The Genii Forum

The digital version of the February issue of Genii is now online for computer viewing. It will take another day for iPad and iPhone users.

We have lots of audio and video this month:
Audio columns from Max Maven and Jon Racherbaumer
Video from me, a great Coin Assembly by Yuji Wada, Dani DaOrtiz supplements his column with video, and there are a lot of video clips of performance and magic in our cover story on MagoMigue (Miguel Puga), a twice FISM-winning Spanish magician whose work is about to become much more widely known in the United States with the appearance of a four-DVD set from Luis de Matoss Essential Magic Collection. Titled Allegro, the set covers a good deal of his repertoire, including several full actsamong them those he performed at FISMwith explanations. Its not all close-up, eithertheres quite a bit of stand-up magic included. Hes phenomenally good and the tricks are mind-blowing. Youll find a free DVD in this issue courtesy of Essential Magic and Luis, which contains the following items by MagoMigue: Card And Glass performed and explained. The effect and method are great. One card is inside a glass thats isolated on stage. A spectator calls out a card. No sleights, total freedom. The card happens to be the one freely named by the spectator. A classic plot with a guaranteed method that you can use minutes later in front of an audience; Cards Across; and a performance only of MagoMigues incredible Bill in Lemon. All for you, for free! (For those reading the digital edition, the videos will be embedded in the article.)

Some months after FISM in July 2012, I sat down with ex-FISM president Eric Eswin for a look back at the 12 years of his term as President, the many changes he implemented, and his feelings about what happened in Blackpool last July. Eric brought FISM forward into the 21st century in vital ways and, despite the farrago in Blackpool, FISMs next outing in Italy in 2015 looks to be a winner in the capable hands of convention producer Walter Rolfo.

Adelaide Herrmanns fame has receded over the years into the shadow of her husband. Alexander Herrmann was the first great stage magician/theater celebrity in the United States, and while Adelaide performed as well as assisted him, thats been forgotten by many. Also forgotten was her autobiography, which remained unpublished until recently when Margret Steele brought it out through bramblebooks.com (where it is available for sale in both a hardcover, color limited edition and a black and white paperback). This month we excerpt several anecdotes from one of historys simultaneously most famous and forgotten female magicians.

We welcome a new columnist this issue, attorney Sara Crasson, who will be presenting a four-part series on magic, intellectual property, and the law. Ive known Sara for many years through magic and she is able to bring a bracing clarity to the current state of affairs about how the law does and does not protect magic in various forms. 1,000 words on the topic tells you next to nothing: thats why were bringing you a full legal paper on the subject. Youll find it interesting if youre contemplating whether to make a dub of that new instant download for a friend.

The other month returning columnists debut their new contributions for 2013 Dani DaOrtiz (ala Carte!) explains a really good version of a Hofzinser effect, A Suit Freely Though Of; Roberto Giobbi continues his long-running and popular Genii Session with a provocative essay on what he feels are The Ten Best Card Tricks Ever; David Kaye delivers The Expert at the Kids Table, wherein an alien presence visits our planet and discovers he doesnt know squat about performing for humans; David Britland teaches a completely self-working miracle inspired by Bob Ostin thats Straight to the Point in Cardopolis; John Gaughan meets Winged Victory and catches a card in Chamber of Secrets; Jon Racherbaumer will no doubt write something interesting in On the Slant (I havent seen it yet); and trundling in at the tail end is Light from the Lamp with books reviewed by Eric Mead, tricks by David Oliver, and videos by Joe M. Turner.

Exciting Tamariz news!

And a lovely letter from Erika Larsen.

For the first time, I'm having trouble viewing the issue on IE 9 I can click on the issue in the lower left after logging on to Ask Alexander. The cover appears, but I can't page through the issue. Is anyone else having problems with IE 9?

Make sure that you have the latest version of Adobe Flash installed, and that you do not have a pop-up blocker turned on.

Richard Kaufman wrote:Make sure that you have the latest version of Adobe Flash installed, and that you do not have a pop-up blocker turned on.

Yes--Flash in current. No pop-up blocker. But still no joy. What's weird is that if I go to the white bar that lists the page you are currently on, I can use the drop down menu to see up to page 9. After that, the pages are blank. Also, the arrow navigation keys to either side of that white page bar are inoperative. This the first time I've ever had a problem...

Great issue, but I wish I could force the video clips to be larger. My internet is fast enough to to stream HD video at full screen, but these clips start at a decent size and immediately flip to more of a postage stamp sized video.

Odd, erdnasephile. Try again tomorrow. I have no idea what the problem is. Let me know if you are unable to resolve it.

Chris, I know the videos are small on a standard computer screen. On the iPad app they fill the lower half of the page. Not sure how to make them larger (it's not a function of your screen size).

Doing my best!

I'll try tomorrow and let you know.

I decided to whip out the ipad and downloaded the issue. Curiously, although I could now read the issue on the ipad, none of the videos will play. (Max's audio podcast does work). I went back and looked at the other past issues I have downloaded on the ipad, and everything works fine.

There must be something conspiring against me from finding out who is the subject of the secret project!

The backfire matrix is very nice.

Chris Aguilar wrote:The backfire matrix is very nice.

Agreed! the ending caught me off guard.

Still couldn't get it to work with Windows7/IE 9 (even using compatibility mode and everything patched and up to date on a pretty fast rig with lots of RAM)

However, I tried it with IE 8 and things work very nicely. (Die, Microsoft, Die! :mad:)

I'm more puzzled by the problems seeing the vids on my ipad since it's just a standard, run of the mill install. Do you need lots of free memory to run the vids? Should I delete some of the past issues?

As I stated in the my note: the version for iPad and iPhone aren't ready until TODAY. You downloaded prematurely. You can never go wrong by reading carefully and following my instructions.

As to why you are having problems with IE9, I have no idea. Works fine for me. But I've switched to Chrome.

Today I clicked on the Genii app (on iPad mini) and the new version was there, apparently fine, looks excellent!

Yes, it was up this morning and working perfectly.

Our Android app is also up in Google Play, however it's still buggy. You can read the issues and listen to the videos, but trying to play any audio clips causes it to crash. All of this will be fixed shortly.

Very excited to hear of the Android app. Will it allow for downloading for offline viewing?

Yes, the same as the iPad app.
Videos still not working yet on the February issue, so now downloading the January issue to try it.

I've got the app installed on my tablet, and am downloading the February issue now. Installing and authenticating was easy. Downloading and formatting the issue seems to be a tad slow; six seconds for each page. Not sure how this compares to the iPad version.

More feedback in a bit...

How large are the magazine files when you download them? And can they be uninstalled/reinstalled at will? I ask because I'm pressing up against the memory constraints of my tablet.

I assume they can be deleted (you can on the iPad) but haven't seen how to do that yet.

However, they can be repeatedly downloaded with no problem.
Video is still not working though! Damn.

Ian, the iPad version is about a second per page, except for the pages that have multimedia--you'll note that the download will take longer on page 10, for example, when doing it on an iPad. The Android app does not show pages as it's downloading: just a horizontal bar that is quite hard to see.

But the download time is also reliant upon the strength of your wifi signal.

I've got a fast connection here, but I'll check again in the morning. When you tap on an issue to download there is a page counter on the cover thumbnail; for example 5/104. These ticked over every six seconds or so. I just left the tablet on my desk, sorted out the washing and came back.

Zooming is proving to be a problem - I'm currently zoomed into a page, and cannot get back to normal view to swipe to the next page...

Edit: scratch that, you tap the 'back' button to get back from zoom. Worth mentioning, I think.

Double tap to zoom, double tap to return to normal view.

Richard Kaufman wrote:Double tap to zoom, double tap to return to normal view.

Doesn't seem to work that way. The only way I can return to normal is to hit the tablets "back" button.

It's not that intuitive, but it's not bad.

I've been testing this tonight and aside from a bit of instability (force closing), the app seems to work very well, even on a 7 inch tablet (Nexus 7, which is a "pure" android" device running the latest version of the operating system).

The offline reading is great, and the issues don't take up a huge amount of space if one doesn't download the video/audio for offline use. Overall, I really like the android app and think it adds a lot of value to my subscription.

Really? I tried it earlier this evening. Double tap to zoom, then I scrolled around a bit, then ... ah! I pushed one of the video buttons and the app crashed. So, you may be right.

I did find out how to delete issues you've downloaded. It's the button in our app on the extreme right end of the horizontal row. Can't remember what it's called right now (duh) ... but if you tape it, the issues you've downloaded will show up and it will give you the option to "edit" (aka delete) one or all.

Yeah, I figured out how to delete issues too.

You click on the menu button, which brings up an "edit" button.

Click that and you'll see a list of downloaded issues that you can then check off and delete if you'd like. Though it's not as large an issue as I thought since the issues don't really take up a lot of space if one chooses not to download the audio/visual stuff.

The offline reading is an awesome feature as most tablets are wifi only.

As far as Ian's loading issues, I haven't seen that sort of lag. I notice that you can access the issue even while it's downloading, so there's no need to wait for it to fully download before reading.

Performance on my tablet (Nexus 7) is very snappy, but that could be because the tablet is really fast (quad core cpu, a Gig of ram for programs to run in, etc.)

Video works really well for me, with the videos filling the whole screen if I turn the tablet to Landsape mode.

Overall, while the app has a few rough edges, it's a very nice way to read the issues. I had my doubts that I'd be able to really enjoy Genii (or most magazines) on my 7 inch tablet, but the experience with this has proven otherwise. I really like it and will use it (especially the offline reading feature) often.

My tablet is a Motorola XYboard.

Ian probably built his from tin cans and old radios. :)

Weird. Earlier, the video was working great, but now every time I click on a video link, it crashes the app.

Testing it out on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0.

* Download time not too bad (maybe a minute or two).

* Paging is very fast.

* Got same issue with double tap zoomming in, I have to hit the "back" button to get back to page mode.

* All video crashes on me.

* Audio work great.

* I've not seen anyone mention this, but I really like the capability to read just the Text portion of the article that is available in the "contents" section (and be able to make the font large)!

OK. Found a way I can watch videos.

Open the issue
Select the issue's "Menu" button in the app (fourth one)
Select select "More"
Select "Video"
Select the video from the list.
Watch and enjoy. (and full screen on my tab. Much better then the little thumbnail version I've been watching in the browser version).

The video workaround works well on my homemade Xoom (many thanks, Joe!). It's worth noting that you have to watch using the stock video viewer, as if you use MXVideo, the app crashes when you tap back out of the video.

Also, the list of videos has no labels, so it's a bit of guesswork as to which one you actually get...

The video has no labels because they are what I provide and all are supposed to be imbedded within the magazine itelf.

Thanks for your notes: all will be passed along to the company responsible for this.

Hey, I'm just happy to have the Android app working :)

*embedded (but I'll let that one slide due to the pain meds...)

/coat