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Apple releases new PowerBeats2 Wireless headphone colors aimed at Apple Watch Sport users

image credit: Ben Thomas

Apple quietly updated its Powerbeats2 headphones to match Apple Watch Sport colors this week signalling a new move to focus audio accessories to the Apple Watch ecosystem. The new colors, which match the Apple Watch Sport Band colors of Blue, Black, Green, Pink and (updated) White, are available in Apple Stores but haven’t arrived at other retail locations yet.

The Apple Watch can store and play 2GB of music without a tethered iPhone wirelessly via Bluetooth 4 and with watchOS 2 will get access to many more audio applications. It wouldn’t be out of character for Apple to release over the ear Beats headphones in matching colors or even PowerBeats Wireless to match the more expensive stainless steel Apple Watch.

The new Powerbeats2 headphones will of course work with all Apple and other Bluetooth 4 devices even though they appear to be focused on the growing Apple Watch market.

Apple Powerbeats2 Wireless earphones still come in their original, dare I say, dated colors for $199 ($189 Amazon, $169 Best Buy or $160 Ebay) but the original White version has been moved from the old lineup the the new lineup. Original urBeats wired headphones can be found for as little as $45 via 9to5Toys.com

(Via Benjamin Thomas)

 

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Comments

  1. AeronPeryton - 9 years ago

    It seems that Apple doesn’t want to draw any attention to the hardware it acquired. Like making a distant cousin put on a suit and be told to just be quiet during the family gathering. My money says the Beats accessories are a “for now” affair. Perhaps just long enough for Apple to put out a new series of their own headphones that mooch some of Beats’ tech, then end of life everything else until stock dries up.

    • irelandjnr - 9 years ago

      They bought Beats for a few reasons and one big one was the Brand. Apparently the Solo 2’s sound much better than the other Beats stuff, perhaps these will be the same. This headphone hardware isn’t going anywhere. The speakers on the other hand I wouldn’t be too sure on.

      • mike_ch (@mtc) - 9 years ago

        The brand wasn’t valuable enough for HTC or prior owners to consider it worthwhile. Nobody with the kind of money Apple wants is buying bass-heavy headphones endorsed by a quarterback. Apple bought it because of the license to run a Spotify-like service.

        The only question is if Apple, a company that historically has shown a great deal of passion in high quality sound, changes Beats hardware so that it loses the bass-heavy distortion the brand is recognized better or worse for, and builds devices that accurately deliver as close to a full spectrum of sound.

    • James Katt - 9 years ago

      Apple will keep Beats Hardware. Beats owns the high end headphone market. It makes $500 MILLION a year alone.

  2. Todd Esterline - 9 years ago

    here u go. Get all the colors to match your outfits

  3. o0smoothies0o - 9 years ago

    Just make wireless EarPods god damnit! I wouldn’t dream of buying wireless headphones that aren’t designed by Apple. I’ve seen the patent for them, they look perfect. It’s soooo embarrassing that Apple didn’t launch them alongside the apple watch or at the very least apple music. Just sad. They really really need to get some sense about accessories. Here are the two accessories Apple must design and sell, because third parties are garbage: earphones, gaming controller.

    • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

      I think the wait is for Ble 4.2 chips.

    • irelandjnr - 9 years ago

      Yes wireless EarPods that work with peanut sized batteries inside. Just make magic Apple.

      • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

        They wouldn’t need magic. Have you seen what the bluetooth sport headphone market looks like now? The jaybird bluebuds X is very close to what EarPods sized wireless headphones would look like and they get 8 hours of battery life.

        Imagine how much battery life headphones that where designed and optimized by apple to work with their own products would last. The jaybirds are using BLE 4.0. With BLE 4.2 doubling data packet size while reducing energy use even I imagine we’ll be seeing more and more small wireless headphones.

      • AeronPeryton - 9 years ago

        “Peanuts are way too big!” – Jonny Ive

  4. Howie Isaacks - 9 years ago

    Nice, but what if we have more than one Apple Watch Sport band? I have two :)

  5. George Pollen - 9 years ago

    I’m waiting for the matching stainless steel and gold edition versions.

    Seriously, I own PB2 already and they’re great except they fall out of my ears too easily. Battery life could be better, too.

  6. rettun1 - 9 years ago

    I believe these are actually marketed to iPhone 5c users, I mean come on guys……

    • dailycardoodle - 9 years ago

      i certainly don’t get why anyone would run with their watch alone – it’s pretty useless without the iPhone. If you have the iPhone, you have a tonne of songs already there.

      • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

        Maybe apple should make an iPhone 6 [sport]. A smaller slimed down iPhone with no headphone jack that’s sweat and water resistant. I wasn’t sure how they would market a smaller iPhone again but making one that’s geared toward active people would make sense.

  7. Catherine Rot - 9 years ago

    For 200$ you can get dozens of quality on-ear headphones from the real brands like B&W, AKG, Beyer Dynamic, … are they stupid or what?

    • rogifan - 9 years ago

      So who gets to decide what a real brand is? Not everybody is an audiofile. I hate headphone snobs.

      • rogifan - 9 years ago

        Oops I meant audiophile.

      • Catherine Rot - 9 years ago

        Well, I am not an audiophile, though I really like all sorts of music. Still, I cannot decide which ones are more annoying – the headphone snobs or aurally impaired, but I’m leaning towards the latter.

  8. bmuller999 - 9 years ago

    I bought some bluetooth 4, sweatproof, cool colored headphones off Amazon for $35. They have close to 5 stars with thousands of reviews. Work pretty darn well in my book. So is there a gold nugget or something sitting inside the beats that justifies $164 more? $164 for a letter ‘b’ is too much in my book. Just saying…

  9. PhilBoogie - 9 years ago

    I bought these headphones from Beats earlier this year, and wrote this about them:

    I’ll be returning these earphones, but not for the reason some might think.

    This is the first time I’ve tried wireless earphones. While the prospect sounded nice, especially for me as a cyclist and the cable often is too short to go under my jersey and then back out at the bottom, into my pocket, wireless just isn’t for me.

    The need to charge them over a micro USB, or whatever the plug is, it actually looks like proprietary, which becomes a problem when you loose the cable, and putting the plug in is no joy. It’s flimsy, only goes in one way, and, well, I’d rather have an inductive charging method. Simply come home, drop them on a plate or something and be done with it. That is why I like sport watches that automatically sync over ANT+ or WiFi when coming home. No need to plug in a USB cable.

    My other annoyance with wireless is the lost connection. This happens quite frequent, as in a few times per hour. With my iPhone either around my waist when running, or in my jersey when cycling, it still drops the connection. It became annoying for me.

    The sound on the other hand is good. It’s clear, though I was expecting way more bass as this was a key feature. But I think my ears are simply too wide, even with the largest earbuds they still didn’t snugly fit into my ears. Which is why 1) I’m missing out on the bass, and 2) I hear more wind coming into my ears than music while cycling, even with the wind in my back. I’m sure that they sound great, full bass, for people with smaller ears. The in-ear phones from Apple remain my preferred ones, as they not only sound good but fit perfectly with the largest earbuds.

    Last thing: the 6 hours on a single charge isn’t enough for me. I’m a cyclist, and do 8, 10, sometimes 12 hour bike rides during summertime. My iPhone and GPS device last long enough, pity these phones don’t. But I’m weird, and I don’t think many people will think the 6 hour listening limit will limit them in enjoying these earphones from Beats. Because they are good, just not for me.

  10. powerbeats 2 wireless certainly look great. i have run with mine in the rain and they seem to be ok. the problem is that there sound is just awwwwwwwwwwwful! i planned on buying an apple watch but i have held off because i wanted good sound. (need all the motivation in the world to help me move on down the road) they also have an issue with cut outs during playback. does anyone know if they have changed anything with the sound and playback quality? i think i probably got picked up a lemon. survey they all can’t be like this!

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Avatar for Seth Weintraub Seth Weintraub

Publisher and Editorial Director of the 9to5/Electrek sites.


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