Skip to Content

We know the iPhone is magic -- now it DOES magic

by Mel Martin Dec 6th 2008 at 9:00PM

When I was growing up I used to do magic shows at kids parties to earn some extra money. It was fun for awhile, but those kids could be pretty rowdy.

Now flash forward lots of years, and we can do magic tricks on our iPhones. Who'd have thunk it? Magic Show is an iPhone (or iPod touch) app created by a professional magician, Allen Valentine. He does an impressive stage show in Atlantic City, and he is passionate about the iPhone as well as his magic, so he combined the two.

Here's how the trick works. You launch the app and the phone does some nicely rendered videos with a curtain opening and some show-bizzy music. Screen prompts ask your innocent assistant to pick one of three objects and say the name of the object out loud. Without further ado you hand the person your iPhone and with music, a puff of smoke and some suspense the phone announces the object the person picked. Yes, it can be repeated, and the effect would be pretty astounding for most people. Fun to try around the office cubicle, or at a bar, or anywhere really.

It's $2.99 at the App Store and worth it for the fun and mystification it can provide. My only suggestion is that there shouldn't be an obvious link to the performance tutorial on the application's main screen. If someone is browsing through the apps on your phone, they are only one click and a 90-second video away from the secret.

Try it and see if people are fooled. I predict they will be.

View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

Software Odds and ends iPhone App Store iPod touch

When I was growing up I used to do magic shows at kids parties to earn some extra money. It was fun for awhile, but those kids could be...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

13 Comments

Filter by:
Caitlin

I've been meaning to try this one out. http://www.yityat.com/magic/

December 08 2008 at 9:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Caitlin's comment
Caitlin

I just realized after actually looking at the link, that someone already mentioned the Card Trick.

I was referencing the coin trick.

December 08 2008 at 9:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TonyGee

I have been having some fun today showing this app to everyone... their reactions have been pretty funny. Tutorial was waaaay to long but it does stress that you need to practice it a few times before showing anyone otherwise you will screw it up like I did the first time I did it! A great app for my collection.

December 07 2008 at 12:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Justin

Oops - linked here: http://appstoredeals.com/displayiTS.php?id=296968028

December 07 2008 at 11:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Justin

Also a cool magic app is: Marty's Magic Card. Really neat :) Check the demo out.

December 07 2008 at 11:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jonst52

Magic Show is not the first App Store application of this type. Take a look at Magic Match: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=294416610&mt=8

December 07 2008 at 4:36 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
obo

"Here's how the trick works. You launch the app and the phone does some nicely rendered videos with a curtain opening and some show-bizzy music. Screen prompts ask your innocent assistant to pick one of three objects and say the name of the object out loud. Without further ado you hand the person your iPhone and with music, a puff of smoke and some suspense the phone" IMMEDIATELY DISAPPEARS, ALONG WITH THE PERSON YOU HANDED IT TO.

December 07 2008 at 12:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MikeQ

OK, so I dowloaded it, watched the tutorial twice (yes I am slow), then tried it out on my grumpy old dad who is not impressed and fooled by anything. This got him good! over and over again! ...until he was begging for me to tell him how my "Fu$#%@ phone" was guessing what he was going to say... it was pretty funny. This is a useless app until you show it to someone, then it becomes something else, something pretty cool. I like it and will be whipping this out at work on Monday to add some magic to lives of some more grumpy people I know.

December 06 2008 at 10:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to MikeQ's comment
Nick

So... how does it work?

December 07 2008 at 1:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jonathan Miller

At first I though, this is pretty stupid magic trick. the app must have some sort of voice/sound recognition like shazam, but then, how would it work on the iPod Touch. So it must be something else.

Still, pretty pointless app. And I'd hardly call it magic. Just a cheap trick that surely gets old quick.

December 06 2008 at 9:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Jonathan Miller's comment
twoeightnine

Ah, I didn't think about that.

December 06 2008 at 9:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Zibri

I don't know how this game works and I don't have the app.. bu there are many ways to accomplish this:

1) the "magician" tells the iphone which object was picked just by tilting the device or shaking it.

2) the "magician" swipes the screen (in 3 different ways) while handing it to the assistant.

$3 for this ? hmm..

December 06 2008 at 9:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Zibri's comment
twoeightnine

The "victim" says the name of the object out loud.

December 06 2008 at 9:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.