®™
thoughtcast magic
CALCULON
INSTRUCTIONS
Welcome to Calculon! Thank you for purchasing this app and supporting ThoughtCast Magic! And thank you for allowing us to continue to create more amazing apps and products for you to wow your friends, family, clients, audiences, and whomever you perform for. Please read the instructions carefully, try them out, and if you have any problems just email support@thoughtcastmagic.com with the subject "Calculon Support Request" and we'll get back to you in 24-48hrs.
Are you a member of our Facebook Group? You should be!
Note about these instructions: Although we all know how much you guys love video instructions, Calculon is constantly in a state of development and improvement, and it is a lot simpler to update text than it is video instructions. So, please READ all the instructions as well as watching the videos, as the text will always be up to date (whereas the video might not).
Also Note: Television and Video Performance Rights are NOT INCLUDED with the standard purchase of this trick. Want to do this on a screen of any kind? Email us and we can let you know how we can help!
What's new in V2:
What's new in V2.1:
Updated PeekSmith Support (new in v2.1.6)
We rewrote and revamped the PeekSmith system in Calculon! Now, you can pick from multiple PeekSmiths to connect to (if you have more than one), Calculon will automatically reconnect to your PeekSmith, and you can use the front buttons to switch between what information you see on PeekSmith's screen (and tap the power button to reset back to the status page)!
Actions Support
Calculon Supports the Actions Toolkit! Now, you can have your pre-equals total, or any other captured field of information, sent to any of your favorite magic apps and devices, including Inject, the Stranger, Glyphs printer, and Legacy Wallet printer. Find out all about the capabilities here.
New Number Input Methods (Pro Tool)
We added a simple keypad entry mode to both the Apple Watch app and Performance Mode on the iPhone. We also added a swipe entry mode to the Apple Watch app as well!
New Date Search Lookup Info (Pro Tool)
We added new information in the Date Search functionality. Here are a few new pieces of information you can get from the spectator's entered date:
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Movie Releases on a Date
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Words added to Merriam Webster dictionary on the inputted year
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"On This Date In History" facts
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Personality Traits for a specific star sign
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Holidays on a specific date (you would be surprised how many "holidays" occur on every day of the year)
All of this information can be revealed with Siri, which makes for a great revelation!
Select Specific Number for Calculated Value (Pro Tool)
You can specify which value will get used to show the Calculated Values (sq/cube/custom, pi rev, and card stack location)...this value can be the current number or Pre-Equals total, it can be any other number (the zip code for instance), or it can be a specific entry in the sequence (entries are the numbers separated by the operator buttons).
Show/Hide Number Info (Pro Tool)
You can specify which specific fields in each lookup category are showing. So if you only want to see the celebrities and star sign traits, you can turn the other ones off. You can also choose to show a single entry for items with multiple (celebs, etc). This setting effects both the main peek, app clip, and watch. This is in an attempt to clean up the peek screen a bit more.
Watch Shortcut Icon/Complication
The watch now has a proper complication you can put on the home screen of your watch. It doesn't show any information, but it allows you to get to Calculon faster from your watch's home screen.
Angel Number (Pro Tool)
If you don't have the effect "Angel Number" from Rostami Magic, it is a great trick to be able to know a thought of number without any help or electronics. But, it is made even better with the help of Calculon! Just enable this toggle and you can get the Angel Number calculation on your peek screens!
QuickStart Instructions:
When you purchase Calculon, you will receive one of the following:
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A email confirming a new account for our portal has been made, and a link asking you to set a password. If this is the case, follow the password setting instructions in the email.
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A email confirming your current portal account has now been given access to Calculon. No further action is needed.
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A code to activate Calculon.
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If you do not have a portal login, visit the ThoughtCast Portal and click "Activate New Account", then use this code to create a new account.
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If you do have a portal login, log into the ThoughtCast Portal, and put the code into the "Activate a Code" field, then click "Activate" and follow the prompts on screen.
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If you purchased Calculon and didn't get any of this info, please contact support@thoughtcastmagic.com so we can get you the info you need.
Before beginning the QuickStart, follow those instructions to activate Notarized, then continue with the instructions below.
1. What you need to start:
To test all of the features of Calculon, you will need 2 iPhones: yours and a second one. They don't have to be identical in model, however both phones must be running iOS 14 or newer. If you don't have two phones, borrow the phone of a friend or skip down to Practice Mode (but do come back here when you can get two phones).
Calculon will work on any iPhone that has iOS 14 or newer installed on it. If you don't know the iOS of the phone you are borrowing, the fastest way to tell if they are running iOS14 or newer is to just look at the back. If the phone has 3 cameras, or if the cameras are in opposite corners from each other (and not stacked) it is definitely compatible with Calculon. Also, if the phone has a 5G symbol in the corner, it is also compatible with Calculon.
The next way to check is the lock screen. If the date is above the time, they are running iOS 16. If it is below, it is iOS 15 or older.
If the date is below the time, then the last way to check is if you swipe once to the right on the lock screen or home screen. If you see the word "Search" on the far left side of the search bar, this phone does NOT have iOS 14 or newer. If the word "Search" in the search bar is centered, this means the phone has iOS 14 or newer installed and you can perform using this phone.
It is highly suggested you also get a NFC tag for this effect. If you purchased a Calculon Starter kit with NFC tags, you will already have some, and we sell some high quality, long range NFC tags on our store for Calculon owners. You can use any compatible tag to test, and we have some recommendations on NFC tags for performance in a section below.
If you only have a single device, or don't have an NFC tag, that's ok, but the performance mode/remote peek is only possible when you use a second device. We will talk about how to try out some of Calculon's features with a single phone, and without NFC, later on.
2. Get the App:
Next, click here to get the Calculon app, or search for "Calculon Magic and Mindreading" on the App Store. When you find it, install it to your device, and use your username and password to log in. If you ever forget your password, just type your email into the login field and tap "Forgot Password" to reset it. If you forget your username, it usually is your email, but you can email us and we will be happy to help you find it.
3. Generate a Code:
Once logged in, you'll need to generate a code on our server. To do that, tap on the "Show/Generate Code" button. Once open, you will see a box with an X through it (signifying you don't have a code yet). Tap "Generate Code" to generate a new code, and if you are successful, the code will show up in the window, along with a QR code.
4. Write your code to NFC (or save the QR Code):
Once you see the code, you have two options: The best option is to use a NFC tag (available for purchase in our store, or use one you already own). Tap "Write Code to NFC", then when prompted, bring the NFC tag to the top of your phone to write it to the tag.
If you don't have a NFC tag, you can save the QR code to your camera roll by tapping the "Export QR Code" button, then tap "Save Image". Then, print the QR code out, or open it on a nearby computer or iPad, or any other device you have available. You can also use the URL itself to launch the app clip, this is discussed below in the "Disconnect/Reconnect" section (read it after finishing the QuickStart)
5. Setup the App:
VERY IMPORTANT - Exit Show/Generate Code and, on the Home Screen, tap "Settings" and slide (or tap twice) the bar under "Calculator Style"...this should be set to "Orange".
If you only have only one device, you won't be able to test the remote peek mode in the steps below. Still read through the rest of the Quick Start (because you can perform this for someone on their phone), but skip down to the "Practice Mode/Local Peeking" section below after reading the Quick Start.
If you still have a two phone setup, go back to the home screen, and tap on "Performance Mode". You should now see a (mostly) black screen with your code at the bottom in a yellow box.
6. Open the "Calculator":
Unlock your other phone (not the one running the Calculon Controller) and make sure Airplane Mode is OFF. If the phone is a iPhone Xr or newer, you can tap the NFC tag to the top of the phone, and the pop up below will open on the phone. If it is a iPhone X or older, or if the phone has Background Tag Scanning turned off, you can manually activate the NFC scanner by pulling open the Control Center and tapping the icon that looks like a sideways Spotify logo (then tapping the NFC tag when prompted), the icon circled in red in the below photo. If you don't know what kind of iPhone you have, tap the tag and see if the pop up opens, and if it doesn't, then enable the NFC reader and tap again.
If done correctly, you should feel the phone tap or vibrate, and see a pop up like the one above that says "Open the Calculator". Tap the blue "Open" button to open the fake calculator.
If you don't have a NFC tag and are testing using a QR code, open the camera on this phone and point it at the QR code, then when the banner appears, tap it to open the pop up, then tap "Open" to open the fake calculator.
Once you tap "Open", after a few seconds, the calculator will pop up. A banner will also pop up at the top, this can either be swiped up or ignored and will go away on its own. Just don't tap on it! A few second or so later, you will feel the phone tap or vibrate. This means it is connected to our servers and ready to perform.
7. Get the Peek:
Now the fun part! If the connection was successful, the once yellow box with your code should now be green. Now, give it a try and type some numbers into the calculator. Any numbers you type into the "calculator" will show up on the Performance Mode screen. If you have an Apple Watch, the numbers will appear there too!
Once you've successfully installed and used the calculator, swipe down twice on the screen in Performance Mode. This will crash the calculator app and close it on your spectators phone, severing the connection between your phone and theirs.
disconnection, reconnection, and cleanup:
The "calculator" is using a new technology released by Apple called the "app clip". This mini app allows us to run code on a strangers phone without them installing the app from the app store.
The calculator part of Calculon is designed to automatically disconnect when one of the following happens:
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The lock button is pressed
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The user goes to the home screen
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The user force quits the app (or goes to the app switcher)
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You crash the app by swiping down twice
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(cloud only) will disconnect after 30 minutes
We also recommend doing two other things:
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Asking the spectator to unlock their phone, then open it to the calculator...this way, when the app clip opens it opens next to the actual calculator. Then, at the end of your routine, you can force close the app clip and open the actual calculator, ending clean (for the most part), and
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Silencing the phone or turning the volume down to 0. Because of the way an app clip works, it will make a little boing noise when you go to invoke it, so make sure the phone is silent before you try doing this or else the spectator will hear something odd coming from their phone.
Due to the nature of the app clip, you are not left completely clean. The app clip is disguised as the calculator, and there are several options for ending the trick, depending on your style and who you perform for:
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Force Quit on their Phone - This is the best option that will quickly get rid of the evidence without having to deep dive. Most people don't know about app clips or the app library, and since the clip is not shown on the home screen it will not show elsewhere. Once quit, the app will automatically delete itself in 30 days.
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Force Quit from Controller - If the spectator still has the "calculator" open, swipe down on your screen twice to force quit the app clip. This way, it closes the calculator and disconnects from the server. The benefit of this is it allows you to end the trip without touching the phone again, but the disadvantage is still in the fast app switcher. If you're performing for someone who isn't as technologically smart, or if they refuse to give the phone back to you, this is probably the best option.
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Lock and Leave it Alone - If you lock the phone or go back to the home screen, it looks/feels/acts like the normal iOS calculator. If you can force quit the app it is best, but this way all they will find is the fake "calculator" (which works as a normal calculator/looks like the stock calculator)
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Delete the App Clip - If you want to end completely clean, you need to go into their settings, scroll/search for app clips, and delete the clips. A fast way to do this is to touch and hold the % button, which will launch the App Clips settings automatically. From there, you can tap "Remove All App Clips" (or, alternatively, tap on the "calculator" App Clip and tap "Remove App Clip"). If you load Settings and the App Clip isn't listed, back out of the menu (back to Settings) and re-enter App Clips, and it will be there for you to delete.
When the phone connects for the first time, it will automatically clear (or save and clear, if this is set in settings) the values shown in the display.
A few other things to remember:
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The app clip requires the phone to be unlocked, so ask the spectator to unlock it before performing.
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If you leave the "calculator" app for any reason (including opening the control center to change the brightness, etc), the app will disconnect. You can reconnect using one of the methods listed below.
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The app clip, once connected, will stay active until the app is quit, closed, or killed. If you plan to set this up and leave it, the app will not quit or sleep the phone.
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The "calculator", once opened on the spectators phone, will keep its cloud connection for approximately 30 minutes. After that, you will need to reconnect it via the methods explained previously. The bluetooth connection will stay connected indefinitely as long as both devices are on and paired.
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If the "calculator" is closed/force closed and the spectator doesn't open the "calculator" for 30 days, the app clip will delete itself.
Failsafe Features and Reconnecting:
Because this trick (sometimes) uses an active internet connection on both your phone and the spectators, we have built in a series of failsafe features. While we can't guarantee the connection will be 100% reliable, we can let you know when it isn't and give you a heads up when there are technical issues (so you don't assume everything is going great, only to realize nothing is coming through)...
First off, when you enter performance mode, your code will be visible at the bottom of the screen. If the spectators calculator is active, this will be green. If it is not connected, this will be yellow at first, then red when your spectator disconnects.
Also, via the settings, you can enable the emergency vibration by turning on "Vibrate on Disconnect". This way, if the spectators calculator gets disconnected, your phone will vibrate continuously until the calculator reconnects, or you leave the app.
Finally, if the spectator quits the calculator and you disconnect, you can reconnect to it in 2 ways:
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force quitting the calculator app and/or deleting it, then reopening the calculator using your nfc tag or QR code or
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holding down the +/- button...you will know you’ve reconnected when you feel the spectator's phone vibrate, once for cloud connection and twice for bluetooth. This will connect to the same code number as was last used to open, so if you changed the code since, do not use this method/use #1 above.
The calculator also has built in local peeks, should the connection go out permanently, you can pick up the calculator and peek at the values. More info about this is in the section below, called "Practice Mode and Local Peeking".
With the v2.0 upgrade, you can now connect to your spectators phone via Bluetooth, so if your internet connection is not reliable this will improve the response time greatly. Just turn it on in the Settings under "Bluetooth Transfer On" and rewrite your nfc tags/make new qr codes.
If you go to launch the fake calculator on their phone and get a error like above, this means the bluetooth is disabled on their device. Open their control center, enable bluetooth, and the connection should reconnect automatically.
Connecting Via URL:
In the event all else fails, you can launch the fake calculator app from your spectators phone via your link. Your link is the one written to the NFC tag/shown in the QR Code in the "Show/Generate Code" section, but, here's a brief guide of the best way to set this up:
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Get the link URL: To get your link without having to read the NFC/QR code, just tap where it says "Code is #####" and it will copy your code to the clipboard of your phone.
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Shorten the URL or link it to something else: The url is rather long to be able to quickly enter it into your spectators phone, so we suggest either shortening the URL or linking the URL on a page of your website or shortlink page (like the ones used in Instagram profiles). Obviously, if you use this on your site, hide the link so your spectators cannot get to it. You can use t.ly or bit.ly to shorten your link, making it faster to type.
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Connecting: When you launch this link on a spectator's phone, it will give you a screen like the one below. Just tap the "Open App Clip" button and it will launch the clip and function like you had tapped "Open" from the NFC or QR Code.
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Cleanup: Doing this method, however, leaves you incredibly dirty in the browser. So, the best way to combat this is to, after the app clip loads, switch back to Safari and close the tab, and switch back to the app clip calculator. BUT this will disconnect you, so to reconnect, press and hold the +/- button until you feel a vibration and can confirm (from your other device or the local peek) that you are connected.
This method also requires you open the url in a Safari browser window that does not have private browsing mode on.
PERFORMANCE MODE:
Performance Mode Screen:
On the performance mode screen, you will see the following (from the top down):
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An icon indicating the connection type. If you have bluetooth off, this icon will be a cloud. If bluetooth is on, it will be a radio wave icon.
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The current calculator display (whatever number is showing on the spectators calculator at that moment). This is referred to in this manual as the "current number".
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The number that will show when the spectator hits equals (this is referred to in this manual as the "pre-equals total"). This number is displayed in blue under the current number.
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You won't see anything here when you first start, but after setting up the entry order, you will see a series of calculated values, like the square and cube value of the pre-equals total, among other values. These will show up in a list on the left side of the screen, and the numbers that show up here can be customized in the settings.
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A history list of all of the numbers and operator buttons the spectator has pressed on the calculator, displayed on the right side of the screen.
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Your current code, as well as the status of the connection, shown in the box at the very bottom of the screen.
Performance Mode Swipe Gestures:
In performance mode, there are several swipe gestures that will perform several actions. These are listed here for your reference, and the specific feature is discussed in more detail below:
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One swipe up - enables or disables the force number.
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Two swipes up - brings up the force number set screen.
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Two swipes left - enables/disables the Alice in wonderland performance mode.
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Two swipes down - force quits the calculator on the spectators device.
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Two swipes right - reads the current numbers into the speaker or Bluetooth earpiece (if enabled in settings).
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Touch and hold - allows you to interactively change the brightness of the screen.
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Right Swipe then Down Swipe - Send To URL Trigger (see setting description below)
In all the performance mode screens, there are helpers that will show you all the swipe gestures, should you ever forget what one of them are/what they do. Most of them can be found by sliding up from the bottom right corner of the screen.
Forcing a Number:
The force number mode allows you to do the cleanest toxic force you've ever performed. No more need to worry if the spectator accidentally clears or hits the wrong button.
To enable it, swipe up twice in performance mode. When you do this for the first time, you will get a message saying "No Force Numbers Set!". This is OK, and there are two ways to set a force number:
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Setting the force numbers via the force number menu in settings.
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Setting the force number dynamically on the performance mode screen.
You can tell the force number is active because the pre-equals total value will turn green, indicating that it isn't a pre-equals total but instead the force number. If you have several force number set up, you can switch between them by swiping left and right while the force number is active.
In performance, when the force number is enabled, it will be shown on the spectators screen when the spectator presses equals. If you are worried about the spectator accidentally pressing equals before finishing their computation, leave the force number disabled and ask the spectator to input their numbers but stop before they press equals and let you know. Then, once they let you know, enable the force number and ask them to press equals so the force number is displayed on the screen.
Inputting the Force Number From Performance Mode:
To trigger the dynamic force number input, swipe up twice in performance mode. If done correctly, you should see the "Add New Force Number" screen. On the screen is a gizmo showing what pattern to swipe to input any specific number in the sequence.
To input a specific digit, swipe in the direction of the cluster, and then follow the on-screen gizmo to swipe in the direction of the specific number. So, for example, if I wanted to input the number five, I would swipe down to reveal the 567 gizmo, and then swipe right to lock in the number five.
If you make a mistake and want to start over, you can clear by tapping twice on the screen. Once the force number is set successfully, touch and hold to commit the force number as the newest force number in your list and set it as the active force number. This will also (by default) enable the force number as well.
PERFORMANCE Notes:
Date and Time Force & Target Number Force:
Due to popular demand, we have included several additional methods of forcing, including the Date and Time Force and the Target Number Force. These are discussed in more detail in the Settings part of the instructions, just click on the name of either force above to be taken to that part of the instructions.
We get asked a lot, "where do you hide the tags?". Honestly, the answer is "it depends." It depends on you, where you perform, your style, what you're wearing, etc. Personally, a good solution (especially if you perform out and about/impromptu for friends) is to put them inside a wallet. You can even put two in your wallet, so you are ready to perform two different effect, and can switch by just turning the wallet in your pocket. If you don't have a wallet, you can put the tag in a pocket or purse, or even in a card box or under a close up pad. And if you don't have any of those, most tags (including the ones we sell) are stickers, so you can stick it anywhere under your clothes that bringing a phone would be "natural". Again, this all depends on how you are and how you handle your phone/the spectators phone in performance.
Then, we will usually ask everyone we are performing for to google something, and whoever gets the answer first we have them yell it out. This is a test for internet (and general usage ability with a phone). The app clip will not load without internet of some kind, so this is an easy way to check before borrowing a phone.
If you need a distraction beat to get the app clip loaded onto their phone, my favorite technique is from Dani DaOrtiz. No human can think of two things at once, so if you make them think of something else in the moment of the move, it will "erase" the move from their mind. So, as you go to activate the app clip, ask your spectator a question. It can literally be anything, from "where are you from?" to "what is your favorite Star Wars character?". My go to is "Do you know what kind of iPhone this is?", as its kind of a relevant question to what I'm doing. Anything to get them to stop thinking about what you are doing with their phone for a beat.
When you bring the phone to the NFC tag, if you are not looking, and you don't feel the vibration on their phone (the haptic "tap") to confirm the clip is loaded, this could also be due to the spectator turning off vibrations on their device. So, you will still see the popup box, you just will not feel the confirmation vibration.
With this said, have an out. Have an excuse to dump their phone and borrow another one. Something as simple as "hmm your phone is a bit glitchy, can we borrow someone else's?" or "your battery is kind of low and I don't want to drain it, can we borrow another person's phone?" or "this looks like an older phone, does anyone have one of the new ones?" are all genuine reasons to borrow another phone and will save you if you have difficulty with a device.
Other things to keep in mind when performing, regarding how App Clips work in iOS:
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If your spectator is a minor and their parents have enabled any parental controls on their phone, the app clip will not load (and you will be given an error message).
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If your spectator has not updated their billing information in iTunes, the app clip will not load.
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If the phone is in Airplane Mode, the NFC reader will be turned off (and won't scan).
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Sometime (and this is rare), the NFC reader on their phone just will not work/it is defective or they turned off background NFC scanning. If this is the case, give them back their phone and borrow another one.
Sometimes, we will ask the spectator to open their calculator app before they hand us the phone. If you leave the real calculator open and activate the fake calculator app/perform, when you get the phone back you will cause two major problems: 1) if you drop your hand to your side to activate the tag in your pocket, it will put the phone into landscape mode, and the "fake calculator" pop up will not look correct in the display, and the "open" button will be obscured (this is an Apple bug we have reported to them), and 2) if you ask your spectator to force quits the "fake calculator" app themselves, they will see their REAL calculator app as well in the switcher.
So, you must first force quit their REAL calculator app, then drop your phone to your side (or activate it wherever the NFC tag is hidden on your body) while the phone is on the home screen. If the NFC tag is in a spot where the phone is kept in the upright/vertical position (like in a breast pocket of a jacket), this is less of an issue, but the casualness of dropping your hand to your side to activate it fly's by most spectators (and most magicians as well), plus it allows you to keep NFC tags in a wallet or purse, allowing you to perform at a moments notice.
Then, once done, ask your spectator to "remove the evidence" and force quit the calculator, or do it for them. This both justifies the blank note and helps get things cleaned up at the end of your performance.
ALICE performance MODE:
If you haven't seen the iPhone Magic trick called "Alice in Wonderland", I highly recommend watching the video at this link. The author released a video called Expert Phone Technique, teaches the entire Alice in Wonderland routine, including some other tricks you can perform with a borrowed iPhone. When this video first came out, iOS 12 was the latest version of iOS. However, in the transition from iOS 12 to iOS 13, Apple removed a lot of the features that made this trick really magical in the spectator's hands. So, when making Calculon, we included some of the features Apple removed from the calculator, including the ability to touch and drag on any button and have the button's action trigger when your finger is lifted. We also made deleting the numbers in ALICE mode more sensitive, so vanishes that were harder before are much easier. We have full permission from him to teach this routine (and the video of it, as well as our addendum of adjustments, is below), so thank you for that!
However, we wanted to add some additional "magical" features to the spectators calculator itself. So, if you swipe left twice on Performance Mode, you will enable ALICE mode. In ALICE mode, not only will you have some other helpful features, but you will be able to run four commands to perform magic with the spectators phone. Each command starts with a swipe down to initialize it, then you can perform one of the following:
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Swipe Up - Locks (or Unlocks) the swipe to delete functionality
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Swipe Left - Deletes the digit furthest left (or if there is one digit, it sets it to 0)
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Swipe Right - Sends the current force number to their device.
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Swipe Down - Enable/disable fade (where force number is revealed with a fade instead of popping on.
To trigger/access these features, swipe down once. Then, you'll have about 2 seconds to trigger the actions. This is set up so you don't accidentally trigger something in your pocket. There is a gizmo on screen to show you what each directional swipe does.
There is a 2 way check function, so if you send a force number or delete a digit, your phone will vibrate twice: once when the action is received by the calculator, and once when the function is performed by the calculator. In settings, you can set up a delay so you can trigger it, and then the action will happen later (and you can set the delay time as well).
You can set the force number in the same way as Performance Mode (by either saving them in settings or saving them using the gizmo in ALICE mode, enabled by swiping up twice), and you can switch the active force number by swiping left and right.
Finally, as a bonus, there are several additional ways to trigger the force number to show on your spectators phone...these are all active ONLY when ALICE mode is on:
1) if you shake the spectators phone (at the end of the shake/right when you stop shaking), whichever force number is active will show in the display. This is only when ALICE mode is on, when off the shake function will do nothing.
2) if you or your spectator waves their hand over the ambient light sensor at the top of the phone (by the earpiece)...remember, don't hover your hand here too long, or hold your hand too close, or the screen will turn black. Be sure to practice this to get an idea of the proper distance and speed to trigger the reveal without the screen turning off.
3) if you press and hold the decimal/period key, when you lift it, it will show whichever number is currently set as the force number...this is great if you wanted to slide the phone across a table at someone or spin it and have the number change mid-slide.
4) if you rotate the phone upside down, it will reverse the digits in the display.
Once you're done performing, swipe left twice to exit ALICE mode and return to the normal peek display. This also disables all the ALICE functionality from the spectators calculator.
The original instructions are below, shown with permission. An addendum is underneath that of the changes and additional things possible using Calculon.
ALICE Performance Addendum:
If you are reading this and you haven't watched the performance and explanation of "Alice in Wonderland", we suggest watching the video above, then coming back to this, as the explanation you are about to read adds onto the information in that video.
Here are some changes to the original Alice In Wonderland routine when using Calculon, plus some additional things you can do with ALICE mode in Calculon to further perform amazing magic:
Before you perform the Alice routine from the video, enabling/disabling the rotation lock function on the phone is not needed, as Calculon currently does not have a landscape mode. Once the app clip calculator enables and connects to our servers, opening the control center to turn off rotation lock could disconnect your from our servers. If you plan to still turn the rotation lock on, make sure to turn on rotation lock before activating the app clip. If you forget and disconnect, use one of the reconnect procedures to reconnect to the spectators phone.
Lastly, before you start the routine, remember to turn ALICE mode on.
In the routine, he shows erasing numbers with a swipe. In ALICE mode, this swipe is very sensitive, and the slightest touch will erase the numbers. This way, you can perform flick vanishes and other more difficult vanishes without any special technique, just touch the screen to delete. The erase also works in any direction, so you can slide straight down or up to erase as well.
He also shows the number 7 reappearing, or any number entered. You can do this as shown in the routine, but another way you can do this is storing the number as a force number. Enter in the number you want to reveal, then turn the phone away from the spectator and press and hold 0, then tap 0 again to confirm adding the currently displayed number as a force number. Now, you can delete the digit and, with a shake or wave, it comes right back. Remember, force numbers saved from the spectators device do not get saved to your phone or to our servers.
If you want to clear, you can do the version shown in the routine, or you can set 0 as a force number. Just set the display to 0, press and hold 0, then tap to confirm. Now, you can reveal 0 (making it appear as if the display has cleared) using one of the methods mentioned above to reveal the force number (shake, wave, send from controller, etc).
If you are performing the codebreaker part of the routine, you can ignore his instructions and the formula. To show the number again, make sure the number is in the display, then press any of the orange operator buttons to commit it to the last value. Now, when you hit clear, you can press equals to show that last value. This is also possible from the volume buttons as well. This "last value" will only show if the display is 0, equals is pressed, and the phone is currently in ALICE mode.
If you perform the flick or toss to clear, you have an extra beat of magic as, if it is enabled, a flick or shake will trigger showing the latest force number. If you don't want this to happen, just press and hold 7 to toggle shake to reveal, and press and hold 8 to toggle wave to reveal. A single vibration tap indicates off, and a double vibration tap indicates on.
Once you are done performing, before giving the phone back, consider force quitting the calculator so if the spectator opens their actual calculator to try and replicate some of the features of the trick, it will not work for them. Then, the fake calculator will delete itself later automatically.
Performance and ALICE Mode Swipe Hints
Both the Performance Mode and ALICE mode screens have a LOT of functionality. So, to help you better navigate it (if you ever forget what swipe to use to do something), we added a invisible button in the bottom right corner. Touch and drag it to show all the various swipes available in Performance Mode or Alice Mode (whichever you have open at the time), then lift your finger to hide it again.
ALICE Number Transfer Effect:
Along with all the standard ALICE effect, if you are using the Pro Tools Upgrade, you will be able to transfer numbers from one device to the other using two phones running Calculon. You need to borrow two phones and, like regular Calculon, the better the internet the better this will work, as there is no communication via bluetooth for this feature.
When you borrow two phones and open the Calculator, you need to tell Calculon two things: which phone is going to receive the number, and if it will use the touch method, timer method, or wave method to move the numbers. There is a very specific way to do this trick and set up your borrowed devices:
Start by making sure your phone is locked (or the Calculon app on your phone is not running/quit). Then, borrow a phone and use your NFC tag to activate Calculon, and once opened put it into ALICE mode by holding down the #9 button (you will feel two taps to indicate ALICE mode is on). Tilt the phone toward yourself so your audience cannot see the screen and press/hold the #6 button. You will see the display change to "transfer on - sender". The text will go away after a moment. This phone will be your "sender" phone.
Then, borrow another phone and put it into ALICE mode like before, then press and hold the #5 button. You will see the display change to "transfer on - receiver - touch". The text will go away after a moment. This phone will be your "receiver" phone in "touch" mode.
Now, the performance goes like this. You ask one spectator for a random 4 digit number and punch it into the sender phone. Then, like normal ALICE mode, you "remove" a number by pinching it or wiping it off the screen. Keep in mind, depending on your ALICE settings on the controller, this number will be removed from the front of the number. To make this number reappear on the receiver phone, touch anywhere in the screen portion of the receiver display. You can repeat this with a different gesture each time (flick, slide, etc), and each number will appear on the receiver phone.
The modes are as follows:
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Touch: Long Press #5 - This mode will cause numbers to reappear on the receiver phone when the display is touched.
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Timer: Long Press #4 - This mode will cause numbers to reappear automatically after a certain amount of time has passed. This value is set in the ALICE Settings under "ALICE Delay Time".
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Shake: Long Press #4 or #5, then #7 - - This mode will cause numbers to reappear when the phone is shaken lightly. This takes a bit of a knack to get right, so practice with standard Shake to Reveal in ALICE mode to figure out the shake strength to trigger the numbers.
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Wave: Long Press #4 or #5, then #8 - This mode will cause numbers to reappear when the ambient light sensor of the phone is triggered with a wave. This takes a bit of a knack to get right, since this can turn off the display of the phone if your hand is too close (and won't get triggered if your hand is too far)...practice with standard Wave to Reveal in ALICE mode to figure out the distance.
If you want to make the numbers vanish from the sender phone with a wave, you can do so by simply turning "Wave to Reveal" on in your phone's ALICE Settings (and it will load on to the spectators phone), or press and hold #7 in ALICE mode.
If you think you set something up wrong or it isn't working and you want to try again, press and hold #9 to turn off ALICE mode, this will reset all the ALICE Transfer mode settings back to off on that specific device. Also, once the last digit of the number has been revealed on the receiver phone, ALICE mode automatically turns off and everything resets to off, so both devices are (for the most part) clean and will simply operate as normal calculators.
show/generate code:
This part of the app is pretty self explanatory, and the features are discussed in the QuickStart (so watch/read it if you haven't): here is where you generate the code that launches the Calculator app on your spectators phone. You can write this url to a NFC tag, or to a QR code (which then launches the app clip via the camera). Also, if you notice odd activity, you can change your code by tapping the "Regenerate Code".
You can also access the app clip via a URL. Read about this in the "Disconnect, Reconnect, and Cleanup" section above.
practice mode and local peeking:
Practice Mode is basically the App Clip calculator, except on your local device. Obviously, you won't be able to use performance mode and Practice Mode simultaneously, but now you can test out the ALICE mode and local peek features of the Calculator if you don't have two devices. To go back to the home screen from Practice Mode, just tap the top left corner where the back arrows are located on the other screens (obviously it isn't shown here, but tapping anywhere in the top left corner of the Practice Mode calculator will take you back, just tap where it says "tap here to go back home".).
The local peeking mode allows you to get the same peeks, and control the spectators calculator, from their own device. This is great if you don't want to handle your phone or if you lose your connection unexpectedly mid-performance.
Once the Calculator connects and you feel the taps (one in cloud connect mode, two in bluetooth connect mode), you can access the peeking system anytime until the app clip is removed from the device. To get the peek, touch and hold the plus, minus, multiply, or divide button to show the peek screen. Lift your finger to hide it again. All of the toggles are below, with a how to of how they all work. If you are in performance and forget what one of the toggles do, you can get a peek of all of them on the spectators screen by tap and slide the equals button. Lifting your finger will hide the information again. Remember, the slide action of the orange buttons in ALICE mode is to activate them on finger lift, so if you need to get a peek or remember what something does, do it in normal/non-ALICE mode.
If you ever forget what some buttons do, touch/slide off of the equals button, and it will show a quick guide to all the button actions (don't let your audience see you do this!)
In Regular Mode, the following buttons can be long pressed to perform the following action. You will see the display change to confirm, and feel a sleight vibration as well. Every button is a long press to activate, unless it is a tap where noted:
ALL MODES:
9: turn alice on/off (you won't see a display but you'll feel a double tap to confirm it is on and a single tap to confirm it is off)
1: toggle voice recognition
0: add number in display as new force number (tap 0 again to confirm)
REG MODE ONLY:
8: force number select (change active force number and delete force numbers)
edit force number buttons:
4&6: step through saved numbers
2: tap to delete
tap any other button to exit this mode
7: enable/disable the force number being active
3: trigger action on controller/magicians phone (if connected)
2: toggle vibrate on text recognized (pro tools req'd)
ALICE MODE ONLY:
8: toggle wave to reveal
7: toggle shake to reveal
6: transfer on - sender (pro tools only)
5: transfer on - receiver - touch (pro tools req'd)
4: transfer on - receiver - timer (pro tools req'd)
3: delete last number
2: lock delete swipes
decimal: lift to reveal force number
APP CLIP ONLY:
+/-: reconnect (app clip calc only)
%: open app clip prefs (app clip calc only)
clear: crash app (app clip calc only)
set force number via Actions:
Many of our other apps, like OmniSense and ThoughtCast, can gather numbers from audience members. With Actions, you can use the numbers gathered by spectators from other apps and set them as force numbers in Calculon!
Simply go to the Actions app and enable "Send to Calculon". Then, whatever number is sent to Actions, Actions will then forward to Calculon and Calculon will set it as the active force number (and if the force is disabled, it will enable it automatically).
Settings:
Here is a rundown explanation of all the settings. If you are still confused (or in a hurry to learn what a setting does), just touch and hold the setting name in the app for a quick explanation of the setting itself. Also note, some settings are only visible if their parent setting is showing (i.e. camoflauge mode won't show unless touch to peek is enabled), so if you don't see a setting on your screen that is here, more than likely that is the reason.
Performance Mode:
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Touch to Peek - If enabled, this will hide the Performance Mode screen and make the phone appear to be asleep. To peek the screen, touch and hold, then lift your finger to hide again. Touch and drag up/down to change screen brightness.
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Camouflage Mode - If on, this replaces the black screen in regular Touch to Peek mode with the image of your choice. Tap the button below to set the image. This toggle is only visible if Touch to Peek is on.
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Change Camo Image - This allows you to choose the image used in Camouflage Mode.
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Bluetooth Transfer On - If on, it will use bluetooth to pair to your spectators phone and transfer calculator data directly. If the connection drops, the app will return to communication via the cloud server. This will show a alert on your spectators phone when Calculon launches, so be sure to hide the phone screen from your spectators view.
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Calculator Style - This changes the style of calculator the spectator sees on their device. This is added to be in conformance with Apple's app policies. You should always have this set to "Orange".
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Vibration Alerts - This toggles if your phone will vibrate or make any haptic feedback, including when you input force numbers and trigger ALICE mode functionality.
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Vibrate On Disconnect - This toggle controls if the phone, in performance mode, will vibrate when the spectator closes their calculator app clip, or if your internet becomes disconnected.
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Hide/Disable Swipe Hints - This toggle controls if the swipe hints in Performance Mode are shown or disabled entirely (to prevent them accidentally being triggered).
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Peek Font Size - This controls the font size of the calculated values and history on your peek screen. If you find your calculated values going down the bottom of the screen, scale the font down so everything fits.
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History Limit - This increases or decreases the number of values kept in the history list.
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Button Lock - When on, this requires you tap the back button twice to return to the home screen of the app. This is so the Performance Mode screen is not left accidentally (should the phone be in your pocket while performing)
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Open On Number - If on, this will show the number set below instead of 0 when the spectators calculator loads.
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Open On Number Value - This controls the number shown when the spectators calculator loads.
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Open On Force Number - If on, this will show the current active force number instead of 0 when the spectators calculator loads. The value for "Open On Number Value" is ignored.
Force Numbers:
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Setup Force Numbers - In this window, you can set up the force numbers before your show, or see and edit the force numbers made here or within performance mode. To create a new force number in performance mode, swipe up twice in quick succession and follow the prompts.
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Active Force Number - This lets you set the force number active in Performance Mode.
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Open to Force On - If on, when the spectators calculator loads, the force number will be active (if the controller is running or not). This toggle is meant to be used when not using Performance Mode and will be disabled when Performance Mode is open and running (If you have Performance Mode open and want Force On when the spectators calculator loads, you must enable it in Performance Mode). If on, entering Performance Mode will automatically turn Force On.
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Force Equals Trigger Count - This is the number of times equals needs to be pressed (from the time you enable the force) to show the force value. The number of equal presses made by the spectator is cleared when the force number is disabled (so if they press too many times you can start over by just toggling force on and off). Calculator functions normally until this number is reached, then force number is shown (and force is toggled off if "Force Auto Disable" is on and advanced if "Force Auto Advance" is enabled).
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Force Auto Disable - If on, when the force number is shown, the force will be turned off on the spectators phone (and on the controller if open) and will need to be re-enabled to be active again.
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Force Auto Advance - If on, when the force number is shown, the active force number will automatically advance to the next force number.
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Unrealistic Display - If on, if the force number/force date/etc is longer than 9 digits, it will show the entire number in the display without using exponential numbers (iPhone calculators will normally truncate numbers 10 digits or longer. This ignores the truncation for force numbers only).
Target Number Force:
This forcing method allows you to set a "target number" that you want the spectator to reach after they have finished their calculations. This is helpful if you want the entire audience to follow along in the math equation with their phones, while you demonstrate the numbers on your phone. The secret to this is the last number entered is seemingly chosen at random or consciously, and then at the last moment switched for the difference that, when added to your total, will get you to your target number.The triggers listed below will explain how to show the last number to get to the desired total. To perform, turn on Target Number Force and set the force number to the one you would like to you (you can switch this in Performance Mode like a normal force number), or to the date/time option of your choice. Then, set the trigger below. When you perform, use the instructions of the trigger to get to the total you are looking for (since each trigger works a little different). You can combine the numbers however you'd like, but Calculon assumes that the last number will be added and will show the difference as a addition to complete the equation.
Note - Auto Disable, Auto Advance, and Force Equal Press Count (for the Equals Trigger), from the previous section (Force Numbers), are HONORED here as well. So, when the spectator presses equals, it will perform the Force Disabled/Number Advance if these settings are on, or show the force difference on the equal press count number specified!
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Target Number Force Enabled - This toggles Target Number mode. If this is active, other forcing modes (like regular force) are not possible from the controller or spectators phone.
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Target Number Trigger - This lets you set when the target number difference is shown to the spectator. Force must be enabled for the difference to be shown. Here is a rundown of what each trigger does:
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Number Count - This will show the full target number difference on the press of the last digit. So, if the target number difference is a 4 digit value, on the tap of the 4th number, the entire number will switch to the target difference.
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Number Replace - Like number count, however this will show each digit as they are tapped. So, if the target number difference is 1234, no matter what number is pressed, it will show 1 first, then 2, then 3, then 4, then it will act like a normal calculator.
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Phone Rotate - When the force is enabled, this will keep track of the rotation of the phone. So, the spectator entering in the last number can show their phone to the audience and, on the turn of the phone, it will switch to the target difference. If they turn it back, it will switch back to the number they originally entered. Pressing equals will show the target number (regardless of the number shown on screen).
We highly recommend, if you are performing with phone rotate on, to hold the phone the entire performance if possible, or at the very least offer to show the number to the audience after the last number is entered. This way, the number is shown by you, and eliminates the chance the turn toward the audience by the spectator will not be fast enough to trigger the phone to switch numbers. -
Equals Press - This is great for two phone presentations. On one phone (for this example we will call it phone #1), you enable force, and ask several spectators to add together numbers but don't press equals. Then, on another phone (for this example this is called phone #2), with force off/disabled, you get numbers from the audience to demonstrate adding together. To get the "final number" you ask phone #1 to press equals, and it will display the target difference from phone #2.
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Trigger - This will show the target number difference when triggered. On the controller, the trigger is activated with two right swipes. This can also be activated via Versa Remote as well.
Note: When Target Number Force is enabled, the Actions trigger is disabled.
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Date and Time Force:
This, quite simply, is a way to set the force to show the date and/or time when the spectator presses equals.
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Date/Time Force Enabled - This will enable or disable the Date/Time Force when the force is enabled in Performance Mode.
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Force Time Delay (in minutes) - This is the number of minutes that, after the user presses equals, will be added to the force time. This is so you can reveal the number and talk for as much time as needed before revealing the total is the date and time.
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Day First - This will display the date as ddMMyy (off displays MMddyy).
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Time First - This will display the time first, then the date (however it is set in the "Day First" setting).
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24 Hour Time - This will display the time as a 24 hour/military time value (off will display as 12 hour value).
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Custom Date - This allows you to set the force date manually, keeping the time current.
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Custom Date Value - This is the number that will precede the time, if Custom Date is enabled.
Pi Revelations Time Force:
This is the same as the Date and Time Force, except instead of the date and time, it reveals the location of the time in the Pi Revelations book. If you don't know what Pi Revelations is, click here to check out the effect.
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Time Force On - If on, and force is enabled, this will show the Pi Revelations location value for the current time. If the value is 6 digits, the digit pairs are page #, line #, # across (241506 would be page 24, 15th line down, 6th number across). If the value is 5 digits, the page # is a single digit.
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Time Offset (in minutes) - This is the number of minutes that, after the user presses equals, will be added to the force time. This is so you can reveal the number and talk for as much time as needed before revealing the time in the Pi Revelations book.
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24 Hour Time - This sets the Pi Revelations time to 24 hour (off is 12 hour time, or am/pm time).
Calculated Values:
These are all settings that have to do with taking numbers on the screen and calculating a specific value from them. If you are looking to take values and convert them to information (like converting Zip Code to City/State and Birthday to Zodiac/Celeb Birthdays/Etc), go down to the "Number Info" section below.
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Show Square Value - This shows or hides the square value of the value you select (default is Pre-Equals total).
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Show Cube Value - This shows or hides the cube value of the value you select (default is Pre-Equals total).
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Show Custom Equation Value - This shows or hides the value calculated by a custom equation you setup using the value you select (default is Pre-Equals total).
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Setup Custom Equation - This is where you can set up the equation used above, and more information on this setup can be found in this section itself.
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Show Angel Number - This will show you the Angel Number total from Greg Rostami's Angel Number trick. If you don't know what that is, you can learn about it here.
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Show Pi Revelations Convert - This will calculate the location of the the value you select (default is Pre-Equals total) in the Pi Revelation book by David Penn. If more than 4 numbers are entered, only the first 4 are accepted. The numbers for Pi Revelations are shown as page number, line number, and number across.
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Show Card Stack Convert - This shows or hides the conversion of the the value you select (default is Pre-Equals total) to a card position in stack. If the number is greater than 52 (or the number of cards setup in Custom Stack), or if the digit is not a whole number (contains a decimal), the individual digits of the selected value added together will be the position number.
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Stack to Use - This allows you to choose the stack you would like to use and switches between several common stacks. If using Si Stebbins stack, make sure the first card in your deck is the 6 of Hearts.
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Setup Custom Stack - This opens the stack customizer, and allows you to set up custom stacks that are shown when certain position numbers are reached. Please give this dialogue a second to open and close.
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Entry to Use for Calculated Values - This is a series of three settings, but each do the same thing. They allow you to pick the value that will be used for the Square/Cube/Custom equation, the Pi Revelations calculation, and the Card Stack calculation. Pre-Equals total is the default, and you can tap this value to change it to any value you have set in the next section ("Number Info"), as well as the position of a specific number (so if you want your spectator to add five different numbers together and you want to calculate the value of the fifth number, you can setup this to show the calculation on the fifth number itself).
Number Info:
These are all settings that have to do with taking numbers on the screen and looking up information about them. If you are looking to take specific numbers and calculate a value about them (Find the Square, Cube value of a number, or its location in the Pi Revelations book), read the section above called "Calculated Values".
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Setup Entry Order - This screen allows you to set up the order in which numbers are entered for them to be displayed during performance. Note, if you do not have a specific entry in your entry order, the calculated values will not show in the performance mode peek screen or on the watch (so, if you want to see the birthday, you must include the month, date, and year of the birthday, etc).
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Saved Calculated Values - This allows you to see any saved calculator data you have captured in your Performance Mode sessions. You can save the data (if pro tools are enabled) the same way you clear, either tapping 3 times on the Performance Mode screen or press and hold clear on the spectators calculator (while your Performance Mode screen is open).
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Save and Clear on Controller - When on, anytime you clear the calculated values (from the controller or from the spectators phone), it will also save a copy of these values to the \"Saved Calculated Info\". If this is off, it will simply clear.
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Use This Phone For Location - On by default, this will use YOUR location as the source location for displaying the distance, and will NOT show the "location permission" pop up box on the spectators phone. Make sure your phone and their phone are relatively close to each other when you perform with this setting on. If this is on, the warning below will not apply and the location permission window will not show.
A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE/WARNING FOR ZIP CODE CONVERT: When this is in the calculated value list (and "disable zip on spectators phone" is off), it will ask your spectators phone for permission to use their location. So make sure, as the calculator loads, you do not flash the phone until this is approved and the screen looks normal.
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Show Value - This section has many many options so, instead of listing each one, we'll talk about what they all do. Essentially, this will give you control over exactly which peeks you see when you have various values added into the "Setup Entry Order". So, if you have the Date info in the Entry Order (Birthday Month, Day, and Year), the options for showing Birthday information will be visible, and you can decide what is shown and what is hidden. This is ideally designed so you can clean up the UI and only see one or two specific pieces of data if you so choose. These settings are shown on the Performance Mode screen, the Apple Watch app, and the local peek from the Calculator on their phone.
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Show All Value - For a couple of settings where multiple results are returned (Celebs, etc), there is also a "Show All" toggle. This will allow you to decide if you will see all of the options, or only a single random selection. Again, this is to help de-clutter the UI a bit more and help you find the info you need once the numbers are entered.
ALICE Mode:
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ALICE On Open - If this toggle is on, when the app clip/practice app starts, it will turn on Alice mode automatically after launching.
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ALICE Delay Time - This determines the amount of time that passes between triggering an ALICE gesture and when it actually happens on the spectators device. This does not effect the lock swipe mode, lock swipe is always immediate.
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ALICE Delete First Number - If on, when using the remote trigger or the remote, will delete the first number on the display. If off, it will delete the last number on the display.
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Vibrate On ALICE Received - This toggle controls if the phone, in ALICE mode, will vibrate when the spectator's remote calculator both receives the force number or delete number command, and executes said command. The receive confirmation is two sharp taps, and the show vibration is three sharp taps to your phone.
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Reveal With Fade - If this is on, and you trigger the force number, it will fade on instead of just popping on. This can also be toggled by swiping down twice (quickly).
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Shake to Reveal - If this is on, and ALICE mode is on, when you shake the spectators phone it will show the force number shown in green on the performance mode/ALICE mode screen.
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Wave to Reveal - If this is on, and ALICE mode is on, when you wave your hand over the spectators phone it will show the force number shown in green on the performance mode/ALICE mode screen. This is achieved by disturbing the proximity sensor located in the top of the phone by the earpiece, so make sure when you wave your hand is about an inch/2.5cm from the phone it goes over the earpiece.
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Flip to Reverse Number - If this is on, and ALICE mode is on, when you turn the spectators phone upside down (with the speaker of the phone pointed up), the number will reverse order (123 will become 321). Turn right side up to show newly flipped number.
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Reveal When Screen Is Down - If this is on, and ALICE mode is on, when you turn the spectators phone screen side down/towards the floor, the current number to reveal will be shown on the screen.
Voice Recognition:
Voice Recognition is triggered/toggled on by tapping the Performance Mode screen twice, or pressing/holding the #1 button.
Note #1: Voice Recognition on the calculator in Practice Mode differs from on the App Clip. There are some pop up instructions you can follow, but the major difference is the spectators phone calculator (since it blocks the normal method of voice recognition) just uses the voice dictation of the keyboard. Be sure to try this out on a practice phone with the spectators phone calculator to see how it works before performing.
Note #2: You can say the number however you'd like and the phone should recognize it but, to get the best results when using voice recognition, try to say each digit individually. So, for 3415, you would want to say "three four one five", not "three thousand four hundred and fifteen". Experiment with both ways to see which is more accurate for you.
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End Phrase - When voice recognition is enabled (double tap performance mode, long press # in practice/app clip mode), recognition will run until this word is heard. Once heard, recognition will stop and the first number heard before the phrase (number said closest to the phrase) will be either shown on the spectators calculator or (if toggle below is enabled) set as the next force number. If the end phrase is not heard 5 seconds after the last number is discovered, it will post the number immediately and stop the recognition process.
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Set as Active Force Number - If enabled, this will set the recognized number as the active force number, adding it to the force number collection. If disabled, this will show the number straight away on the spectators calculator.
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Vibrate on Recognition on Spec Phone - If enabled, when the transcription has finished successfully on the spectators phone, their phone will vibrate to let you know it is done. If the spectator is going to hold their own phone, make sure this is off.
Speech/Dictation:
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Send to Bluetooth Earpiece - This enables or disables speech dictation to any bluetooth (or otherwise) connected audio device.
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Speech Speed - This increases or decreases the rate of which the dictation reads back the display.
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Repeat Time - This changes the amount of time in between individual speech repeats.
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Number of Repeats - This changes the number of times the speech dictation will repeat into your speaker or earpiece.
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Read Delay (in sec) - This is the amount of time (in seconds) that Calculon will wait until after the numbers have stopped changing before it reads the output to your speaker. We recommend keeping this to 5 seconds or more.
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Read Only on Equals - This will only trigger dictation when the spectator presses equals.
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Read Only on 2 Right Swipes - This will only trigger dictation when swiping right twice in Performance Mode.
PeekSmith Support
PeekSmith is a small, handheld display that can show peek information not just from Calculon, but a variety of different apps (both from ThoughtCast and other creators). And, you can buy one from us by clicking here!
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PeekSmith Enabled - This enables or disables sending values to the PeekSmith remote peeking device.
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Tap to Connect/Disconnect - Pretty self explanatory, tap this button to pick the PeekSmith you want to connect to. Be sure to give this screen up to 10 seconds to find your PeekSmith (but most the time it will find it immediately).
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Set Values Shown - This will let you set which values are shown on the PeekSmith Display.
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PeekSmith Vibrations Enabled - This will enable or disable PeekSmith vibrations while performing. PeekSmith will still vibrate to confirm it has connected.
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Switch Info Delay (in sec) - This is the amount of time (in seconds) that Calculon will show the info on the PeekSmith before switching to the next value selected in the "Values To Be Read" section of the Settings menu. You can also switch the info manually using the buttons on the PeekSmith (left to go back, right to go forward) and tap the power button to return to the status page. Set this value to 0 to only use the buttons to switch info shown on the display.
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Hide Connected Status - This will allow you to show or hide if you are connected to your spectator's device or not. If you are connected, the connection status will be one of the screens Calculon will display on the Peeksmith, along with each piece of information you have chosen in the Values to Be Read/Shown, explained below.
Values to Be Read/Shown:
If any of these settings are on (and read into BT earpiece is on), that piece of information will be read into the bluetooth earpiece, connected speaker, or shown on the PeekSmith screen. Press and hold any of these settings to learn about what exactly will be read in the Settings pane. If you don't see a value in this list, it is because you did not add it to the "Setup Entry Order" system, so go back and add that value there.
Send to Actions:
Actions is the toolkit that you can use to take data from ThoughtCast Magic apps and send to a wide variety of services (read all about the capabilities here). Before you use Actions, you need to install and log into the Actions App, available on the App Store. Also, make sure you have a active subscription to the Actions Toolkit, available both on our site and in the Subscriptions section of the portal.
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Info to Send - This is the info that will be sent to the Actions app when Action is triggered.
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Include Extra Text - If this is on, for numerical values with additional text, this will include the additional text. An example is, if distance is sent to action and "Include Extra Info" is on, it will include the distance unit at the end of the number. If off, it will just send the number. For text based info, this toggle has no effect.
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Auto Send Timer - This is the amount of time that will pass after the selected value changes that Calculon will wait before it automatically sends that value to Actions. If the value selected to send to Actions relies on the total, the Pre Equals Total is the number that, when changed, will trigger the timer to start.
Once done, you can trigger Actions to send that data a variety of ways:
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In Performance Mode on your phone, swipe twice to the right to trigger.
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On Watch, swipe down once.
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On the spectators phone (if Performance Mode is open and connected on your phone), press and hold the #3 button.
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Via a volume button press (both on their phone or yours).
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If Actions is set to a Versa Remote button (and that remote is connected and the button is pressed).
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If Auto Send Timer is set to any value above 0 (explained above).
Note: When Target Number Force is enabled and the trigger is "Trigger", the Actions trigger is disabled.
Lock Screen Widget:
If you're looking for instructions on how to add a lock screen widget, please watch our tutorial video, or click this link to learn about how to set this up on your iPhone running iOS 16 or later.
Note - when using Lock Screen Widgets, if you want your widget to update while the app on your phone is locked, make sure to enable "Bluetooth Transfer On". If this is set to off, the info in the app (and subsequently widget) will not refresh unless the app is running (see instructional video above for how to manage this when Bluetooth is off).
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Line One Info/Line Two Info/Line Three Info: This lets you set what info/number is shown on the first/second/third line of the stacked widget. This is only available on phones running iOS 16 and later.
Practice Mode:
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Carrier Name - This is the name of the Carrier that shows up in the status bar in Practice Mode.
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Hide Back Button Tooltip - This will hide the "tap here to go back home" message that is displayed when practice mode loads.
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Open to Practice Mode - When on, whenever you open the Calculon app, it will automatically launch into Practice Mode.
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Change Icon to Calculator - This will let you change your app icon to one similar to the Default Calculator icon.
Volume Buttons:
These control the actions taken on your spectators phone (or your phone in Practice Mode) when the volume toggle buttons are pressed. You can set up the following toggles:
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Up and Down Volume for Standard/Peek mode on the app clip calc (or your phone in Practice Mode).
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Up and Down Volume for ALICE Mode on the app clip calc (or your phone in Practice Mode).
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Up and Down Volume for Standard/Peek mode on your phone in Performance Mode.
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Up and Down Volume for ALICE Mode on your phone in Performance Mode.
Notes/Forewarnings -
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Before you try using these buttons in the calculator, press one of them before launching the app clip. If you see the volume bar come in from the top of the phone with the word "Ringer", DO NOT USE THE VOLUME BUTTONS! This means the spectator has a setting on called "Change With Buttons" in Sound and Haptics, and this "Ringer" box is not visible by the calculator app clip. If you press a volume button and the volume bar comes in from the left side in white, you will be fine when the volume buttons are pressed (the volume overlay will be hidden).
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If you use this with Actions, there is a small bug. Once Actions has launched, if you go back to Calculon on the Performance Mode screen on your phone, the volume buttons will not work again until you go to the Home Screen, then return back to Performance Mode.
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Because this feature is allowed by, but not officially supported, by Apple, there is a chance pressing the volume button will not trigger anything and you will not feel a feedback vibration or tap. If this happens, please press the same button once more and you should feel it working immediately after. We are working on a solution to this issue but this is the current workaround.
Here are some of the options:
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Toggle ALICE Mode - This turns ALICE mode on and off. You will feel two taps when it is enabled and one tap when it is disabled.
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Toggle Force Mode - This enables or disables Force On. You will feel two taps when it is enabled and one tap when it is disabled.
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ALICE - Show Number - This will show whatever number is currently enabled as the force number (ALICE mode only).
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ALICE - Lock Delete Swipe - This locks and unlocks the swipe to delete functionality (ALICE mode only).
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ALICE - Shake/Wave to Reveal - This enables or disables both the Shake and Wave to Reveal functions. If only one is enabled, this will enable or disable both. You will feel two taps when it is enabled and one tap when it is disabled (ALICE mode only).
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ALICE - Delete First Number - This deletes the first number of the display (ALICE mode only).
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Next Force Number - This advances to the next saved force number. You will feel a single taps when you advance and two tap when you reach the end, and the force number will return to the first saved number.
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Previous Force Number - This goes back to the previous saved force number. You will feel a single taps when you go back and two taps when you reach the first number, and the force number will return to the last saved number.
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Add to Force Numbers - This saves the current number in the display as the newest force number, and enables the force number (so the next press of = will show this number).
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Toggle Pi Time Force - This enables or disables the Pi Revelations Time Force. You will feel two taps when it is enabled and one tap when it is disabled.
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Kill Spectator Calc - This will force quit the spectators calculater.
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Launch URL - This will launch the URL on your controller phone.
VERSA REMOTE:
As you may (or may not know), ThoughtCast Magic sells an incredibly small, incredibly powerful remote called the Versa Remote. If you own one of these remotes, you can utilize it within Calculon and control many of the features of Calculon without ever touching your phone or your watch.
If you purchased a Versa Remote and you cannot see the "customize remote" screen (if it takes you to a website), email us so we can add it to your account.
Once activated, when you tap "Customize Remote Buttons", you should see the default buttons that will trigger each action. Some of the buttons have the same keystroke, this is due to the various modes of the app (force enabled, force number entry, alice mode, etc), so if a button is mode specific it will show the mode it works in on the label. To change any button, tap the current keyboard button and delete it, then press the button on your keyboard you would like to trigger that specific function.
By default, the keyboard buttons are as follows (use the image of the versa remote in the wifi setup to reference the numbers below):
In Regular Mode:
Toggle Alice On/Off = "1"
Toggle Force On/Off = "a"
Crash Remote Calculator = "0" (press twice)
Read to Earpiece (if "Read Only on 2 Right Swipes" is on) = "g"
Open URL = "f"
Add New Force Number Mode = "e"
In Alice Mode:
Trigger Current Number = "3"
Lock Swipe Delete = "c"
Delete First Number = "f"
Toggle Fade = "g"
In Force Number On Mode or Alice Mode:
Go back a number = "b"
Go forward a number = "d"
Toggle Date Force On/Off = "c"
In Add New Force Number Mode:
#0 = "a"
#1 = "b"
#2 = "c"
#3 = "d"
#4 = "e"
#5 = "f"
#6 = "g"
#7 = "h"
#8 = "i"
#9 = "j"
Decimal = "1"
Submit Number (or exit if number is blank) = "3"
Delete Last Digit = "2"
Reset Number = "4"
Watch:
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Vibration Alerts - This toggles if your phone will vibrate or make any haptic feedback on your connected Apple Watch.
Other Settings:
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Email Support - This will format an email you can send to us for help with Calculon.
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Deactivate Device - This will log out of Calculon from your device.
Watch App Functionality:
Included for free with Calculon is the Calculon Watch App. The watch app is a companion to the main app, and does some of the same functions/shows some of the same data as the main controller app.
Additionally, the Watch app will track if the Calculon app closes on your phone accidentally. The Watch app requires the phone app be open and active to work. The connection status dot will turn grey if the app accidentally closes on your phone.
If you swipe left and right in the normal mode, you can switch between four screens: the main peek screen, the history screen, and the calculated values screen, and the QR Code. When you are on the history or calculated value screens, you can swipe up and down to scroll on the screen, but other swipes described below are disabled (they are only enabled from the main peek screen).
The QR Code is made using your url, and is available in the event that your spectators calculator won't launch from the NFC tag. If so, switch the the QR option on your watch, open their camera, and point it (covertly) at the watch, until you see the yellow link. It will stay up for only a few seconds, so tap it immediately to open the calculator.
On the main peek screen, the following gestures are enabled:
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Long Press to bring up the input number screen (see below for more info)
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Four or more taps will kill/force quit the spectators calculator.
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Two taps of the watch face will enable or disable ALICE mode.
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If ALICE mode is on:
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swipe up to enable or disable the Lock Delete Swipe
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swipe down to delete the first number on the display
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three taps to send the current force number
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swipe left and right to switch force/reveal numbers
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In Regular mode:
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Swipe up to enable or disable the force number.
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If the force number is enabled, swipe left/right to change the active force number
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three taps to clear (or save and clear) the saved number info
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Lastly, you can dim or brighten the screen by turning the digital crown on the main peek screen. On any other screen of the watch, the digital crown will scroll the watch display up and down (you can also scroll it with your finger).
Because the way the Apple Watch works, when we trigger vibrations the watch will also chime, so be sure to mute your watch before performing.
And, if the last app you had open was Calculon and your watch goes to sleep, you can quickly access it by clicking twice (quickly) on the crown. This brings up the last closed app.
Watch - Force Input Mode:
If you have the pro pack upgrade, you can also set the force number from the watch itself. To activate, swipe up twice (quickly) to toggle number entry mode.
In number entry mode, you have three options. This can be set in the iOS app's settings, under "Number Input Mode".
Tap: This is the setting that will allow you to simply tap the face of the card for each digit in the number you want to add. As you tap, it will show the number on screen. After a second of pausing, it will commit that number to the final force number sequence and vibrate to confirm. Keep in mind, the first tap is 0, so to get the the number 4 digit, you have to tap 5 times (0,1,2,3,4).
For example, lets say you wanted to input the force number 3872. To do so, you would enter force number mode, then tap the watch 4 times, then pause (waiting for the vibration to confirm). Then, you would tap 9 times (for number 8), pause, 8 times, pause, then lastly 3 times. Once the entire number is entered, press and hold the face of the watch to commit it to the force numbers and set it as the active force number (and set force on).
If you are entering numbers and make a mistake, you can delete the last entered digit by swiping left or right once. You can clear the whole number by swiping twice (left or right).
troubleshooting:
If you ever have issues where you are not performing, and the calculator presses show up on your phone, the best thing to do is reset the code. Go to the Show/Generate Code screen and tap "Generate Code". This will generate a new code for you, display your URL on the screen, and allow you to save the QR code and create the NFC tag.
The best thing to do if you are having any issues is to delete the app, reinstall, and log back in with your username and password.
If you ever have issues, we are an email away. Just tap "Contact Support" in the app Settings (at the bottom), or email support@thoughtcastmagic.com with the subject "Calculon Support". Be sure to include in your email the type of iPhone you are using, the iOS that phone is running, what is going on, and steps we can take to try and reproduce the issue.
Additionally, the Watch app will track if the Calculon app closes on your phone accidentally. The Watch app requires the phone app be open and active to work. The connection status dot will turn red if the app accidentally closes on your phone. Also, a double tap of the watch face will enable or disable the force number.
NFC Tag Recommendations:
Any NFC tag that is a NTag, MiFare tag, or ICode SLIX tag will work with the iPhone, and therefore work with Calculon. Because you need to touch the spectators phone, you can use tags as small as 10mm, just make sure to touch them to the top part of the phone (that is where the reader is located).
Ideally, when you get a tag, you want to decide if you want to hide the tag at your fingertips or in your pocket (jacket or shirt pocket ideally). If you decide to hide the tag at your fingertips, you can use a smaller tag and just touch it to the top of the phone to activate the calculator. If you don't want to have the tag finger palmed, you can put a tag in your pocket and bring the spectator's phone to your pocket to activate the calculator, but the tag will have to be significantly larger in order for the tag to read through your pocket. These tags are about the size of a credit card or larger in order for them to read through fabric.
Our recommendation for performance is get a large tag (about the size of a credit card) and place it under your shirt or under your sleeve. In the motion of wiping the phone screen clean, you pass it by the nfc tag, loading the app clip. Then, you can tap "Open" to open the Calculon "Calculater".
We also sell NFC Tags that will work great for getting the App Clip to open from a decent distance away (1-2" / 25-50mm or so). You can get some by clicking the link below:
Thank You's, Credits, and History:
Thanks to the beta team for your help testing and providing feedback and ideas. Thanks to Naren, Kishore, for your code help with the voice dictation module (they wrote the module for voice dictation so I didn't have to! They rock!). Also, thanks to Prayag for rewriting the calculation model and helping out with some other things code wise I just could not figure out.
Additional thanks to Roby Sobieski for his help. He is one of my closest friends in magic and biggest supporters (and got an iPhone just to do this trick!).
And thank you for purchasing this app and supporting me and my magic inventing side hustle. I taught myself how to code, and this is the first app I developed and produced essentially from scratch. I have more ideas than time and coding know-how, but it's the first step to get everything I want created "out there". And supporting small creators and companies help bring wonderful inventions to the magic world!
The idea of forcing calculators, peek calculators, and the like has been well explored in the magic world. Before the iPhone, the TOXIC force was invented by Bob King and he called it "Calculation Sensation." And a number of gimmicked calculators existed, including the Osterlind Digital Feedback, Guy Balvi's Mental Calculator trick, and most recently (friend of ThoughtCast Magic) Cesar Alonzo produces the Cesaral Mental Mind Calculator, and was also the first to produce computer applications that were gimmicked calculators for mentalism purposes.
Once the iPhone (and smartphones in general) became more commonplace, magicians like Michael Murray (with his text Calculated Risk) and Robert Ramirez started exploring magic and mentalism using ungimmicked iPhones to perform various feats (via his video Expert Phone Technique).
Of course, many calculator apps existed before ours (and many more will exist after ours). The first calculator app magic trick we could find was actually create by Paul Daniels in 2012 (you can check out a performance of it here.) This was release around 2011-2012. Then, around 2017, the Cipher app was released by Lloyd Barnes (main creator/main idea), Will Jones (programmer/developer), and Geraint Clark (contributed additional feature and performance/routine ideas). They released several features for Cipher 2 publicly but, due to unforeseen circumstances it never was released. We spoke with Lloyd and he has given us full permission for the development of Calculon as an improvement to Cipher. Shortly after Cipher was released (approx 5-6 months), Ian Pidgeon released a competing calculator app that borrows several features from Cipher and proposed features for Cipher 2, as well as adding several more to his feature set, including showing information based on inputted numbers. He was also the first to publish the remainder force method, as well as the date and time reveal using a fake calculator (up until his app was released, the only method was to use the toxic force and input the time and date manually, adding time to compensate for the time delay of the trick). The time and date trick concept was created by Justin Willman (in his "live in the moment" prediction) and Colin McLeod, who I've been told both developed this effect in tandem/at the same time, unbeknownst to the other.
Also worth mentioning is our friend Ranier Mees from Paralabs...besides producing some top notch mentalism products, Ranier showed me a prototype of a calculator app he was working on and helped inspire/come up with some of the ideas for the local peeking and using a remote control to input numbers. He's a real friend (he helped me deal with a rogue cab driver at Mind Summit many years ago, and for that I'm forever grateful) and I/we appreciate his ideas and contributions to this app (plus, his company makes what I can only describe as the best mentalism/bizarre product of the last decade).
Our contribution to this growing list of products is being the first to use the App Clip (or any method) as a method to secretly gather information from a spectator using his own phone, and we plan to exploit this new method in future products. Others claim to be working on "fake web app calculator on the spectators phone", and we originally pursued that route before abandoning it as the process to install and remove from iOS was too cumbersome.
App based magic cannot be talked about without a mention of Marc Kerstein. He's the inventor of a number of (very) high quality magic apps, but he also was the first to invent an iOS magic trick where the spectators phone was used for the magic (WikiTest) and he popularized the concept of ordinary things on the phone/web that are actually fake things for gathering data for magic (Timeline, other). He also created the concept where the screen appears blank, and touching it reveals the contents of the screen. He's referred to as the "Dai Vernon of iPhone Magic" because almost every useful principle in iPhone magic now he either invented or was doing years ago, and he's always one step ahead of all of us (us included).
Also, since we are discussing Marc, the "Phone Rotation" method used in the Target Number Force is based on the Drawing Switch effect in the Jerx App, developed by Marc Kerstein and invented by Andy, the author at thejerx.com and quite possibly one of the greatest magical thinkers of all time. I cannot recommend this blog more highly, not only is it a hilarious read, but includes a lot of thinking about the "context" of the magic trick being important and, although the main focus is on amateur magic/magic not for a paying audience, a lot of the routines are very commercial and you will find yourself really enjoying performing them. Both Marc and Andy have given their blessing to including this in our app and we thank them both. And Andy totally didn't require I call him the greatest magical thinker of all time to include this feature in Calculon :).
In magic, an idea is "new" if it improves the trick, improves the method, or both. There are lots of fake calculators out there, and a lot of them share the same features, but our has many distinctions that we are bringing as new features and massive improvements, as outlined here. If you have an idea or are an app developer working on something in the same vein please let us know. We don't believe anyone should own an idea if another person improves it. There is space for everyone in the marketplace if you respect the community. We will NOT be a jerk if you want to do something related to our app or duplicate our features (even if it is a calculator app). All we ask is that you do your research on the history and let us know about it before you launch. We'd love to see it before everyone else (and maybe give you some ideas on improving your product as well) 🙂
And as always, if there is an error or omission, please email support@thoughtcastmagic.com and let us know. Magic is a secret art and doing research is troublesome. We utilized the Conjuring Archive to help us learn about the history, and we suggest if you want to learn more about tricks in this space (or see a complete history of your favorite effect) you should check it out.
And finally, the name of the app is an inside reference to the character Calculon from Futurama, famous for being in the robot soap opera "All My Circuits". Learn all about him here: https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/Calculon
HELP AND SUPPORT:
We are always here to help you with any questions you have, but you MUST contact us via our official support email. This is so we can keep track of your issues in our support portal and see a history of issues in case you need help.
Send any issues, bugs, or suggestions to support@thoughtcastmagic.com with the subject "Calculon Support Request".
Any complaints can be sent to this address.
bonus ideas:
Alice Prediction:
This one is a real smart idea of using the spectators phone calculator as a revelation instead of a data gathering device. The effect is: you borrow someone's phone, open the calculator, and enter in a prediction number. You put the phone screen side down and ask the spectator to name any number (between 3 and 5 digits, ideally). You ask them to look at their phone and the number matches.
There originally was one method to doing this trick: You use the ALICE mode and swipe number input to set the number on the calculator. Have ALICE mode open on your phone and borrow their phone, launch the calculator, and pretend to make a prediction (you can enter numbers if you'd like, they will get overwritten in a moment).
Then, once you know the number they want, swipe up twice on your phone to enter the "Add Force Number" screen and swipe to set the number they named, then touch and hold to commit it to the force numbers. It will be the active number in ALICE mode. Then, this number will be automatically sent to your spectators phone while the phone is screen side down.
Now, with the Versa Remote, you can type in the number they named and set it as the force number,