talkmagic.co.uk

Hello to my UK magic friends,

Over the last year, my friend Randy Croucher and I have been working on a very powerful mentalism App for the iPhone/iPod Touch called iForce.

Apple approved iForce (codename: Doodle) last week! It is available from the App Store now.
http://www.rostamimagic.com/iforce/

I have been gathering some quotes from some of the forums around the web. There have been some great comments considering it has only been out five days!

"Every and I mean EVERY iphone/itouch owner should pick this up. It is extremely clever." - sleightofhand1971

"Unbelievable and fantastic app. Brilliant , ingenious and so simple. Bravo !!!!" - Jean-Luc.R.

"Just awesome! I have already created some of my own presets to customize it (using names of people I know), and have many uses with other tricks for this also. Definitely app of the year, and magic app of the century!" - theboywonder

"I got this app and hour ago in work after reading this thread, and I haven't done a stitch since! Amazing and very clever piece of kit, well done Greg" - mamutrance

"Fantastic app.. The layout and user interface is slick and very intuitive. 10/10" - bond19

"This is a great app. The only magic application I am going to use for my iPod. " - jprace

"Bought this yesterday. Hands down the best Iphone magic app.... and the only one where it seems like you did it not the phone" - Joshua Barrett

"This app is the dogs danglies. Absolutly wicked. So many possibilities and completely undetectable. The best of the awesom magic apps out." - JamieD

"It's great. By far the best magic app I have seen so far." - mrgoat

"OMG! I just got this app and it is now my #1 app on my ipod touch (sorry Rising Card)!" - eddierush

I hope you will give it a shot and form your own opinion.

Here is a link that will take you directly to iForce on the App Store.

-Greg Rostami

This is rather nice, and very customisable. Anything that makes explicit use of a technology suffers from the "black box" problem - that the spectator will assume some clever bit of software or hardware is behind the effect. Doodle works hard to counter that - the doodle app, a simple scratch pad, is feasible, the control is subtle and there is a virtually hands free handling where the spectator reveals your prediction instead of you. In fact, with a bit of thought and spec handling, you could on occasion allow the spectator to even do the dirty work for you!

The one niggle I have, and it is only slight, is that there's no reason for the doodle pad to exist in the first place. This is only a slight niggle, though, as I'm aware that similar apps do, nevertheless, exist.

It's great. Cannot recommend it enough. The fact you can have 8 custom reveals should make any magician run out and buy this immediately. Makes Rising Card look like a joke.

damianjennings wrote:The fact you can have 8 custom reveals should make any magician run out and buy this immediately.

...Not if you don't have an iPhone. And frankly, I'm not about to buy an iPhone for the sake of a trick.

It does look good, though.

Robbie wrote:

damianjennings wrote:The fact you can have 8 custom reveals should make any magician run out and buy this immediately.

...Not if you don't have an iPhone. And frankly, I'm not about to buy an iPhone for the sake of a trick.

I'm starting to wonder about the penetration of iPhones, and the feasibility of only making iPhone apps. There's quite a few mobile operating systems out there now which have their own app stores (nokia, palm, iphone). iPhone is obviously the big one, but are owners of other phones just as likely to download (and pay for) apps? Does your phone even have the latest generation of app stores?

Sounds interesting. It says the introductory price is $2.99. Any idea when this is likely to rise and by how much? Thanks.

Hi Mr_Grue,

"The one niggle I have, and it is only slight, is that there's no reason for the doodle pad to exist in the first place. This is only a slight niggle, though, as I'm aware that similar apps do, nevertheless, exist."

As you've already stated there are many drawing programs on the iPhone/iPod Touch. iForce simply looks like any one of them.


Hi Robbie,

"I'm not about to buy an iPhone for the sake of a trick."

iForce will run on iPhones and iPod Touches . . . in fact in the US you can buy a refurbished iPod Touch for $139.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FA623 ... TI3ODQwMDA


Hi Replicant,

"It says the introductory price is $2.99. Any idea when this is likely to rise and by how much?"

I'm afraid I can't tell you that . . . I suggest you pick it up as long as it is only $2.99 . . . Many magicians are convincing me to raise the price by a LOT.


Hi damianjennings,

"It's great. Cannot recommend it enough. The fact you can have 8 custom reveals should make any magician run out and buy this immediately. Makes Rising Card look like a joke."

Thank you so much damianjennings . . . I'm glad you like it.

Greg Rostami

Well, I succumbed and just purchased this. But I can't tell you what I think of it on account of not actually owning an iPhone yet. How's that for CUPS?!

kolm wrote:I'm starting to wonder about the penetration of iPhones, and the feasibility of only making iPhone apps. There's quite a few mobile operating systems out there now which have their own app stores (nokia, palm, iphone). iPhone is obviously the big one, but are owners of other phones just as likely to download (and pay for) apps?

That only tells me about one other os

kolm wrote:

Robbie wrote:

damianjennings wrote:The fact you can have 8 custom reveals should make any magician run out and buy this immediately.

...Not if you don't have an iPhone. And frankly, I'm not about to buy an iPhone for the sake of a trick.

I'm starting to wonder about the penetration of iPhones, and the feasibility of only making iPhone apps. There's quite a few mobile operating systems out there now which have their own app stores (nokia, palm, iphone). iPhone is obviously the big one, but are owners of other phones just as likely to download (and pay for) apps? Does your phone even have the latest generation of app stores?

I have an old Motorola V220 that can take a limited variety of Java apps, so essentially no apps in the modern sense. It's plenty good enough for my purposes (my purposes being to have a phone on me in case of emergency). My pay-as-you-go bill comes to less than £5 a year, so you can see I'm hardly in the market for anything that will force me into a contract.

And I don't see the point of shelling out a cool hundred for an iPod when I've already got a generic MP4 player that suits me fine. I like gadgets, honestly, but don't care about brands and bandwagons.

None of this is intended to denigrate the iForce/Doodle trick, which really does look good. I'm sure for those who do have an iPhone or iPod it will be well worth getting.

Robbie wrote:None of this is intended to denigrate the iForce/Doodle trick, which really does look good. I'm sure for those who do have an iPhone or iPod it will be well worth getting.

Especially at £1.59.

Robbie wrote:I have an old Motorola V220 that can take a limited variety of Java apps, so essentially no apps in the modern sense. It's plenty good enough for my purposes (my purposes being to have a phone on me in case of emergency). My pay-as-you-go bill comes to less than £5 a year, so you can see I'm hardly in the market for anything that will force me into a contract.

Yeah, not everybody is into having the latest and greatest thing because "it has apps!". Something people like me needs to be reminding of from time to time

None of this is intended to denigrate the iForce/Doodle trick, which really does look good. I'm sure for those who do have an iPhone or iPod it will be well worth getting.

Yeah, and I hope you don't think I'm complaining at all here, Greg. I'm just thinking aloud here. Your app does look quite interesting (I'd get it myself if I were comfortable taking my iphone out to do magic), and I'm looking into making iPhone apps myself, so it's not like I'm against them!

Mr_Grue wrote:

Robbie wrote:None of this is intended to denigrate the iForce/Doodle trick, which really does look good. I'm sure for those who do have an iPhone or iPod it will be well worth getting.

Especially at £1.59.

£1.79, unless I was conned. I want my 20p back if so!

Robbie, I know what you're saying. In my opinion, no single app is worth going to the expense of getting an iPhone or iPod Touch. Sounds obvious, but some people are just crazy like that and will go out and buy an iPhone just because they like a particular app (I'm lookin' at you, Bob Kohler... )

kolm wrote: (I'd get it myself if I were comfortable taking my iphone out to do magic),

This is the perfect app for that though. The Rising Card and P&T apps to an extent do not have the naturalness of this.

This does look like a real doodling app.

So much so, my ladyfriend asked me what it was called so she could get it. And she is not stupid. Apart from putting up with me!

She thought the other magic apps were cute, but this one? She had NO idea it was a magic app. Very satisfying.

If you're comfortable using a pen and paper to write a prediction, then you should be as comfortable using this app. That is all it seems you are doing.

imho.