In need of a wireless, portable speaker? Beats Audio has you covered, today revealing a new tiny speaker with a weird little name. Say hello to the Beats Pill, which you can see pictured below. One glance at the image and you can tell where Beats Audio got the name, but that still doesn’t make it sound any less strange. In any case, the Pill is a wireless speaker, so you know what that means: Bluetooth, baby.
Beats says that the Pill is compatible with any Bluetooth-enabled device, and it sports a range of 30 feet, which means you can get pretty far away without your music cutting out. Beats promises “soaring highs and deep, booming bass,” with the Pill, even though you wouldn’t expect that kind of range from a portable speaker. Not digging the black color scheme? You’re in luck, because the Pill also comes in red and white.
The Pill comes packed with a USB 2.0 cable for charging and data, a 1.5-meter audio cable with 3.5mm jacks on both ends, an AC adapter for those times that you don’t need to go wireless, and a carry case that comes complete with a carabiner so you can attach it a bag easily. The whole unit comes in at 0.34kg in weight, with a height of 45.72mm and a length of 190.5mm. In other words, taking the Pill on the go shouldn’t be a problem at all.
The Pill also features an internal microphone, so you can use it to make calls (so long as your phone is connected through Bluetooth, of course). That will undoubtedly be a handy feature for some folks, but that dual-functionality naturally comes with a price. The Pill will set you back $200, so be prepared to plop down some cash if you want to take this guy home with you. Still, despite the relatively hefty price tag, we can’t help but find the Pill endearing. What about you?
It’s official. Aside from letting loose its first set of headphones post-Monster for the Executive types, Beats Electronics has set its sights on nabbing the portable Bluetooth audio crown from Jawbone’s Jambox. You’ll recall this hitting the FCC a bit ago, but today the Dr. is officially ready to offer you it’s remedy for on-the-go wireless audio with its $200 Pill, an NFC-equipped portable Bluetooth 2.1 speaker. Coming in your choice red, black or white, the cylindrical system is loaded with a quartet of 1-inch drivers, and supports codecs including Apt-X and AAC. An internal battery is said to provide about seven hours of listening at around 75-percent volume (80 decibels), and the unit can be charged via its Micro-USB input. Notably, an auto-off feature turns the unit off after 30 minutes if no audio is streamed to it. As you’d expect, the Pill features a front-facing on-board mic for use as a speakerphone, physical volume buttons and power button, as well as a 3.5mm input if you’d like to play sans Bluetooth. We’re also pleased to notice that the diminutive system also features a 3.5 output if you’d like to send the audio out to another audio ware. The Pill comes with a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, a USB to Micro-USB cable for charging with an included wall adapter and, lastly, a carrying shell case that can be hooked to a bag.
We’ve been able to spend about an hour with the system, and we’ve frankly come away very impressed. The unit feels very sturdy, with a stiff metal grille and soft-touch coating around the rest of its exterior. It feels very comfortable to hold in a hand, and will easily fit in a jacket pocket. Actually, one of our only initial complaints is that the included carrying shell doesn’t leave any room for the included cables. All of the buttons have a soft, slightly clicky tactility, which also aids to its premium feel. Using it initially alongside one of Beats’ on-hand Jamboxes in a wired A/B comparison, the Jambox came out sounding like a distorted, rumbling mess up against the pill — we even had a rep bring out a second unit confirm that it wasn’t a dud. If that wasn’t enough, the Pill also managed to get much louder, staying fairly clean (in comparison), and without rumbling on the table as the Jambox did very slightly. As a triple-check measure, we later came up with a similar outcome with our in-house unit of Logitech’s $99 UE mobile boombox — a speaker we find comparable in sound, if slightly better, than the Jambox.
In what could be viewed as slightly ironic, the Pill has a voicing that edges toward the flatter side of things, rather than pumping out exorbitant amounts of bass. It’s not to say that it can’t reproduce bass at all, it’s just not the focus here. This flatter output seems to be a big part of what keeps it from distorting, but we should be clear, that the audio here is many times better still on the Pill. Pleasantly, the speakers are also angled up slightly, which makes for a noticeably more natural listening experience. Our only other concern for the time being is that the Bluetooth connection with our iPhone 5 did crackle occasionally like a vinyl record, but it’s too early to say if the issue will be consistent during future use. We’re still a ways off from being able to definitively give you a thumbs up on the Pill, but — at least, initially, it seems like it’s easily blowing the Jambox and similar speakers out of the water. Like the Executive headphones, the Pill is available today at Beats stores and other retailers — check out our video hands-on after the break for a better look.
AT&T is bringing on the HTC heat this season with not one, not two, but three new smartphones ready to keep you in the fold with One love. Of course the HTC One series name is relegated to the Android universe, but for Windows Phone 8, this is the closest you’re going to get: the Windows Phone 8X by HTC, arriving in November. This device comes with a 4.3-inch 720p display, 8 megapixel rear-facing camera, and Beats audio.
Windows Phone 8X is a smartphone that reminds the world that HTC hasn’t given up on Beats Audio, it being the first ever Windows Phone to work with the audio technology. Beats Audio by Dry is what they maintain as studio-quality sound working with a unique audio amplifier attached to this device’s 3.5mm audio jack as well as the speaker. You’ll be blasting heavy sound for your music, video, and gaming experience.
This device has a rather similar look to Nokia’s offerings in the market, here though embodying what Microsoft notes is the “signature handset” of Windows Phone 8. You’ll have the operating system’s spirit “embodied” in your hand, complete with a possible collection of colors on the back. This device is both suitably bright up front and on back and will surprise you with is sleek body.
This HTC handset will be hitting AT&T in retail stores and online in November equipped with no less than AT&T 4G LTE connectivity onboard. At the moment we’ve not got final details on pricing, but you’ll know soon! Meanwhile have a peek at our early hands-on with the international edition of the Windows Phone 8X from just days ago – it’s pretty nice looking stuff!
With Windows Phone 8 reportedly launching on October 29, the rumor mill has been working overtime lately. The latest Windows Phone 8 rumor comes courtesy of The Verge and concerns HTC. Apparently, HTC’s Windows Phone 8 devices will come with support for Beats Audio, which isn’t all that surprising to hear considering that HTC has partnered with Beats in the past.
Apparently, this Windows Phone 8 team up will start with the HTC Accord. If the rumors are to be believed, the Accord will be revealed alongside the Zenith and Rio during the third week in September. It’s then that HTC will supposedly reveal its Windows Phone 8 line up, and Beats Audio should be right there with these new WP8 devices.
The Verge’s sources, who are “close to HTC’s Windows Phone plans,” say that the Accord will come with a special Beats Audio Windows Phone app, which will allow users to control their phone’s audio output. HTC is also apparently considering Beats Audio implementation in the Zenith and Rio, which would make sense – especially in the case of the Zenith. After all, the Zenith is said to be HTC’s flagship WP8 device, so it seems unlikely that the Accord would get Beats Audio integration and the Zenith would be left without.
The Accord is also said to feature Beats Audio branding on the backside of the device (just like the HTC One X pictured above), which suggests that the folks at Beats had some say in the hardware that comprises the Accord. HTC obviously wants this Beats Audio integration to make its handsets stick out from those offered by other manufacturers, but will it work? That remains to be seen. Stay tuned, because we should hopefully be finding out if this latest rumor is true within the next few weeks.
A brand new HTC device has been revealed with several of the features that make the HTC One series a “Hero” set of phones, here in a more modest package with the HTC Desire X. This device works with a 4-inch 480 x 800 pixel super LCD display and a 1Ghz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor from Qualcomm and comes with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich. This device also comes with the newest software the manufacturer has to offer with their user interface Sense 4.0.
This device will appear with 4GB of internal storage and 768 MB of RAM. You’ll also be getting 25GB of cloud storage free with Dropbox for two years. You’ll be able to expand your memory with this device’s included microSD card slot as well by 32GB. The HTC Desire X has a 3.5mm headphone jack with which you’ll be accessing Beats Audio high quality sound delivery.
Beats Audio continues to be a part of the HTC experience with enhanced Bluetooth 4.0 stereo audio quality – APT-X CODEC for BT A2DP included. You’ve also got HD voice here (if your chosen mobile network allows it) and FM radio. Also under the hood is a proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, and G-sensor. The battery in this device is a lovely 1650 mAh unit that HTC says will bring you 10 hours of talk time in 3G or 20 hours in 2G, with 34 days of standby if you’re using 3G or 31 days using 2G – strange!
This device is also able to connect with a standard 5-pin microUSB cord – included in the box – and is DNLA compliant for sireless media streaming. You’ve got wi-fi connectivity in addition to 2G and 3G and Bluetooth 4.0 here allows you PBAP as well for phonebook access from your brand new car kit – we’ll see more about that situation soon.
Then there’s the camera – here with the HTC ImageChip, the same one included in the HTC One series for awesome media capturing abilities, you’ll be rolling hard with your 5 megapixel camera. Your camera also uses a F2.0 aperture, wide angle 28 mm lens, and an LED flash with SmartFlash. This SmartFlash functionality allows five level of flash that are automatically set by your camera detecting distance to the objects at hand.
Your camera also has a BSI sensor, one-press continuous shooting with up to two frames per second, face and smile detection, geo tagging, and WVGA video recording. This camera also has the ability to work with intelligent group shot mode, Video Pic (allowing photos while you’re capturing video), and Instant Capture. This device allows you to access your camera from the lockscreen and shoot quick so you never miss a shot!
Stay tuned as we check this device out up close and personal here on SlashGear soon – meanwhile check out the HTC One tag to see the history of that lineup, and compare it to the Desire X as you do so!
What we have here today is the shiny new HP ENVY 4 Ultrabook sporting a 3rd gen Intel Core-i5 dual-core processor and of course those Beats Audio speakers. It packs a lot of power under the hood and all folded up will only be about 0.78″ thick, but is this enough to earn your dollars? Head down past the break and we’ll find out.
This may not be HP’s ultra high end, but the ENVY series has always been one of their better offerings. Back in May we got our first glace at this Ultrabook, and then late last month we were able to unbox it and dig in a bit deeper. To get you started off with full specs, details, and the unboxing you’ll want to start here.
Chassis
This aluminum wrapped machine hit the shelves last month for about $800 and today we’re going to give you a better look, as well as our review and impressions on the laptop. It certainly isn’t HP’s nicest wrapped device but the aluminum has a great feel. For some reason the tip on top has been replaced with plastic, and the aluminum doesn’t extend to the entire edge of the casing. This gives opening and closing it a rather cheap feel, because the plastic is indeed very cheap. Otherwise the entire body is well built, and feels like it too.
The top has that midnight black brushed aluminum look and the only change is the neat and small HP logo on the bottom corner. As you curve around the sides to the ports however, you’ll quickly notice the aluminum design ends for a soft-touch red matte texture instead. This makes it easy to hold, but causes an area that may separate in the future if it takes too much abuse. The entire sides and bottom are bright “Beats Audio red” and is soft to the touch. This makes it easy to hold, and comfortable to carry.
All in all the ENVY 4-1030us (that we have here) comes in under 4 lbs (3.86 to be exact) and only 0.78″ thick. We’ve seen thicker, but for $800 the package is quite sleek and decent. We’ll talk about ports more below so for now the star of the show is the TrueVision HD front camera for Skype and video chat, and of course Beats Audio.
HP’s integrated dual-stereo surround sound Beats Audio speakers, and they are actually quite decent. Obviously you won’t be getting the bass you’d like, but for music, videos, and even gaming I found them sufficient. Even near full volume the distortion levels are minimal, and I’d give them a solid thumbs up for the price, even if they still have that tin-can sound. Ultrabooks and laptops the speakers can always improve, but these didn’t leave me wanting too much more.
Specs
As far as the hardware specs of the device, if you didn’t catch the full breakdown in my video above here they are again. You’ll get a clear and vivid 14-inch Brightview LED 1366 x 768 display, 1.7 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (3317U), 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 500GB HD (no SSD here) 3 USB ports, Ethernet, HDMI, SD slot for storage, then integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000. There’s no dedicated GPU here, but Intel’s HD graphics were enough for the casual game here. You won’t be playing Battlefield 3, but then you shouldn’t expect to.
The 14-inch 1366 x 768 resolution display is rather decent, but obviously we’d always like a higher resolution. Like the Retina Display Macbook Pro for example — but then again this is only $800. The screen is still HD and playing YouTube videos was a breeze. I even used the HDMI-out on the side to stream some Olympics to my HDTV since NBC failed us on their coverage, and it worked wonderfully.
Keyboard and Trackpad
Now here’s one area that I wasn’t to pleased with the ENVY 4. The keys, while backlit, and chicklet style had a rather cheap feel to them. Being a 14 inch device I wasn’t expecting it to feel very compact and low on space, but I found myself struggling to get comfortable — but that will come in due time. The keys while still feeling cheap have a good firm click during use, but certain areas on the keyboard felt weaker than others. The back-light option has a simple on/off setting, but that was all. Being able to manually control this would be nice but for $800 we’ll gladly just accept the fact we have it.
My biggest concern however was the trackpad. I know HP’s been doing this circular diamond-cut like design for ages, but I find it extremely frustrating. You can see the lines all aim for the center from the image above, but I find this type of feedback to be rather difficult. It makes operation feel rather choppy and the “smooth” feel I wanted was certainly missing. The sensitivity was another minor issue. Nothing you can’t get used to, but even after changing it in settings I still found myself having to repeat my taps. Overall I’d take a few points off here, but nothing major as this is all subjective and depends on user preference.
Ports
As mentioned above, the ENVY 4 Ultrabook has 3 USB ports (two left, one right), Ethernet, HDMI, and full size SD slot for storage. Then off to the right side is your power port, 3rd USB, headphone and microphone ports. They all felt great and weren’t too tight, as I’ve had that issue with newer laptops in the past. Here’s a look at the ports:
Performance
This device runs an Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, which we should all know plenty about by now so I’ll stick to the results. Performance was rather decent, although I quickly replaced IE but that’s just me. Working with a 3rd Gen Ivy Bridge Core i5 dual-core processor and 4GB of DDR3 RAM performance was great, but I’d love to see 6GB for the price point. We have no SSD so hard drive results weren’t impressive, but that was expected.
All this equals a rather powerful mid-range Ultrabook all for a great price. It has a few compromises here and there, but this could still be the device for you. As usual here at SlashGear we’ve ran some Geekbench benchmark tests. You can see those results below and compare with previous Laptop Reviews.
Benchmark Score – Hewlett-Packard HP ENVY 4 Notebook PC
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
5321
6935
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
9500
Memory
Memory performance
6143
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
5192
System – Hewlett-Packard HP ENVY 4 Notebook PC
Manufacturer
Hewlett Packard
Product Type
Notebook
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Motherboard
Hewlett-Packard 1894
Processor
Intel Core i5-3317U
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9
Processor Frequency
1.70 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
4
Cores
2
L1 Instruction Cache
32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
32.0 KB
L2 Cache
256 KB
L3 Cache
3.00 MB
Memory
4.00 GB DDR3 SDRAM 799MHz
FSB
99.9 MHz
BIOS
Insyde F.0A
Wrap-Up
All in all this is a rather great machine. It’s lightweight, portable, thin, powerful, sounds great, and has a bright and vivid screen. Oh and did we mention affordable. For everything you get this is certainly an affordable Ultrabook, I just wish it had USB 3.0 and possible slightly better build quality. If you’ve ever used a Macbook for an extended period of time you’ll surely notice the build quality differences. Compared to most others in the price range however, this ENVY 4 Ultrabook is impressive, and will leave many in the dust. Using the ENVY 4 for browsing and a few videos on NFL.com I barely managed 5 hours of battery life, so that is one other thing worth mentioning.
This isn’t quite as impressive as the Acer Aspire S5 we recently reviewed, but then it’s also much cheaper too. For the mid-range price and great “Ultrabook” specs this will surely make anyone happy for under $800. Overall the The Envy 4 is fairly named, and some others in this range will “envy” it. Featuring a premium design and attractive use of the color red certainly makes it an Ultrabook worth checking out. Enjoy the pictures and some of our other HP reviews below.
HTC has scaled back its role in Beats Audio, with the headphones manufacturer buying back half of HTC’s shares in the company as the smartphone firm struggles to find its feet once more. Described as “a realignment of their business agreement” the deal will see Beats buy 25-percent of HTC’s 50/50 holding, ending up with 75-percent ownership; however, the two companies insist that they still intend to work together.
“Over the last year, HTC and Beats have made great progress in sound innovation, product integration and brand awareness with successes like the HTC One” the companies said in a statement this weekend. “HTC and Beats will continue to work closely, including a joint global marketing campaign later this year.”
As a result of the agreement, Beats Audio will have “more flexibility for global expansion” though HTC will continue to have a “major stake and commercial exclusivity in mobile.” That means no Samsung, LG or Motorola phones with Beats Audio tech inside.
Several HTC devices in recent months have included Beats technology, which usually comprises special tuning and/or EQ profiles along with bundled headphones that exceed the quality we’ve grown to expect from the usual in-box fare. However, HTC has yet to capitalize on the potential of Beats integration with a solid content sales strategy; as we’ve observed before, the company lacks a solid music store in the same manner as Apple’s on-device iTunes story.
Selling off some of the Beats stake will return some much-needed cash to HTC’s wallet; the deal to invest in 50-percent of the headphones company cost the smartphone firm $300m roughly a year ago. In the intervening months, however, HTC has seen sales struggle, though it has insisted that it remains committed to the Beats partnership.
More official details are emerging from Beats Electronics’ acquisition of MOG, and they paint a considerably messier picture of the deal than we saw just a day ago. HTC (which has a big stake in Beats) has confirmed that the move into streaming music was worth $14 million — not a whole lot considering that MOG had raised $33 million through its entire independent lifetime. The low price might come as the result of Beats being very surgical with its deal. The Jimmy Iovine- and Dr. Dre-founded outfit is taking control of the core audio service as a separately-managed company, while the ad and music blog components are mostly left untouched. MOG’s loss of independence is coming on a very ignominious note as a result, but it could be good news for subscribers anxious about the service’s future as well as HTC phone owners wondering just where Sense UI’s Beats integration might go next.
The writing’s been on the wall for some time now, with this having been considered a done-deal back in March, but now the two parties involved are going public. Beats Electronics, the house that Dre built, is acquiring the MOG music streaming service, adding a little content to its brightly-colored can offerings. No word on cost, but MOG is said to have raised $33 million in funding to date, so that might give you a ballpark figure. It’s also unclear how or whether Beats-investor HTC might be involved in this new relationship, but if recent happenings are any indication, don’t go expecting too much on that front.
Beats Electronics is best known as a headphone company that produces. The Beats By Dr. Dre line of headphones originally started with Monster. Monster and Beats Electronics went their separate ways early this year and rumors have been swirling for a while now the Beats was eyeing the purchase of the MOG music service.
The two companies have gone official with the announcement that Beats Electronics is acquiring MOG. Details are scant at this time with terms of the acquisition unannounced. MOG started in 2005 and has over 16 million songs that are available for free online and via a Facebook app with subscription versions of the service available. Portable devices can access the music on the go via a paid subscription.
At this point, the two companies are also remaining mum on exactly how the products will be cross promoted. It would be a no-brainer to assume that Beats Electronics will be selling its headphones via links on the MOG service. I can also see the premium Beats headphones coming with free subscriptions to the mobile music service.
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