LeBron James Spotted With Unreleased Beats Pill Speaker

[MacRumors]

Ahead of tonight's NBA playoff game, the Los Angeles Lakers posted an Instagram reel showing superstar LeBron James arriving at Ball Arena in Denver carrying what appears to be an unreleased version of the Pill speaker from Apple's Beats brand.

The original Beats Pill was a wireless Bluetooth speaker introduced in 2012 prior to Apple's acquisition of Beats Electronics. It received a few updates in its first several years on the market, with the final revision being a redesigned Pill+ with a Lightning connector introduced under Apple's ownership in 2015.

The Pill+ remained on the market for a number of years in that form before being quietly discontinued in early 2022.

Based on today's video, it appears the Pill may soon be making a comeback, as the speaker in James' hand clearly shows a Beats logo and it includes a lanyard that was not present on previous versions of the speaker.

With the direction of Apple's product lineup, a USB-C port for charging appears likely. And given the previous Pill+ was introduced almost nine years ago, there have been significant advances in Bluetooth and other technologies since that time, so this upcoming version is likely to be a significant improvement. Specific details on the speaker, including a release date, however, remain unknown.

Article Link: LeBron James Spotted With Unreleased Beats Pill Speaker

 

[jz0309]

Interesting…
Go Lakers!

 

[mattoruu]

Let’s see if we can spot it post-game tonight.

Go Lakers! (Or: Go Nuggets! I have no preference other than wanting to see a good game, lol.)

 

[thadoggfather]

I miss the one time a celebrity was spotted with an unreleased iPhone

Taiwan celeb Jimmy Lin spotted with unreleased iPhone 7 Plus

With less than a month away before the launch of the new iPhones, Taiwanese celebrity Jimmy Lin has been photographed using the iPhone 7 Plus. This isn't the first time the star has been seen using leaked iPhones, as Lin was seen using the iPhone 5 in 2012, and the iPhone 6 and 6 plus in 2014...

www.asiaone.com

 

[JonnyMacx86]

I miss the one time a celebrity was spotted with an unreleased iPhone

Taiwan celeb Jimmy Lin spotted with unreleased iPhone 7 Plus

With less than a month away before the launch of the new iPhones, Taiwanese celebrity Jimmy Lin has been photographed using the iPhone 7 Plus. This isn't the first time the star has been seen using leaked iPhones, as Lin was seen using the iPhone 5 in 2012, and the iPhone 6 and 6 plus in 2014...

www.asiaone.com

I miss when an employee left an unreleased iPhone in a bar and we all assumed it was an unfinished prototype. Then it came out and looked basically the same, and we LOVED IT

 

[erikkfi]

WhOoooOOooOoah! A new Pill?! 🤡

Wake me when Apple finally retires the Beats brand.

 

[GermanSuplex]

He made more for that product photo op than I’d make in many lifetimes.

But he sure can play.

 

[icanhazmac]

Lebron… 🤮
Beats… 🤷‍♂️

Couldn’t care less about either of these brands.

 

[Think|Different]

WhOoooOOooOoah! A new Pill?! 🤡

Wake me when Apple finally retires the Beats brand.

Yawn! It's a huge moneymaker and brilliant diffusion line for a whole set of demographics they don't want to hit with their main. It's a hit.

 

[icanhazmac]

It’s gross 🤮, Apple paid for the player to be pictured with an unreleased product. Money better spent on bug fixes!

I’ll stick with my Bose Soundlink.

 

[Chet-NYC]

Over my almost five years... had more customers than most would think asking why they retired these speakers. HomePods are great, but they aren't portable.

 

[Gengar]

I wouldn’t mind if they bring these back. I love my Sony Bluetooth speakers more, but these were nice and portable. I’d imagine they’d have more features today since they’re an actual Apple product.

 

[ThailandToo]

Nice if it had a large battery in it with an Apple Watch shaped space on it to be able to charge all Apple accessories. And play music via Bluetooth.

 

[Matcha]

Really cool product placement I love to see marketing done well, must be an interesting field.

 

[icanhazmac]

Really cool product placement I love to see marketing done well, must be an interesting field.

Done well how?

Big bucks paid but how many actually noticed? Perhaps news only after tech sites point it out.

IMHO money wasted.
Bug fixes mebbe?
$2999 VP mebbe?

 

[Jumpthesnark]

It’s gross 🤮, Apple paid for the player to be pictured with an unreleased product. Money better spent on bug fixes!

I’ll stick with my Bose Soundlink.

Guess what? The software engineering and marketing budgets are completely unrelated. They don't now, never have and never will take marketing money and say "let's use this to add to a different department's budget so they can fix some software,"

 

[return2sendai]

Over my almost five years... had more customers than most would think asking why they retired these speakers. HomePods are great, but they aren't portable.

So you are almost five? When’s your birthday?

 

[mattoruu]

I’m so upset about this. As we all know, Apple’s marketing department and software development department share the same budget. And the budget is so small that Apple can only afford to do one thing. Now that Apple has paid LeBron for some viral marketing promotion, iOS 18 has now been delayed by two months. Also, Apple needs to cut four new emojis from list. Darn it!

 

[lfaa]

One half of the speaker should still be red, for full consistency of the design.

 

[mk313]

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I would love to see a new Pill that includes the same technology that allows AirPods to seamlessly move between apple devices. Or even the way it works on the Beats Buds (or whatever they are called). It's way simpler than any other switching technology I have seen (granted I'm not an expert in the area), but if they added it, I would buy one of these at launch.

 

[SoldOnApple]

These things are really hard to advertise because they look a bit ridiculous, and saying "the pill" conversationally sounds like you're discussing contraception.

 

[Chuckeee]

No subliminal messages there.

 

[maczaddy]

I wouldn’t mind if they bring these back. I love my Sony Bluetooth speakers more, but these were nice and portable. I’d imagine they’d have more features today since they’re an actual Apple product.

Yeah until your realize the Apple team won’t let the beats team use any of their chips and the pill will work better with an Android than it will an iPhone :/

 

[zach-coleman]

Do you think when celebrities are paid to do this that they even give it a try, just purely for the novelty? Like do you think this ever got connected to his phone? Probably not…

 

[Jony Ive and Co.]

Why do celebrities get access to unreleased products!?!!?!?

I miss the one time a celebrity was spotted with an unreleased iPhone

Taiwan celeb Jimmy Lin spotted with unreleased iPhone 7 Plus

With less than a month away before the launch of the new iPhones, Taiwanese celebrity Jimmy Lin has been photographed using the iPhone 7 Plus. This isn't the first time the star has been seen using leaked iPhones, as Lin was seen using the iPhone 5 in 2012, and the iPhone 6 and 6 plus in 2014...

www.asiaone.com