> I'll never understand what led Apple to align itself w this overpriced junk.
I don't think Apple bought Beats for the headphones, really. They bought them for the recently-launched Beats Music streaming service, which is what became Apple Music, and the added music industry connections that came along with Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.
(It's also my impression that Beats products released after the Apple acquisition have been getting somewhat better reviews in terms of sound quality, but it's not a brand I really keep track of, so that could be wrong!)
Yep. I'm pretty sure the weird onboarding process for Apple Music -- tap bubbles that represent genres you like, or something like that -- was very close to Beats's original process. I'm not sure it still does that, since it was kind of weird and confusing. Beats Music had a real focus on human-curated playlists rather than solely algorithmic ones, something that Apple Music kept.
Yes, it did, and MOG (what Beats bought and turned into Beats Music) had something like that too. Almost none of the MOG aesthetic is left today, though.
I don't think Apple bought Beats for the headphones, really. They bought them for the recently-launched Beats Music streaming service, which is what became Apple Music, and the added music industry connections that came along with Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.
(It's also my impression that Beats products released after the Apple acquisition have been getting somewhat better reviews in terms of sound quality, but it's not a brand I really keep track of, so that could be wrong!)