Apple's Beats debuts celebrity-laden ad promoting new wireless headphones

Posted:
in General Discussion
Apple-owned Beats on Monday premiered a new video ad on Twitter, promoting the brand's latest wireless headphones: the BeatsX, Solo3 Wireless, and Powerbeats3 Wireless.









Set to the Pinocchio song "I've Got No Strings" by Disney -- a major Apple business partner -- the ad otherwise features a montage of celebrities wearing the products. Some names include musicians DJ Khaled, Pharrell Williams, and Nicki Minaj, and actors like Rebel Wilson and Steve Buscemi.



Of the headphones, only the Solo3 Wireless is currently available. The BeatsX and Powerbeats3 Wireless are due to ship sometime before Christmas, presumably before Black Friday shopping in late November.



"I've got no strings to hold me down. I had strings but now I'm free."

Watch "Got No Strings". #Solo3Wireless #BeatsX #Powerbeats3Wireless pic.twitter.com/7YMaPDXMJU

-- Beats By Dre (@beatsbydre)




The arrival of a new ad could imply that the latter two products will ship even sooner. Apple timed their announcement with the introduction of the iPhone 7, the first iOS device to omit an industry-standard 3.5-millimeter headphone jack.



All three devices feature Apple's W1 chip, which not only makes pairing easier but may improve battery life and range, potentially to as far as 400 feet or more.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Micro-UBS is the worst charging connector in existence. Also, Beats are missing a few things go flesh out the lineup: a larger Pill+ sibling product, Lightning across all products, competitive quality noise cancellation tech, and most importantly, a proper around-ear Beats comfort model.
    edited October 2016 calirevenant
  • Reply 2 of 10
    dachardachar Posts: 330member
    I am not sure about this ad. The sound quality seems low. I guess reflects the age of the original recording or is this to demonstrate the quality of Beats new headphones? /s
  • Reply 3 of 10
    Great ad.

    nolamacguy
  • Reply 4 of 10
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member
    ireland said:
    Micro-UBS is the worst charging connector in existence. Also, Beats are missing a few things go flesh out the lineup: a larger Pill+ sibling product, Lightning across all products, competitive quality noise cancellation tech, and most importantly, a proper around-ear Beats comfort model.
    I don't think Beats will go Lightning connectors on the headphones, at least exclusively. They will most likely go USB-C on one side, and possibly Lightning on the other. The ONLY reason they would go Lightning at all on the headphones themselves is if they allow the Beats headphones to act as a passthrough charging port for listening and charging at the same time, and/or allowing friends to daisy chain off the headphones to share the same audio, neither of which is natively possible via the single Lighting port at present. Otherwise, it will be a USB-C to Lightning cable for iOS customers (possibly even Macs), or USB-C to USB-C. I would also expect to see USB-C to 3.5mm cables as well.

    Buscemi's got the right idea in that add. I carry a BT adapter for the American seat-back entertainment systems now, so I don't have to unplug every time another passenger needs to get in or out of their seat, or when I get up to stretch my legs or go to the bathroom.

  • Reply 5 of 10
    El DorkoEl Dorko Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    Who's the jerk catcalling a woman at the 33 second mark, and who thought that promoting sexual harassment was a good marketing strategy?
  • Reply 6 of 10
    funny ad.
    I paid $100 for the beats solo 2 wireless for the educational promotion. they are really quite nice (not an audiophile). but after 366 days they went all wonky on me. I called apple they said I only just missed the window so they would take a look at them in their repair facility. they could not fix them so they sent me two, (two!) working ones as a replacement. It was not a mistake as they were both sent in the same box. Both of those are sold now to pay for the new solo 3 wireless and some leftover.  40 hours, easy connectivity. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 10
    El Dorko said:
    Who's the jerk catcalling a woman at the 33 second mark, and who thought that promoting sexual harassment was a good marketing strategy?

    I was surprised by that scene, too, but I wouldn't go as far as saying that "harassment". It's thinking like that which only feeds the wrong mindset in the larger population. She smiled, so she was proud of her caboose. Nothing wrong with being happy with who you are and having other people appreciate that.
    meteorairelandurahara
  • Reply 8 of 10
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    mac_128 said:
    ireland said:
    Micro-UBS is the worst charging connector in existence. Also, Beats are missing a few things go flesh out the lineup: a larger Pill+ sibling product, Lightning across all products, competitive quality noise cancellation tech, and most importantly, a proper around-ear Beats comfort model.
    I don't think Beats will go Lightning connectors on the headphones, at least exclusively
    I'm talking charging port. BeatsX and Pill+ already went Lightning. With the products that require a wired option there's always a black Beats Lightning to Lightning cable for iOS products and an included black adapter to headphone jack for Android or old iOS devices and old Macs. But for usual it's Bluetooth. I further think Apple should add Lightning ports to all new Macs for headphone consistency and go Lightning to Lightning on all their charging cables. Go big or go home.

    An adapter is easy to include for Android users as all these headphones are designed to be use wirelessly anyway so there's no real inconvenience caused. The main point here is iPhone users can charge with any Lightning charger they have lying around allowing them to charge in any location they already have a charger and to use any friend's if in a pickle. Lightning in these cases is about convenience and I believe USBc will prove too large a port for wearables going forward.
    edited October 2016
  • Reply 9 of 10
    El Dorko said:
    Who's the jerk catcalling a woman at the 33 second mark, and who thought that promoting sexual harassment was a good marketing strategy?
    Weird right? I know it's meant to be playful but it looks like a bunch of arrogant celebrities treating normal people however they please - azz slaping, ogling and stealing drinks from women. They should have ended with a Trump voice over, "Grab 'em by the...."  and Dre giggling at it
  • Reply 10 of 10
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member
    ireland said:
    mac_128 said:
    ireland said:
    Micro-UBS is the worst charging connector in existence. Also, Beats are missing a few things go flesh out the lineup: a larger Pill+ sibling product, Lightning across all products, competitive quality noise cancellation tech, and most importantly, a proper around-ear Beats comfort model.
    I don't think Beats will go Lightning connectors on the headphones, at least exclusively
    I'm talking charging port. BeatsX and Pill+ already went Lightning. With the products that require a wired option there's always a black Beats Lightning to Lightning cable for iOS products and an included black adapter to headphone jack for Android or old iOS devices and old Macs. But for usual it's Bluetooth. I further think Apple should add Lightning ports to all new Macs for headphone consistency and go Lightning to Lightning on all their charging cables. Go big or go home.

    An adapter is easy to include for Android users as all these headphones are designed to be use wirelessly anyway so there's no real inconvenience caused. The main point here is iPhone users can charge with any Lightning charger they have lying around allowing them to charge in any location they already have a charger and to use any friend's if in a pickle. Lightning in these cases is about convenience and I believe USBc will prove too large a port for wearables going forward.
    I'm talking about the charging port too. There's no reason to have more than one port for a pair of headphones, serving all needs. And the vast majority of Beats customers are Android users, so USB-C makes much more sense in most cases as the primary charging port -- most Apple customers have a micro USB charging cable, and can easily find one anywhere, the same will be true for USB-C after a time as well due to both Mac, PC and Android adoption. Add to the fact that USB-C passes analogue audio which makes a simple 3.5mm adapter/cable simple to implement. While there's an argument to be made for Lightning due to size, the reality is, USB-C is not that much bigger, especially when discussing a pair of over-the-ear headphones. 

    I was not aware that the Pill used Lightning, nor that Beats X did either. Again, I'd expect there's a good argument for size to be made in the case of BeatsX, less so for the Pill. And, there's also the Powerbeats option for those who don't use Lightning at all -- which coincidentally come in 5 color options, whereas the Beats x only come in two. There might also be a Beats W1 over-the-ear model coming with a Lightning connector as well. 

    You mention a Beats Lightning to Lightning cable. I took a look on the website and didn't see one. In fact, I've never known of an official MFi male to male Lightning cable. The BeatsX says nothing about using it as a pair of wired headphones, either. So such a cable could only be used to get a charge from an iOS device, which aside from the Pencil I thought was not permitted, and I would think not something Apple would want to encourage in general. Not to mention changing their charging bricks to be incompatible with international mandated standards (or adding a Lightning port to the same charging block with a USB-C port).

    But I've been predicting a Lightning port on the Mac since the Retina MacBook came out, and rumors started floating about the removal of the headphone jack. I guess we'll see next week if we're right. In which case, hopefully we'll also see some Lightning headphone adapters for use on non-Lightning devices, like the currently selling Mac product lineup. 
    edited October 2016
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