beats

HTC is expected to announce Thursday that it has acquired a 51 percent stake in Beats Electronics, the company that manufacturers the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones and loudspeakers, sources close to the talks told CNET today.

HTC, a maker of popular smartphones, will obtain the majority stake in Beats Electronics at a cost of more than $500 million, the sources said. The Beats headphones has emerged as a player in higher performance audio and more importantly become a status symbol among music fans and the country's youth.

Dow Jones and All Things Digital were first to report the … Read more

RZA aka Bobby Digital aka Prince Dynamite aka Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah of the seminal Wu-Tang Clan is next in line for a headphone collaboration with WESC (We are the Superlative Conspiracy), a clothing company that already has its own line of flashy headsets.

Continuing the legacy of hip-hop headphone team-ups started by Monster's Beats by Dr. Dre and followed most recently by Ludacris's Soul series, the Brooklyn producer and MC will launch his Chambers line on August 26 starting with two models: a mobile-friendly street design and a full-size model for DJs and audio engineers.

Check out this interview with RZA … Read more

A new feature found in iOS 5 is the ability to turn on private browsing for Mobile Safari. Once private browsing is activated, Mobile Safari will stop keeping history of your Web browsing. This can come in handy in a number of various situations, for example; letting a friend borrow your iOS device to check their e-mail. Having private browsing turned on will ensure their personal info isn't stored on your device, providing them with piece of mind. … Read more

Minimash is a DJ app that automatically matches beats from songs in your iTunes library, but it doesn't always produce great results. Immediately upon launching Minimash, you'll notice a unique artistic style to the interface. The hand-drawn-looking controls and bright colors are easy on the eyes, but it's difficult to know immediately what each control does. Fortunately, you can touch an information button that explains how to use each control and get your music up and running quickly.

The app has you start by "Preparing" your tracks--Minimash runs an analysis algorithm to scan each track'… Read more

Here's an odd one. While perusing the E3 trailer for the new Tomb Raider game, we noticed that iconic pistol-packing heroine Lara Croft was using what are--unmistakably--Beats by Dr. Dre headphones.

The iconic red-ribbon cable tipped us off, but after a comical double-take we noticed that Miss Croft's headphones de choix also sport the Beats ControlTalk cable remote, which lets you control music playback and--if you're using an iPhone--take calls as well. That makes these action-packed 'buds the Beats by Dr. Dre Tour.

Read more of "Lara Croft uses Beats by Dr Dre headphones, and an iPhone 4" at Crave UK.… Read more

Following in the footsteps of Altec Lansing, which released its Octiv Stage iPad speaker dock last year, JBL has announced an iPad speaker dock of its own: the OnBeat.

Like Altec's competing product, the OnBeat has a swiveling mechanism that allows you to dock your iPad--or any other iOS portable device, including the iPhone and iPod Touch--and turn it vertically (portrait mode) or horizontally (landscape mode). And like the Octiv Stage, the OnBeat will also retail for $149.99 when it's released in April.

JBL mentions that the OnStage has a composite video output for sending video from your iPad to a TV, but it doesn't appear to have the tilt capabilities of the Altec dock. We look forward to having a closer look--and listen--as soon as we get a review sample.

Note: Though JBL doesn't says whether the unit will be compatible with both the iPad and iPad 2, we think the iPad 2 should fit just fine in the dock. However, we'll wait for JBL to confirm that. … Read more

We all know that any single tweet has a much better than average chance of containing total nonsense, and that any individual Twitter user's Oscar predictions aren't worth their weight in ones and zeroes.

But if you aggregate tens of thousands of users' guesses, you end up with what could be called The Wisdom of the Twitterverse, and in this case, the crowd has spoken: "The King's Speech" will win Best Picture in a runaway.

Since the announcement of the Academy Award nominations last month, a service called Tweetbeat has been collecting each and every … Read more

OK, this week we've got a hot one courtesy of the folks at Monster: the Monster Beats by Dr. Dre Beatbox iPod Dock.

This is one room-thumping iPod/iPhone stereo system. I should know because I reviewed the thing. I said that, "The Monster Beatbox has a simple mission that goes something like this: deliver big sound from a small box." And while I didn't think it delivered the most refined sonics in the world, I recommended that if you were looking for big, aggressive sound from a compact system, this was the one to get. (… Read more

CNET Audiophiliac Steve Guttenberg joins us for another Friday episode of The 404, and there's a lot to discuss, including a new trailer for the upcoming "Back to the Future" video game, Steve's encounters with John Lennon, Andy Warhol, and Warren Beatty in the 1970s, how to convert stereo into 3D sound, and more earbud advice for Wilson's freakishly small canals.

Steve tables his usual list of audio-related speaking points to tell us about his celebrity encounters while working at an East Village movie theater in the 1970s. He begins with a story about an awkward encounter with John Lennon and Yoko Ono just two years after the Beatles split, then tells us why he cussed out pop art star Andy Warhol, and finishes with a brutal rebuff from Warren Beatty! When's the book coming out, Steve?

We're going to record a special yuletide episode of The 404 entirely dedicated to the "Back to the Future" trilogy, but we can't wait any longer to show you the debut trailer for the upcoming "Back to the Future" video game!

It's a five-part game that picks up on the adventures of Marty and the Doc as voiced by Emmett Brown himself, Christopher Lloyd! The first part entitled It's About Time comes out this month, part two called Get Tannen! comes out in February 2011, and parts three and four--Citizen Brown and Double Visions, will drop in March and April, and the finale Outatime doesn't have a release date just yet. It's only available for download on PC/Mac, iPad, and PSN--sorry XBox fans!

I swear that today is the last you'll hear about Wilson's tiny ear canals, because I think we found a solution. I reviewed the Monster Jamz headphones for CNET last month and ran into similar fit issues, so the company sent me its SuperTips Sample Pack of gel and foam tips that comes with a variety of alternate shapes and sizes. With Steve Guttenberg's help, we'll finally solve this mystery!

Just after the break, Steve tells us about a professor at Princeton University who converts stereo into 3D sound! Edgar Choueiri is the director of the Engineering Physics Program and a rocket scientist, but he also happens to be an audiophiliac and set up a special 3D sound room using two closely spaced speakers and his revolutionary 3D Pure Stereo system. Check out the Audiophiliac blog for more details.

One last thing before we take off: Gknee is one of the valiant chatroom moderators for CNET TV and keeps the #CNETFans channel SFW (with the help of DAKlives).

She's celebrating a birthday on Monday, so happy birthday in advance Gknee, and a personal thanks from Jeff, Wilson, and me to all the CNETTV moderators who volunteer their work for the love of the game--we couldn't do it without you guys!