A spectator shuffles the deck as many times as she likes.
The magician turns around and says he will choose the correct card with an iphone that he's holding.
A crystal ball image appears on the iphone.
From the image, a ball falls from the hand and an actual crystal ball falls out the iphone.
When the iphone is placed above the crystal ball a 3D image appears.
After some time the spectator's card is revealed in the ball.
The spectator is handed the ball to confirm.
No cheap trick has been played.
•This act has never been done before.
•An image as beautiful as this is enjoyed by all. It is more enjoyable than watching a video or even a practical magician.
•This is first time anything like this has been done. "It's so beautiful" will be the overwhelming reaction. Please enjoy this chic style of modern magic.
•It's very easy to perform.
•This ball is acrylic but it has not bubbles and is very clear.
•Although it seems like a gimmick, there is no feeling of awkwardness.
* Only made for iphone 4, 4s, 5, 5s, 5c


Products include •Instructional DVD-R(35min)
•Acrylic Crystal Ball
•iphone 4, 4s, gimmick app
•iphone 5, 5s, 5c, gimmick app
•iphone 4, 4s, gimmick app 3D video file
•iphone 5, 5s, 5c, gimmick app 3D video file

Link:

http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S17640

It looks really good!

However, I'm wondering if this involves a force card or if it is truly a free selection. If it is a force card, I already have a million ways to reveal the same force card and it would make the effect limited to just one card. I just don't do many force card effects any more, unless I can use a different force card each time. If it is a free selection, then this could be a REALLY nice effect.

I suspect it is a force by the way the card was selected, but perhaps I'm wrong.

Does anyone know if this uses a free card selection?

KJ

Or, if it is a force, can the force card be changed? Easily?

KJ

What's with all the beeping?

Good question. It sounds like it's about to send a fax. Perhaps it would be best to turn off the volume.

KJ

No one has this then?,waiting on a review as I did like the look of this.

Got one on the way, and will post a review. I don't think it's a force - just based the trailer I'm guessing you can make this work with any card. The visuals look great, IMO. And although it's an app - which makes the effect immediately suspect - the crystal ball falling off of the screen and the beautiful visual animation of the ball more than make up for the inherent shortcoming as an app. I'm thinking that iClear would be a good way to end this, particularly since it is entirely physical and may help erase the app-centric backtracking.

I like, except for that *** beeping

I'm not even sure this is an app. I think that it looks amazing visually, but I have a feeling it may be 3 video files that you are just playing from your camera roll. I would love it if this was an app, and you could select a force card before you started, or better yet, an app that allowed you to put in a freely selected card during performance, but I am expecting this will ship with a crystal ball and a few quicktime files on a CD.

Shame if it is just that,quicktime files on a CD time will tell when someone has it and can give an honest review.

I think it does involve a force...watch it again...and if true, it can be any card...I like it, looks very visual

Even with a force, this could be promising if it is flexible enough (to use different force cards).

I look forward to some reviews.

KJ

I'm totally fine with a force, but I would prefer an app that allows for all 52 cards and doesn't require me to just play a video out of my camera roll. Looking forward to reviews, too. I think that this looks spectacular.

Did anybody get their hands on one of these yet?

MaxfieldsMagic,
Did you get it yet? Review?
KJ

OK, this is kind of tricky to review without giving away too much and having the post deleted, but here goes:

Good:

The "crystal ball" comes in a red velvet pouch. Magicians love red velvet pouches.

The effect of the ball dropping out of the screen is very easy to perform, and looks quite convincing. The supplied ball matches exactly with the size of the ball in the video - at least, it does when performed with my iPhone 5. How can you go wrong with something magically dropping out of the screen of your phone?

The DVD is quite thorough and well done. It covers set-up, performance, card handling, and some advice on avoiding potential problems.

If you follow the instructions on the DVD, you can create that ethereal fireball effect just like in the demo, along with the card reveal. It seriously looks cool, and as advertised.


Caveats:

There is only one possible reveal.

The ball is acrylic, rather than glass. Not sure how scratch resistant it will prove with use. However, due to the nature of the reveal, scratches will probably go unnoticed.

There is something in play here which is not apparent in the video, but will definitely be apparent if you get the lighting wrong. And it's very easy to get the lighting wrong. The DVD offers some good ideas on how to deal with this, but if you don't want to perform this with suspiciously cramped hands, you'll need to do it in a relatively dark environment, or at least one without direct lighting.

You'll have to tape something to your phone, and leave it there. It won't interfere with your use of the phone, but it will be as large as the screen and must be in place to make the effect work.


If you're OK with the caveats, this is a well thought out effect that definitely offers some nice eye candy. The lighting issue is the biggest negative, IMO. I'm not sure that this effect, as shown in the demo, would be possible with any other method. As with many effects, there are some trade offs and compromises here, but if the conditions line up, this has the potential to be very, very memorable.

Also, if you have the right iPhone, you could definitely end this with iClear, which would leave you clean.

Thanks for the honest review

I take it from above it is not very good for walk around ?

Thanks for the review. It sounds like it is a great concept, but maybe could be fleshed out more. It appears that this may not be an app where you can reveal any card. THAT would be really awesome.

This gave me an idea. If anyone would like to run with it, be my guest. What if you had a deck of around a half dozen cards repeated over and over. A spectator selects any card from the deck, free choice. You glimpse the card above or below so you know the selection. You have a half dozen videos of a fire and a card reveal. You flip to the desired video and reveal their card. This could be performed walk around, or it could also be performed with two people selecting a card.
KJ

What a shame that something as creative as this idea and its being used to reveal a card I think with some thought, something really beautiful could have been made using the app and ball

I do like this and hopefully a UK dealer will have this as this will not be a flat pack from penguin.