Beats Pill is a brand of portable Bluetooth speakers produced by Beats Electronics. The Pill was released in 2013. The devices include 3.5mm audio input and output jacks and charges over a Micro USB port.
Serving as one of the company's first self-developed products after the end of its exclusive manufacturing deal with Monster Cable Products, the Beats Pill was designed by Robert Brunner's studio Ammunition Design Group, and carries a capsule-based design roughly 7.7 inches (20 cm) in length. Its appearance is characterized by curved surfaces and a gloss finish. The speaker contains minimal controls; the logo serves as a multi-purpose button for starting and stopping tracks, and the only other buttons are volume keys and the power button.
The Pill uses Bluetooth to connect to a device (such as a smartphone), and also supports near-field communication for device pairing. It also includes 3.5mm audio input and output jacks. The Pill charges over a Micro USB port, and comes with a USB AC adapter. The device also includes a microphone so it can be used as a speakerphone. The Pill is also an aptX-certified device. In 2013, updated versions of the Pill, Beats Pill 2.0, were released. The new models have longer battery life, a port for charging other USB devices, the ability to pair Pills together with near-field communication (NFC) to play the same audio either individually, or handling left and right stereo channels respectively, character stands, and a new, larger "XL" version.
The Beats Pill+, was unveiled in October 2015, as the first revision to the product released under Apple Inc. ownership. The Pill+ is slightly larger than the previous model, and carries a refreshed design with top-mounted volume controls and a Beats logo button. The Pill's speaker hardware was redesigned to improve sound quality. The Pill+ uses Apple's Lightning connector instead of USB, and can charge supported iOS products from its battery—which has an increased capacity rated for 12 hours of use on a single charge. The Pill+ has a companion mobile app for iOS and Android devices; the app will be able to pair multiple speakers (NFC is no longer used), allow multiple users to alternate playing music on a single Pill ("DJ mode"), and display battery capacity.