Zagg’s new Boost speaker, sold under the iFrogz brand, appears to amplify music using nothing but magic. Just place your iPhone (or any other device with a speaker) on top and it will boost the sound. No wires, no Bluetooth, no nothing. The music just issues forth from a pair of 2-watt speakers.
So how is this feat performed? We don’t know — yet. The press release and product page are both cagey about the tech, called NearFA™ (that ™ probably has something to do with the secrecy), saying only that it “syncs the audio signal from inside your device before pumping it out.”
Heading over to the official NearFA site isn’t any better. There we learn that the tech “can magically amplify the sound of an iPhone (or other mobile devices) by just placing the iPhone next to the speaker without configuration.”
The good news is that I have asked the Zagg PR folks for some more info, and that there should be a Boost speaker winging its way to Cult of Mac’s Spanish Bureau soon, ready for dissection (don’t tell the PR folks that last part). What we do know is that the speaker runs for up to 15 hours on 3 AA batteries, can also be powered by USB and has a minijack socket for anything that doesn’t already have its own speaker
If your curiosity is piqued enough to buy a Boost, you can order one now for just $40.
