apple store. In some rare cases, the product was known to overheat and posed as a fire risk.
