Even a couple of months after the fact, I have to say that iFrogz' Boost speaker was one of the most interesting things I saw at CES this year. It's a little box speaker that works, more or less, like magic. There are no wires or hookups necessary. All you do is set the Boost speaker down, put your iPhone right on top of it as seen above, and then the speaker somehow amplifies your iPhone. It's not super loud, but it's more than enough for just a desk speaker, or maybe something small in the bedroom.

As far as I can tell, it simply works by "listening in" to whatever is coming out of your iPhone's speaker with a really close-up microphone, and then just amplifying that audio as best it can (the device is powered with a few batteries, so that would make sense, if it's making more sound on its own). What's most surprising about all of this, however, is how exact the unit must be -- I moved the iPhone around quite a bit on the unit, and it really only works if the iPhone is sitting in exactly the right place, which means that mic, if that's indeed what's happening, must be very finely tuned.

At any rate, the Boost is an interesting device -- there are quite a few speakers out there, but I haven't seen anything like this, that doesn't require any wires or hookups at all (aside from the old school megaphone style amplifiers, I mean). The Boost is available for $39.99, and if you have a place to use it, it might be worth picking up.

iFrogz' Boost speaker out now originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple has posted listings around the Internet for a Technical Recruiter based in Israel, signifying that the company is kicking off a hiring drive in that country. The main goal of the individual in that position will be to get involved in "identifying, engaging and securing world-class candidates for Apple in Israel," and presumably growing the company's operations there. The position asks for quite a bit of recruiting experience, particularly in the engineering, hardware, and semiconductor industries, and will also need to deal with "hiring ramps of 20+ vacancies," which again means there's probably a significant team headed to Israel.

This isn't the first we've heard of Apple trying to move into Israel, and CEO Tim Cook has said in the past that as well as Apple is doing here in the US and overseas in Europe, the biggest potential for growth is in developing tech nations like Israel and other countries in the Middle East. A move like this shows that Apple is not only taking advantage of its cash pile and status as a company right now, but also looking ahead to grow even bigger in the future.

Apple initiates hiring drive in Israel originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Daily Update for February 22, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Legal battles can sometimes make strange bedfellows. Microsoft announced today that they've filed an antitrust suit against Motorola Mobility in the European Union charging that the company (which is being purchased by Google) is abusing the standard-essential patents that it owns. Apple also filed a complaint a few days ago on the same topic -- that Motorola Mobility is attempting to illegally block sales of others company's products by leveraging patents that should be offered with Fair, Reasonable, And Non-Descriminatory (FRAND) licensing.

Standard-essential patents are patents held by companies like Motorola Mobility that become part of industry standards like Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n, for example) and the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC standard. Since they're part of industry standards, companies are obligated to use the patented intellectual property in creating their products. If the patent owner attempts to coerce companies to either stop using technology that is part of a standard or to pay exorbitant licensing fees, lawsuits like those filed by Apple and Microsoft are the result.

Dave Heiner, vice-president and deputy general counsel for Microsoft's Corporate Standards and Antitrust Group, was quoted as saying that "Motorola has broken its promise. Motorola is on a path to use standard essential patents to kill video on the Web, and Google as its new owner doesn't seem to be willing to change course."

Florian Mueller, patent expert at FOSS Patents, believes that Microsoft joining Apple with a lawsuit against Motorola Mobility will improve the odds that the European Commission will investigate Motorola's alleged abuses of FRAND patents in Europe.

Microsoft joins Apple in FRAND patent fight with Motorola Mobility originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Once again it's Understudy Wednesday on TUAW TV Live, meaning you get a bonus dose of TUAW Talkcast host Kelly, and co-host (or partner in crime, depending who you ask) Doc Rock.

Since Apple didn't have the decency to consult the TUAW TV Live schedule, they released Mountain Lion the day after last week's show so this we'll be talking about that and any other news and hardware or demos that Kelly and Doc come up with before the show starts.

Below, you'll find a Ustream livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments.

If you're driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you're stuck in traffic, please don't -- keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream App. It's a universal app and is wonderful on an iPad, both for viewing and participating in the chat.

We'll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you're seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you'll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.

No Flash? Check out the YouTube channel or podcast listed above or click here.

TUAW TV Live at 5pm ET: Mountain Lion Edition! originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Buzz Contacts from Savvy Apps (US$0.99) is a fast way to reach contacts from your iPhone. Organize them into groups for one-tap access to phone calls, text messages, email or FaceTime sessions. The UI is about as clean and tidy as one can get and conveniences like pre-written text messages are quite helpful. Here's my look at Buzz Contacts for iPhone.

UI

The no-frills, utilitarian look of Buzz Contacts is appropriate for a handy utility. Once you've set up some groups (more on that later), they're laid out on a 4 x 4 grid. Each contact is listed by name and an icon depicts the action associated with each button (phone, text, email or FaceTime). If a group contains more than four members, a swipe to the right reveals the next grid of four while a swipe to the left produces a list view.

A toolbar pops up from the bottom of the screen allowing for group actions, so you can send an email or a text, for example, to everyone at once. The large buttons are hard to miss, so the risk of unintended taps is nominal.

Use

It's easy to create a group. I made one called "Family" which includes my wife, mother, father and two sisters. To begin, swipe to the right and tap "New Group." Next, tap the title to customize it and then tap the icon in the upper right.

A list of your contacts appears. Tap the one you'd like to add and chose the method of contact. Keep adding contacts in this fashion until "Page One" is filled, meaning you've added four contacts. You can re-arrage the order in this screen as well.

Make as many groups as you like, swiping to the right to toggle between groups. From there, you simply launch the app and tap the appropriate block to initiate just the type of communication you want: FaceTime with your sister, iPhone call to your co-worker, text message to your son or daughter. It's speedy and a time-saver.

Buzz Contacts also lets you call those not in a group from the dialer. To use the dialer, swipe to the right again and tap Dialer. A keypad appears. Start tapping a number and Buzz guesses which one you're after. Give it a tap and you're off.

There are a few thoughtful niceties in the app. Tapping a contact set up as an email or FaceTime session asks you to confirm your intention before placing the call, so you won't place accidental phone calls. Also, there's a list of pre-written text messages to choose from, like "Running Late. See you soon." and "On my way." Combine that with a group text message to send a lengthy message to the whole gang with little effort.

I love useful utilities and Buzz Contacts is one. Since I pretty much only call the people in my family group, I've replaced the phone app in my iPhone's Dock with Buzz Contacts. It's definitely worth a try at $0.99.

Buzz Contacts for iPhone offers fast access to contacts originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MakeGo is quite an idea. It's an iPhone app, available for $1.99 right now, that turns the touchscreen of an iPhone (or iPod touch) into a vehicle-style toy, where you can play around and generate sounds for toys like a racecar, ice cream truck, or even a riverboat. But the genius of this one isn't what's in the iPhone, it's what's outside of it. The idea is that you build a vehicle case for the iPhone out of whatever you want, be that Legos or wood or just paper, and then your custom-built case, along with the iPhone running the app, becomes a very professional, interactive toy.

Now, there are a few issues here, the first one being that when I played with vehicle toys as a kid, they almost inevitably ended up crashing in horrible ways, so I don't know how comfortable I'd feel giving any child an iPhone 4S to throw around. But lots of kids have access to old iPhones or iPod touches at this point, and this seems like a really ingenious way to inspire creativity and come up with a really great DIY toy. It's also super cheap, given that you already have the iOS device, because touchscreens for toys can send prices up through the roof.

And finally, it's a great example of just how much the iPhone and iPod touch have changed all sorts of industries. When powerful, touchscreen-based devices are this prevalent and this ubiquitous, why not use them to inspire some really interesting imagination play?

[via Wonderland]

MakeGo turns your iPhone into a vehicle toy originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Are you a fan of Instagram? I often find myself taking snaps with the app, adding some special effects, and then posting them for close friends and complete strangers to enjoy. Now the folks at Tiny Hearts, the developers of the fun Pocket Zoo app I reviewed last year, have come up with Instamatch -- a US$1.99 universal iOS app (on sale for $0.99 for a limited time) released today that turns those awesome Instagram photos into a fun and challenging matching game.

Instamatch is a variation on the old "Concentration" matching game that has contestants matching similar Instagram photos. There are several ways to play -- you can either select photos from your own Instagram account, in which case you match two identical copies of photos until all photos are matched, or from a selection of photos of Nature, Food, Animals, Cities, or World Wonders. With the latter, you match similar photos of the same subject, like two different photos of the Golden Gate Bridge. There's also a search mode, so you can find and match photos of just about any subject under the sun.

Gallery: Instamatch

To get a high score, you need to match all of the photo pairs as quickly as possible. It's also helpful to be lucky enough to match two photos without looking at them first -- the combos give you extra points that really add up.

On the iPhone, the game can be played with one or two players, and there are three levels of difficulty -- Easy, with 12 photo cards; Normal, with 20 cards; and Hard, with 20 moving cards. For the iPad, up to four players can vie for the high score, and the Normal and Hard difficulty levels jump up to 30 cards. In multiplayer game play, the players take turns in succession so that a sharp-eyed player can watch for clues and then rack up extra points. There's Game Center support built into the app for shouting out your bragging rights for high Instamatch scores.

I find Instamatch to be a fun time-killer. Individual games don't take that long, so it's the perfect game to play while you're waiting in a line and need to waste some time. An internet connection is required in order to grab the Instagram photos, so this isn't a game that you'd be able to play on an airplane unless it's equipped with Wi-Fi. The multiplayer game, especially on the iPad with 30 cards, throws a bit of strategy into play.

The user interface is easy to understand and is beautifully designed, both of which add value to Instamatch. Especially at the 99¢ introductory price, Instamatch is a gotta-buy app for game lovers of any age.

Instamatch turns Instagram into an engaging iOS game originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In September of 2011, Google introduced its Flight Search service. The service provides information on upcoming flights to specific destinations, providing schedule, price, and airline information. Now Flight Search has become iOS-friendly, perfect for those who want to check on flight availability and pricing on the go.

What Google did is to make Flight Search fit the Safari browser on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The features of Flight Search include searching, discover by location, filtering results by price, flight time, airline, and calendar view.

One little trick I found is that you can use Siri to call up Flight Search. Just tell Siri to "Google flights between Denver and Las Vegas" (or whatever two points you're interested in flying between), and one of the top results that Siri will produce is a Flight Search listing. It's a fast way to get a first pass at flight schedules and pricing while keeping up your personal relationship with Siri.

Google makes Flight Search iOS (and Siri) friendly originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In the aftermath of the passing of Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, there have been a number of posts in the blogosphere pointing out specific videos that were captured at various points in his life. Now Chill's Scott Hurff has created a huge collection of just about every Steve Jobs video available.

The collection of 81 videos (by my count) covers interviews with Jobs from 1980 through 2011, was curated by Hurff, who is the Director of User Experience for Chill. Some of the highlights include a series of videos showing Jobs during his tenure at NeXT, a compendium of new product announcements by Jobs, the classic 2005 Standford commencement address, and the famous Jobs - Gates interview with Walt Mossberg.

If you're looking for a single source for Steve Jobs memories, this Chill collection is a great place to look.

Fantastic collection of Steve Jobs videos originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.