Magic Magazine has come to the iPad! This is great for me because being in Japan it is hard to get the magazine at a good price. However now I can get it easily and at a good price. I just downloaded the magazine last night but so far I am enjoying the iPad layout for it. I look forward to how they will take further advantage this digital format. I am glad they went with an interactive version a and not just a PDF version. So far I recommend this. You canfind it here at the iTunes App store.
Aaron
These days there are tons of new magic products on the market and new ones released everyday. Myself I find very few of them anything I would buy or use. However, sometimes there comes a product that is brilliant that is something that I would use in my show. This is what I thought when I saw Chad Long’s new effect Flash. Flash is colour changing USB flash drives. The effect is based on the old colour knives effect. The problem with the colour changing knives trick is that it is uncommon that we would carry knives these days. What Chad Long did was brilliant, instead of two different colour knives, he came up with using two different colour USB flash drives, which are something modern and are objects that we might carry with us. I was sold.
I ordered the effect from Char Long’s website and was delivered to me here in Japan in 8 days which is great service. The props are well made, better than I thought they would be. Basically you don’t have to worry about the USB flash drives breaking as they are made from rubber. They are also easy to clean. There is a nice carry case to keep the flash drives together when not performing so that you don’t lose them. Note that these are not working USB Flash Drives, they are made just for this effect with no memory inside. They come with instructions that teaches the basic moves and a nice routine. The nice this about this product is that it is the colour changing knives as flash drives so you can use many of the moves and routines for the knives with these flash drives. This gives you a big pond to create your own routine.
This is a product that I recommend and that I will be using all the time. Below is a video of Chad Long performing it and it can be purchased from Chad Long’s website here for $30.00 US.
I had been hearing about this magic App for the iPhone called iForce. Being an iPhone lover I decided to download it and WOW. I love many of the great magic apps on the iPhone but I can’t really use them in my close-up show, however iForce is one that I can use and will use. So what is iForce? Well unlike other magic apps where the app does the magic or the magic is contained only in the app, iFoce magic app doesn’t do the magic it is just the medium for a prediction. With iForce you tell the spectators that you are going to make a prediction. You open up a doodle app on the iPhone and show how you can draw on the app. You can even have the spectators try it out. Then you ask them for example, to think of any day of the week. You then say you will read there mind and write what day they are thinking of. You then do this and lay the iPhone face down. You then ask them what day they thought of and then turn the iPhone over and the day they said is written on the doodle program your prediction was correct. So as you can see the iPhone just becomes there medium where you write your prediction down rather than on a piece of paper. After the prediction is shown the spectators can play with the app. What is great about this app is that it is fully customizable. As I live in Japan I can customize all my predictions into Japanese. In the picture in this post you can see my day of the week prediction for Monday. This is very versatile as you can create many many great effects with this. It comes with a bunch of presets so you can use it right away. There are a few different methods to do the effects with iForce so you can do a repeat with a different method. There are teaching videos built into the app but an internet connection is required. There is also a practice mode so you can practice it repeatedly with out resetting the effect which is great way to practice. iForce also works on the ipod Touch. Because of the great customization, and that the effects that are done will be credited to you not the app makes this a real magic effect that you can use in your close-up show and just for fun. For more information here is the iForce website and here is iForce in the app store.
As I am a magician I love playing cards so I was excited to see when Bicycle released their 125 anniversary playing cards. At the moment only Theory11 sells them. I ordered 6 right away 3 red and 3 blue. And now they are here safely in Japan with me. I will not use these for performances except for special cased but they are great just for my magic collection. I have not tested them out much yet but I will to see how they are for performing. I am just happy to get the anniversary cards as these cards are probably the most used by magician throughout the world.
The long awaited iPhone App Rising Card App by Chris Kenner is finally out! You can read about it here. After I play with it for a while I will have a review up! It looks like a great magic App!
