Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
We know the iPhone is magic -- now it DOES magic
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.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zibri said 9:28PM on 12-06-2008
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.
$3 for this ? hmm..
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twoeightnine said 9:37PM on 12-06-2008
The "victim" says the name of the object out loud.
Jonathan D. Miller said 9:42PM on 12-06-2008
At first I though, this is pretty stupid magic trick. the app must have some sort of voice/sound recognition like shazam, but then, how would it work on the iPod Touch. So it must be something else.
Still, pretty pointless app. And I'd hardly call it magic. Just a cheap trick that surely gets old quick.
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twoeightnine said 9:46PM on 12-06-2008
Ah, I didn't think about that.
MikeQ said 10:26PM on 12-06-2008
OK, so I dowloaded it, watched the tutorial twice (yes I am slow), then tried it out on my grumpy old dad who is not impressed and fooled by anything. This got him good! over and over again! ...until he was begging for me to tell him how my "Fu$#%@ 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.
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Nick said 1:03AM on 12-07-2008
So... how does it work?
obo said 12:05AM on 12-07-2008
"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.
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jonst52 said 8:05AM on 2-11-2009
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
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Justin said 11:02AM on 12-07-2008
Also a cool magic app is: Marty's Magic Card. Really neat :) Check the demo out.
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Justin said 11:04AM on 12-07-2008
Oops - linked here: http://appstoredeals.com/displayiTS.php?id=296968028
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TonyGee said 12:14PM on 12-07-2008
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.
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Caitlin said 9:20PM on 12-08-2008
I've been meaning to try this one out. http://www.yityat.com/magic/
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Caitlin said 9:24PM on 12-08-2008
I just realized after actually looking at the link, that someone already mentioned the Card Trick.
I was referencing the coin trick.