7 best iOS games of the year

Best Transition to the iPad
Angry Birds HD
By Chillingo
In making the leap to the iPad, Angry Birds HD kept the core gameplay of the popular iPhone version-defeat egg-stealing green pigs by bombarding their fortifications with the none-too-pleased ornithoids of the game’.'s title-while making the most of the tablet's spacious screen. On the iPad, you can really appreciate the clever animations and intricate level design. With new updates including a new boomerang bird and new levels, Angry Birds continues to improve-and impress.


Puzzle Game of the Year
Osmos for iPad
By Hemisphere Games
When you first hear about it, Osmos for iPad doesn't sound all that exciting: You tap the screen to propel your small blob of matter, aiming to absorb smaller blobs while avoiding those larger than you. And the truth is, Osmos isn’t all that exciting. But it’s undeniably enthralling, combining gorgeous graphics and hauntingly beautiful music-use headphones or you'll miss out-with Multi-Touch gestures that let you zoom in and out and slow down and speed up time. Gameplay is simultaneously casual yet exacting, frustrating yet oddly relaxing. It’s a game that feels made for the iPad, and like the objects on the screen, it will suck you in if you're not careful.


Casual Game of the Year
Fruit Ninja
By  iPad version, Halfbrick Studios
Whether in iPhone or iPad forms, Fruit Ninja boasts two ideal qualities for casual gaming-it's easy to learn and fun to master. In this funny, quick game, you slice your way through a diverse array of delicious fruit flying across your screen in a Kill Bill-style pulpy fruit massacre. Adding to the fun are great visuals, including lots of fruit juice flying with every slice, and a great, Eastern-infused soundtrack. Avenging yourself against produce has never been so fun.


Platform Game of the Year
The Incident
By Big Bucket Software
Frank Solway’s having one of those days where it seems like the whole world is falling down on him-which, to be fair, it kind of is. Big Bucket Software’s The Incident is not only gorgeous, featuring detailed 8-bit artwork inspired by platform games of yore, but its simple tilt-to-run and tap-to-jump controls make it a snap for even the casual gamer to pick up and start playing. The game’s appeal goes beyond the retro, too: innovative features let you use your iPhone as a controller for the iPad or-with the help of Apple’s iPad video adapter-use your HDTV as a display.


Tower Defence Game of the Year
Plants vs. Zombies
By PopCap Games
Another game that delivers the goods in either iPhone or iPad form, Plants vs. Zombies is a unique tower defense game in which you must plant peapods, mushrooms, squash, and other deadly legumes to fight back the zombie hordes. The beautiful cartoon artwork is on the right side of zany and sets a light-hearted tone from the get-go. The zombies are silly, distinctive enemies that vary in character-besides your standard groaning zombies, you also have to fend off zombie football players and balloon riders, who each boast their own distinctive battle skills. Various mini-games and numerous achievements to unlock will keep you coming back again and again.


Strategy Game of the Year
Carcassonne
By The Coding Monkeys and Hans im Glück
Though it hews closely to the popular German board game upon which it’s based, Carcassonne seems tailor-made for the iOS. Like its cardboard predecessor, the mobile version is all about laying down tiles, building roads and castles, claiming territory, and trying to prevent your opponents from doing the same. But the iOS offering adds multiplayer modes (via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or pass-and-play) as well as solitaire play against eight different computerised opponents with differing strategies, and the simple graphics look great on the touchscreen. It’s a great iOS app for one other reason: A single game takes about as long as the average American's daily commute.


Multi-player Game of the Year
Words With Friends HD
By Newtoy
Words With Friends for iPhone (macworld.com/ 5520) gave the Facebook Scrabble craze its first real competition, letting you play multiple Scrabble-like word games with friends near and far-even when you’re on the go. But Words With Friends HD eliminates the iPhone version’s biggest frustration by giving you a usable full-board view-no more zooming in and out, in and out. Once you're hooked, you’ll find yourself anxiously awaiting that distinct chime letting you know one of your opponents has finished a turn-and hoping it's not a triple-letter/triple-word play of Q-U-I-Z.

iOS 4.2 Ends the iPad's Wait for Multitasking

Apple is finally bringing multitasking to the iPad. While iOS 4.2 introduces a slew of media, app and printing updates to the Apple tablet, you'll find that your day-to-day use of the iPad is changed most by multitasking and folders.
Folders, Media and Printing

Upgraders will get access to folders, which can save you from scrolling through endless pages of apps on the home screen. Much as you would on the iPhone or iPod touch, just press and hold an app icon, and drag it onto another one to create a new folder on the home screen. The new AirPrint adds wireless printing capability to the iPad, while AirPlay is an expansion and rebranding of AirTunes that lets you stream music, photos and video to your Apple TV and other AirPlay-enabled devices, many of which will be launching this fall.

Mail and Safari

The iPad Mail app gets bolstered by much-needed messaging, which sorts your mail into conversations. Game Center brings social competition and leaderboards to your marathon iPad 'Angry Birds' sessions, but is otherwise just as underwhelming as the iPhone version. Mobile Safari finally lets you search on the pages you're currently browsing. Start typing in the search bar, and you'll see 'On This Page' results below the stock Google suggestions.

Losing the Hardware Orientation Lock

We've been using a dev version of 4.2 for a few weeks, and we most regret the loss of the iPad's hardware orientation lock, which has been repurposed as a mute button. With all the reclined reading we're doing, the lock was handy for quickly switching from portrait to landscape mode, or locking while going horizontal. The interaction works on the smaller iPhone, but is needlessly complex on the iPad; compare a simple button to a process that will usually involve two hands (one to stabilize) and four actions (double tap, swipe right, tap). While it's interesting that Apple is effectively reprogramming dedicated hardware buttons, it should be an optional, or at least a software-reversible change.

Once Apple pushes the update live, make sure you've recently synced your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, grab the latest version of iTunes, boot up Software Update, and get updating

Apple releases iOS 4.0.2 and 3.2.2 update to fix PDF security flaw

Apple has quickly patched the recently uncovered security flaw with how PDF files are handled in Safari in iOS 4.0.1 and earlier for the iPod Touch and iPhone, and iOS 3.2.1 and earlier for the iPad.


The problem was originally uncovered with the release of jailbreaking software by the iPhone Dev Team, which took advantage of the flaw by loading the software when visiting the jailbreak website.

The updates to fix this problem should now be available via iTunes, and it is highly recommended that you install it; however, be sure to back up your iOS devices before applying the updates.