Harry Potter and the Wizards of the Digital World!

Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Potter book going on sale.
To celebrate the occasion, facebook decided to give its users a taste of magic.

Any mention of Harry Porter or the houses of Hogwarts would make the words light up in their house colours! And when anyone clicks on it, a wand appears and a tiny bit of magic explodes on screen. What did the magic look like? Look no further!

I do agree it is a little weird, seeing 30 year olds getting all excited about a few sparks and booms on screen, but again this is Harry Potter we are talking about. The boy who lived and made all of us wait for our acceptance letter from Hogwarts!

Twitter joined in the celebrations, with any mention of the hashtag #HarryPorter20 resulting in the iconic spectacle and lightning scar of the protagonist showing up as an icon.

Another Harry Potter inspired magic trick has been around on our Android phones for some time now. You can use spells to control certain phone behaviours. How cool is that, right?

Just click on the microphone icon on the Google search bar on your Android phone's home screen (no magic for iPhone users, sorry!)

And then say 'Lumos', while summoning all the magic in you. (You have to say it just the perfect way, else the magic won't work! ;) ) And it switches your phones flashlight on, exactly the way the wands light up in the Harry Potter world! The 'Nox' spell will put off your lights.

Let there be light

Another nifty spell would be 'Silencio' which would put your phone on silent! Not as exciting as silencing people around you, but we'll take what we get!