Hey Everyone, just wanted to let you all know about a new iPhone app that is available now.

The effect: The magician hands a deck of cards to the spectator, invites them to cut the deck, then instructs them to deal the cards down on the table face up. The spectator can stop anytime and even change their mind if they wish. Once the spectator is happy with their selection, the magician points to his iPhone on the table, picks it up, and turns it on. “That’s funny that you stopped on that card, because earlier tonight I took a photo...” The magician then clearly opens the iPhone’s photo album and scrolls to the last photo added to the album. The magician taps on the thumbnail, and the enlarged photo shows the magician holding up the chosen card.

A demo video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g2K4M5pnKY

This app can be used to reveal any kind of prediction that you can take a photo of. Cards, ESP cards, items, or places (you get five "outs") The app is not entirely self working, you do need some skill with a deck of cards or whatever you choose to use, and thus I would not recommend this app for beginner magicians.

The best thing about this app is that the spectator will never know that an app was used. A lot of magic apps out there are just that, apps, and from the spectator's point of view are not as amazing because anyone can go buy an app and do a lot of those tricks. But the 101 Deck app is hidden, and you end clean. At the end of the trick, the photo the spectator is viewing is a real photo in your real photo library, so this means that the spectator can handle the device. You can perform the trick surrounded with the phone face up, and in view, the entire time.

At $9.99 I realize that this app is more expensive than most, however I believe that many of the good magic apps out there are way underpriced, plus you'd easily spend 10 bucks at your local magic shop for a good trick. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions about what you can/can't do with the app. Any feedback or comments are welcome, I hope you enjoy it!

Link to iTunes and more information: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSto......927&mt=8

James Mattox

Interested in, hope to have the opportunity to try.

Bole Chen

Tried this today on a magician buddy who daily performs Iforce, Ellusionist's ID and some other apps!! Fooled him badly hehe
I really like the "no app involved" aspect of this... I always wanted magic apps to be clean for examination with nothing to find for the most suspicious iphone user... (with no feature-in instructions at all...)

101 deck is a huge step toward that particular direction... it's indeed the first app that doesn't look like an app... and nothing before, during or after the performance makes someone suspects the presence of an app...

I will enjoy designing some routines around that app, which is fully able to predict much more than cards

Highly recommend it!

Thanks a lot or the feedback, I'm glad to hear that you like it!

This is a review posted in the genie forum with some good ideas on how to use the app:

*****
I think that this is a great iPhone app. The beauty of it is, that unlike many of the other iPhone apps, this one does not look like an app. I think that it also works best for people who have some familiarity with the iPhone. They can really appreciate how impossible it appears.

I tried this out both at a magic club meeting on a fellow magician and on a non-magician friend. They were both very impressed and did not know how it could be possible to have a photo of the card that they had selected on my iPhone. Granted, you could force a card and have a picture of you holding that card. That's okay but not great. What is so great about this effect is that you can lay out five cards or objects and have them choose one. They can change their mind as often as they like and still you end up in a photo with their object.

This is a very good five-way-out for mentalists. The instructions recommend using a 101 Deck but I prefer to use a regular deck. The presentation that I am currently leaning toward is to cull the five cards to the top and faro shuffle to out them in an every other card order. I then cut and hold a break. Riffle force to the break and deal out two poker hands with the spectator getting the appropriate five cards (which five these are is entirely up to you and you can change them any time you wish). I then have them lay out the cards as if they were playing five card stud and I can then reveal a picture of myself holding their hole card.

Using the same setup you could also add afew extra cards on top of the stack and after riffle forcing to the stack hand the half of the deck to the spectator and have them start slowly dealing cards to the table one at a time stopoing when they wish. Wait until they have dealt past the few cards you added to the stack before asking them to stop. You stand a very good chance that when they stop you can contrive to show one of your force cards and reveal the photo.

You could also present this at a dinner table by laying out five items that are found at any table (spoon, glass, plate, napkin,
salt) and let someone choose one only to reveal your picture with the item. If you're daring you could just ask someone to pick any item on the table and jazz if they don't pick one of the five. By being a little bit sneaky you can actually have ten choices possible but the handling is not quite as open.

I can think of lots of ways to use this app. It is very flexible and I think that anyone who buys it will find a way to add their own touch.

All in all I feel that this is a great app for a magician to have on their iPhone and all the more so because it really doesn't look like an app.

The price is a bit high but with all the $20 one trick DVDs and downloads out there that turn out to be not so great this is a good deal for just under $10 and I am confident that it is something that you will use.

************

Check it out, I think you'll like it!!!

I have the iphone 3g with iso4.1 but on itunes it says it will be to slow is this true... if it is I'm gutted sound right upmy street...

The 3G with iOS4.1 just doesn't have the processing speed to run the app well. It will still work, but there will be two different parts of the presentation with a 3-6 second delay while the app "thinks." The problem is actually with iPhoto, which under 4.1 got revamped quite a bit and is a really slow. Since the prediction photo ends up in the real iphoto library, the "101 deck" app is kinda at the mercy of how fast iphoto can process the commands the app sends its way. Personally I think it is just a bit too slow. It can all be covered with patter, but if the spectator is familiar with the iphone and staring right at it, something would seem fishy to them.

So, bottom line is will work, but I don't think it would work well enough for you to really like the app.

James

Thanks for the reply. That's a shame. Sounds like a good 5 way out.
Oh well will have to wait till I can afford and upgrade. Lol

I think this app will work great with Brian Caswell's 'Cataclysm'. (Specs choose three cards, then you provide a photo revealing the numbers on the card backs. Numbers in photo matches the numbers on the actual card backs.)

It's a different way to perform Cataclysm -- and I'm anxious to try it out.

This is a great app with many possibilities, a nice extra to use besides iForce when you want to perform a mental effect "without using an app". James has done an excellent job and I look forward to checking out more apps from him. I personally use it without playing cards and encourage others to play around with other ideas as well.

Hello mr Mattox

I have a question regarding the 101 deck app.

Does it require you to use the on off button at the top right of the iphone?

The reason I am asking is that my on off button does not work (so I can not take screen shots necessary for some apps)and I am really interested in the 101 deck app but can't buy it if it does need the on off button.

The reason for my query is that you in the description of the effect said something like "then the magician takes out his phone, turns it on and...".

Regards
Mikael Johansson
Sweden

Hey Mikael. The phone needs to be asleep when you begin the performance, so you can launch the app, wait for it to go to sleep automatically, then put it in your pocket and you are ready to go. You just need to be able to use the swipe to unlock feature during the routine.

I think I may just go for this based on the brilliance of the previous app (which I really must get round to getting a refund for)
The thinking behind that was genius and if this one is half as good I'd be happy.

Steve

I would recommend buying 'photoprediction' , as it is fully customisable with up to 120 outs....... 101 deck only has 5

Steve, I'd strongly recommend PhotoPrediction from Gui Del Frate. That doesn't look like an app either, has an ingenious way to encode the proper value AND provides for 120 outs. Great thinking there, and it's only $5.

***EDIT*** beaten by 1 minute.

Yes 101 deck has 5 outs, but the nice thing about that is all you have to do is swipe your phone on. There is no additional tapping or swiping. And there's an update on the way that will bring the outs up to 52, but with an extra step to do so. Plus it will have some of the features from email wizard.

And Mr Young, speaking of wizard, please do send me an email to get your refund as the window for that is only another week or so.

James
Mattoxj@mac.com

James I also need my refund but can not find the information in the app I need to send you, I was also never told that there was a deadline to getting a refund.

Regarding the 101 deck, can we be sure that the plug will not be pulled on this one........ which of the features of email wizard are you introducing and how will this work............. lots of people got burned and feel let down after purchasing email wizard, so think I have the right to ask.......you can answer in a PM if you prefer.

regards,

Ian (an unhappy previous customer).

Hey rasp. All fair questions, I have have no problem answering them. Although I'm handling the refunds, the $$$ is coming from the buyer of Wizard. We agreed to a 6 month window for refunds. Most people have claimed them but I might still issue them myself or maybe give out coupon codes for my upcoming app(s). Or you (or anybody) can contact apple directly for a refund (although their official policy is no refunds). Keep in mind that there is nothing that states I have to issue anyone a refund, apps go unsupported all the time. If someone bought the app, used it once, am I obligated to offer a refund a year later? At some point I have to cut it off. But all you have to do is email me and I'll get you sorted out. (If you launch the app you'll get a pop up with a link to the instructions. I can't post them here but I can email them to you, so send me and email with the "email James" button from the about page)

As for 101 deck, there is no back end server or support or thingy. So there is no plug to pull. The app is self contained and even if I stop selling the app your copy will keep working until apple makes a change that breaks it.

As for the upcoming features, I suppose this is something I'd prefer to keep to myself as there is now a direct competitor to my app. Lets just say the popular features of wizard, but not the email part of course.

I do want to keep my customers happy, and you say you're not, So please send me an email and I'll help you with your wizard refund and I'll see what else I can do for you. Plus I can be a little bit more specific about the 101 deck update.

James

Well after swapping a few emails with James, my refund is on its way.

James has also been kind enough to let me know of the updates he will be implementing to the 101 deck. I will not go into the details, that is for James to announce
publicly. However, it sounds like a great step forward from the app as it stands at present, and will solve the problem I have had for a while trying to tie a series of effects together with a final photograph.

Regards,

Ian ( a happy customer ).

Wow, that was certainly a fast change of tune

And, after the email wizard fiasco, I certainly would never buy the authors later products...
No matter how the email wizard thing is justified, it's just plain bad business.
(well, only bad for purchasers of the app, I guess)
I'll stick with photoprediction