We’ve not been short on glimpses of a new Beats Pill, as athletes from Basketball to Formula One have been spotted wielding an as-yet-unreleased Beats speaker. Now, there’s some evidence that the speaker might be coming sooner rather than later, and it confirms one thing we were perhaps already expecting — that the device will feature a Bluetooth connection.
A new Beats Pill has been filed with the FCC, or Federal Communications Commission, with a couple of details about a new Bluetooth speaker. It has a name: Beats Pill. It has Bluetooth, and it’s passed some tests. It’s been filed by Apple Inc. in Cupertino, and it has subsequently received a grant from the FCC. Beyond that, however, there’s not much new about the speaker in the filing.
So what do we know?
Well, filings like these only really crop up when a product launch is imminent, so we reckon we can expect more news about the Beats Pill soon. We also, thanks to LeBron James and Daniel Ricciardo, know that it’s going to look an awful lot like the Beats speakers of yesteryear, albeit with a new lanyard.
According to leaked code found in iOS 17 earlier this month, the new Beats Pill will feature four buttons. Two to control volume, one for power, and a fourth control button that will be used to mute and unmute the microphone for calls, play and pause audio, skip songs, and more. While we now know Bluetooth is a certainty, AirPlay compatibility seems less likely. The new Pill should also include USB-C.
The Beats name has been going through something of a renaissance recently. There were refreshes for the Beats Studio Buds+ and the Beats Studio Pro last year, along with the most recent release of the Beats Solo4 and the lower-priced Beats Solo Buds. Apple seems to want to bring the Beats brand back from what seemed to be the land of the forgotten — and we can’t wait to see what awaits.
