This month Amazing Magic Match HD gets an update.

The video tutorial now features an actual iPad and is encoded to a much higher quality. Looks great on the iPads huge screen.

Tags: magic match ipad

Magic Rabbit 1.2
Now has a video tutorial and the 'Welcome Instructions'.

Magic Match 1.3
The graphics have been updated with those designed for the iPad version of Magic Match.

Tags: updates, magic rabbit, magic match, welcome screen, welcom instructions

Magic works best when it's unexpected. It's for this reason that I try and make my apps look inconspicuous. In a way, making apps look inconspicuous is easy. Apps are a relatively new phenomenon, there is no template for a 'normal' app. More so, as Apple keeps telling us, there's an app for just about anything.

It's with this in mind that I developed Amazing Magic Notes. It looks like a typical notes app, the sort of app people are now familiar with, but hides an incredibly deceptive secret. It allows you to read minds!

Download it today for iTunes App Store.

Tags: amazing magic notes, iphone magic, ipod touch app, notes app, mind reading, mentalism

I've been hard at work pretty much since the first day the iPad was announced converting my apps to support the exciting new device.

Truth-be-told, I was already mentally designing large format versions of my apps long before the device even had a name.

So here it is, 'Amazing Magic Match' completely redesigned for the iPad.

Designing Magic
It's no secret that only a few developers had access to an actual iPad prior to the launch. This being the case, I had to do a lot of additional work to get 'Amazing Magic Match' ready for release.

The artwork was completely redone. I actually modelled the whole thing in 3D because I wanted slick, realistic, hi-res graphics. My app of choice was Cheetah 3D because it's so quick and easy to use, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in 3D design. I tested the artwork on a digital photo frame approximately the same size as the iPad screen and it looked fantastic.

Once I'd coded the whole thing and got it working on the simulator, I broke it down into component parts and thoroughly tested each on an iPhone. Yep, that meant coding three additional iPhone apps just to test the real world mechanics.

The extra work paid off because 'Amazing Magic Match' sailed through the iPad review process.

The Video Tutorial
I could have saved myself a whole lot of trouble if I'd have simply supplied text instructions with my first iPad app. After all, how do you record a video tutorial without owning the actual device?

After a whole lot of consideration I decided not to compromise - the app had to have a video tutorial.

To achieve this I had to compile a version of my app with half sized graphics then run it on the simulator controlled by the fantastic iSimulate app. I then used my HD camcorder to video it off my iMac.

It was loads of additional work, but I think it was worth it.

Coming Soon!!!
Since I'm a Brit I still have to wait till 'sometime-hopefully-soon' to get my mitts on an actual device. At which point I'll re-record the 'Amazing Magic Match' video tutorial. In the meantime I'm working hard to redesign more of my apps. Having such a big stage really does broaden what you can accomplish with a magic trick.

If you've bought 'Amazing Magic Match' I'd love to hear your feedback!

Tags: ipad magic, ipad magic trick, ipad illusion, developer story, magic match ipad