New Beats Pill speaker comes with an app

It is marked off from the first Beats Pill launched under Apple’s name since Beats was acquired in June previous year.

The Apple-owned company on Wednesday introduced the Pill+, which is slightly larger than the original Pill speaker, “allowing for a bigger and fuller sound”, the company said. Following the lead of other Bluetooth speaker makers, this companion app will let you control volume, manage paired Pill+ speakers for stereo playback, and even let you connect multiple devices and manage playlists for a DJ-like experience. Pill+ comes with a USB port for charging external devices too. For optimized sound field and dynamic range, the stereo active two-way crossover system has been used, which provides clearer sound for all music genres. “Whether or not Apple had any say here is a mystery, but looking at it, it does look more Applesque than the old Pill, don’t you think?”

If you’ve been anxiously awaiting a new Beats speaker, your wait is nearly over. The speaker has a rubberized power button and volume controls and a metallic Beats logo that doubles as a play/pause button.

The microphone on the Beats Pill+ has been improved – both for noise-cancelling effects and for capturing sound when using as a way to make a phone call over speakerphone. According to Luke Wood, Beats President, the company spent a long time testing out the speakers to come up with the flawless function and form combination. Meanwhile, its “tweeter and woofer separation uses the same acoustic mechanics found in professional recording studios around the world”. Update: More details are up on beatsbydre.com including 3-hour charging, Beats Pill+ app info, and a way to sign up to be notified when Pill+ is available.

Alongside the new speaker Beats is launching a Pill Plus app for iOS and Android. There is also a line in audio port for listening to your jams by yourself.

Apple purchased Beats’ headphones and music streaming divisions in May 2014 for $3bn (£1.8bn), the largest acquisition Apple has made to date, dwarfing the $404m it paid for NeXT in 1996.