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Fractals are a force of nature—mystifying and bewitching—and iter9's new Frax for iOS, released today, is an intensely immersive, creative, and visual app that lets nontechnical aficionados experience the beauty of fractals anywhere they can tote an iPhone or iPad.
What sets the arresting Frax apart is its comprehensive use of the devices' gyroscope and accelerometer for creating and controlling fractal designs. Frax is the first 2D fractal app to use a tilt-to-steer movement and a full complement of touch-based gestures: You alter the lighting with a swipe, augment textures with a twist, and zoom with a series of taps.
While there's no shortage of inspired fractal apps, Frax, which has both standard and pro versions for both the iPhone ($2) and iPad ($4), buries its mathematical underpinnings deeply under the hood, shielding users from complexity for a totally hands-on experience. Frax is ever dynamic and constantly animated in rendering and refining the view you see, letting you choose where and when to get involved in the process.
This original design was derived from a Frax preset.
Four major controls
As you launch the app, you meet a familiar Mandelbrot splash screen. The app's built-in library of fractals provides a starting point for creating your own designs. Tapping the screen brings up a minimalist interface consisting of four translucent buttons: Motion, Colors, Lights, and Texture, each with flyout wings at the top and bottom. Leave the screen untouched for a few seconds, and the buttons disappear even as the fractal continues to render.
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