Alittle abracadabra on your smartphone

Though few of us will ever be as deft at prestidigitation as Penn and Teller, or as slick at illusion as David Blaine, most of us already possess a tool for performing impressive conjuring tricks: a smartphone. With the right apps and a bit of practice, your smartphone can help you learn classic magic and even play a part in some 21st-century sleight of hand.

IForce by Rostami Magic, $3 (Rs 185) on iOS and Android, demonstrates that some of the best magic tricks are the simplest. With nothing more than a bit of chatter, some pretend dabbing on the screen and a good memory, iForce can trick someone into thinking you have psychic powers.

The setup is classic: You ask your targets to think of something, then you pretend to guess the answer, and finally show them the correct answer from a prearranged set.

IForce’s main interface pretends to be a simple drawing app, and you demonstrate a sketch to your targets to fool them into believing you. For the trick, you ask them to, for example, think of a number from one to four, and pretend to draw it on the screen. Then you put your phone down on its face, ask them the number they have been thinking of, and then pick up the phone to show them that you correctly “drew” the right answer.

The trick is how you flip your phone over. The app uses your phone’s sensors to detect how you are turning it over (flip up from the right, for example, or flip up from the left), and shows a number that correlates with your action. If you’re chatting with your target and are deft with flipping the phone over, that person will be fooled, though probably only once and only if the person has not read this article.

The interface makes it easy to activate the setup. You can make a number of psychic “guesses,” including world foods and predicting heads-or-tails coin tosses. You select the right answer for each category by turning your phone over a certain way and at a certain speed. It takes practice, but it can be amazing.

ISensorMagic is $1 (Rs 62) on iOS and does a similar trick, but only with one set of symbols. It’s limited, but good for a laugh or two.

If you’re more interested in learning some classic magic routines, then my choice is Magic Tricks Pro. It’s free on Android and on iOS, but you have to pay for some extras.

Magic Tricks Pro offers a long list of the classic card and coin tricks you probably have seen close-up magicians perform. You get an indication of the trick’s complexity, and videos to demonstrate the tricks.

In the first video, you watch the trick being performed; the second video walks you through how to perform the trick, including the skills you will need to learn, like how to hold your props properly.

With the help of one of the videos and just five minutes of practice, I was able to make a salt cellar “travel” through a table.

The app is straightforward, and the videos are effective teaching aids. But not all the tricks are stunning, and you have to pay as much as $3 (Rs 185) each to view many of the videos. This could become expensive.

Fans of card tricks may prefer the free Android app Magic Card Tricks by Montysmagic. Like Magic Tricks Pro, this app also teaches you classic close-up routines, focusing on card tricks. But instead of videos, it uses text-based instructions and lots of diagrams.

The illustrations are good, but I found it easier to learn from videos. Your experience may be different.

For a close-up card trick that involves using your phone, look no further than Magic Trick #1 by Mikael Montier, $1 (Rs 62) on iOS and $2 (Rs 124) on Android. This is another “guess the card” trick, but the reveal involves rubbing your phone’s screen to uncover the correct card.

You won’t need much practice or memorization, and if you follow the video instructions closely you will look very clever indeed. I won’t tell you how it works, but you will love its simplicity.

The same maker has other apps on Google Play and in Apple’s store, all with similar great-looking design.

Just remember to practice first.