Fully Charged: Beats get Apple colours, big Game of Thrones leak, and the custom Apple II Watch

Beats get Apple colours

Beats has been under Apple ownership for almost a year now, and we’ve heard many rumblings that Beats Music will soon be reformed and rebranded as an Apple service. But its trademark headphones are also getting a little Apple influence now, with the introduction of three new colours.

The Solo2 Wireless headphones received new Gold, Silver, and Space Gray colour options on Friday, with each matching the tints seen on Apple’s various devices. The colours are only seen on those models for now, with the same £269.95 price as the existing models. At least now you can colour coordinate with your iPhone.

[Source: Twitter via SlashGear]

Game of Thrones episodes leak

It’s been a weekend of big leaks: first the LG G4 appears weeks before the official release, and now four episodes of Game of Thrones season five have hit the Internet less than a day before the first of them was set to premiere on HBO.

The network confirmed the leak, saying it was from someone “approved by HBO to receive them,” but that it was still investigating. The episodes are reportedly only in 480p quality, but they’re complete, so spoilers are sure to be spreading like wildfire. If you want to avoid them, it might be time to cool off of social media for the next month or so.

[Source: Mashable]

Here’s the custom Apple II Watch

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Our Apple Watch review posted on Friday, and it makes the upcoming wearable sound like a pretty amazing thing. Also amazing? This custom Apple II Watch, which mimics the classic desktop in a large, cumbersome, yet spectacular functional wristwatch. And the best part is that you can make one yourself via the step-by-step guide. (You totally should, too.)

[Source: Instructables via TechCrunch]

Podcasts safer after patent troll gutted

Patent trolls are a nuisance to all manner of tech companies, but there was one threat lingering on the horizon that could’ve hurt many thousands of people (and millions of their fans), large and small. That threat was a company called Personal Audio, which began poking large podcast producers for licensing fees via a broad patent it claimed meant it invented the act of podcasting.

Nonsense, right? Truly, it was: the Electronic Frontier Foundation helped prove to the United States Patent and Trademark Office that podcast-like episodic digital audio recordings existed prior to Personal Audio’s filing, and that it has no business demanding money from podcasters. The company could still make threats and try to act on them, but at least for now, podcasting remains unburdened by legal restrictions and regulations.

[Source: EFF]