Magic Tricks

Posted: Mar 6, 2014 12:13PM
I have just received my rvPhotocube and thought I would post a sort of initial thoughts review.
First I have to say a massive thank you to Penguin magic.
I ordered this at 6pm Monday evening. It was delivered in HOLLAND on Wednesday. Amazing service.

Now to the cube,
What's in the box

A DVD
A printed A4 sheet
A couple of spare batteries
A 2 inch photocube
A purple drawstring bag

The most important thing is the cube so I'll start there.
A 2 inch clear acrylic cube of the type that you'd have sitting on your office desk with pictures of your wife and kids on each side.
inside the acrylic, is a cube of folded and printed cardboard.
This has the numbers 1 to 6 on the sides on different coloured backgrounds.
Inside the cube is the unit itself. Small and sitting on a special magnetic mounting so it can't be put in the wrong way.
the workings are small enough to fit in a smaller cube if you decided the 2 inch photo cube was too large

The purple carry bag is quite stylish, though a little proppy looking for my taste. But still a nice thing to have. Would look great with some tarot cards or runes in.
So if you were going to use the cube alongside readings of some sort it's perfect.

Spare batteries need no explanation. Regular 1632 type
The A4 sheet contains brief instructions on how to make sure your printer is set up to print new cube inserts (more on that later)

The DVD is simple and straightforward. As well as being well laid out and very comprehensive.
Everything is explained well and in detail. The dvd was obviously produced before the latest software update so it doesn't cover a great new secret (the reason I bought this cube) but it isn't necessary as this new feature practically sets itself up.
the DVD also explains how to customise and print your own cube inserts.
This means you could have multiple cubes ready to go and just put the workings into whichever cube you want to use that performance.
There are also instructions on how to add your own custom cube to the app.
There are not loads of presentations on the DVD, but I think most of us will come up with our own, so this is not a problem at all.

So now to the cube in action:

Rather than a dedicated receiver, this cube talks to your iPhone (4s and above) and an app is required. (99 cents if memory serves)
Pairing the cube to the app took about 4 seconds. Sooooo easy.

Turn the cube and an image of whichever face is uppermost appears on your iPhone.
The speed that this happens is just amazing. Less than a second. Probably less than half a second.
There is the option for the app to buzz your phone if you don't want to peek. So the number of vibes = the number of the uppermost face.
There is the option to have the phone speak to you via a covert earpiece. It will say, for example, " One, Yellow" telling you the number and the background colour
The other option. New in the latest app update, will send a signal to your Pebble watch.
This takes a couple of seconds to arrive (it vibes once so you know it's arrived) and gives you the same info as the audio cue, but in written form. So the info is peeked.
I have asked Steve if it's possible in the next update to have the Pebble vibe the correct number of times so that no peek will be necessary.
Though as the iPhone can be set to vibe this is a bit of a luxury more than anything.
When disconnected from the app, or static for a while, the cube goes into sleep mode to conserve battery levels.

The app is preprogrammed with 4 different cubes.
i.e. a number cube, an ESP cube, Wonders of the world, and a scenes of Scotland cube.
There is also a spare slot for owners to make their own cube inserts.

This is a very versatile piece of kit which takes the vibe cube to a level where it can be customised to each performers requirements.
This is a very comprehensive package and. I am delighted I waited for this cube to become available..

Only the first day I have it but already I would have no hesitation recommending it.

Steve
www.thoughtillusions.com