decim8Decim8 is a bit destroyer. Basically, it makes your images look like a damaged JPG, adding data streaks, color anomalies and other digital damage that photographers and designers really hate to see in a working file. Here in Decim8, the damage is intentional. The results are unpredictable and sometimes stunning. The app is always interesting.

Long a favorite of mine, the App Store’s best “glitch app” Decim8 has just released a major update. Version 3.0 is out and has several new filters, a new interface, a new icon (which is actually the app’s original HAL 9000-looking icon) and a few caveats to go with this update.

Read all about them after the jump. >>>

For starters, Decim8 3.0 officially gets five new effects. It’s more like 7 1/2. The new effects include:

  • Brainfeed3r: Echoing in an off-kilter dimension
  • Doctor Ocular: Dissociative color shifting
  • Xexox: Mechanical streaking
  • Fold 4 Rap 5: Recursive siamese mirroring
  • Bitboy: Can you say lo-fi? (Think more old-school 1-bit imaging. Definitely lo-fi.)
  • TI99X: Dust in the cartridge
  • 0Irectine: Huephase Disruptor Beam

The previous filter Vortron gets a redux in this update as well. Overall, I found the new effects make very extreme destructions.

Filters now have a thumbnail preview that’s gives you an idea of what each filter does. This removes some of the guesswork of the app’s effects.  In addition to processing with randomized effects and reprocessing with current effects selections, you can now also stack processing — applying multiple instances of the same filters to an image.

Version 3.0 now allows you to save your favorite filter combinations as presets. There are also several new gesture-based UI tweaks. A lot of new features. This is a major update for this app.

There are a few caveats with this update, though. iOS 5.0 is now required for running Decim8. The app no longer supports iOS 4.x. Also, this version is pretty cranky. It crashed for me often — about every 3-5 processes on an iPhone 4S. Reading some of the App Store reviews, it’s a common problem with this update. I recommend not using the app’s camera and importing from your photo library to protect your original images until the instability is fixed. Decim8 has had memory issues before. They were quickly fixed by the developer.

Decim8 version 3.0 is a free update to previous users. It adds some great features and interesting filters to this digitally modernistic lo-fi photo app.

Decim8 sells for $0.99 in the App Store. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later.

Decim8 - Kris Collins

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