Steve Jobs wants you to believe that the iPhone is in fact magic. “Isn’t that amazing? Boom!” What he doesn’t tell you is that they do actual magic tricks, besides Shazam-ing salsa hits off the taqueria jukebox or Loopt-ily stalking—um, networking with—friends.

Check these out:

Touch Trix (free, www.dothehudson.net) are magical spirits that live in your iPhone. Or, if you live in the reality-based community, they’re free videos you drop into iTunes and sync to your iPhone or iPod touch. Accompanied by some hammed-up acting by you, it’ll look like your iPhone has been shot with a bullet. Or is melting. Or was infected with a crazily spinning home screen, haunted by an animal that chomps at your fingers, and lots more. 

Tricky Home Screens. Want to mess with a friend who has an iPhone? Or make a buddy who recently used yours think he broke it? (“DUDE! What did you DO?!”) Surf to itricks.com/iphone and tap the links to see images that make the iPhone look...not right. Mixed-Up Icons collapses your icons in a heap, for example, and Broken strikes fear into the heart with a horrible smashed-looking home screen. If your marks think you’re mean for tricking them, the Spinning Hypno-Spiral image should erase their memories. 

Accelerometer Magic. The accelerometer inside your iPhone isn’t actually magic, but isn’t it fun to pretend it is? Several apps for the iPhone and iPod touch use the accelerometer to manipulate what’s onscreen, which can have a fun and gee-whiz effect, if you show it to those easily amazed types we all love so much. iBeer ($1.99 in the App Store) fills your phone with virtual beer that you can slosh around, watch foam and bubble, and pretend to drink. (“Astonishing realism!” promises the App Store page...well, it’s funny for at least a couple minutes.) iSteam (free in the App Store) lets you blow on your microphone to “steam up” the screen, then draw on it with your fingers and watch the water droplets roll down. You can even email steam-drawn art to someone, whose mind (we’re assuming) will be totally blown.

Wacky Photo Apps. OK, these aren’t magic, either, but they’re fun and goofy, and that’s what really counts here. mStache (99 cents in the App Store) and ’stachetastic (99 cents in the App Store) add funny mustaches to your pictures. OldBooth (99 cents in the App Store) creates instant retro-yearbook-style photos with your friends’ faces melded in there. And Haunted Pics (99 cents in the App Store) looks like a normal camera app, only your pictures will have scary ghosts lurking in the background. Spooky.

Magic iPhone Tricks, Vol. I ($7, www.magiciphonetricks.com/) is an ebook outlining three magic-slash-mentalism tricks you can do with an iPhone, but the astonishing part is this: They have nothing to do with the iPhone—any cell phone will do. (And you just paid $7 because “iPhone” was in the title! ABRACADABRA!) There are two math tricks and one “pick a random object” trick, and the payoff to each is that the person calls your voicemail and hears your prerecorded message saying, effectively, “Hi, this is Susie, leave a message, and WAS YOUR NUMBER 11?!?!?!” (We just hope you’re not expecting any calls from prospective employers at the time. Awkward.) The ebook contains some helpful tips for perfecting your delivery, and a few bonus card tricks way in the back, but just don’t expect anything actually iPhone related if you decide to buy it. Those magicians, they’re tricky,