Adobe has added another iOS app to its stable with Adobe Reader, an app specifically designed to work with PDF documents, much like Adobe Acrobat does on PCs and Macs. It should make work life a little easier for many people, and it leads today’s Fresh Apps list. Next up is a clever little app that makes use of iOS 5 known as Slide To Buy. It stocks your grocery list on your device’s lock screen, making ticking off objects you’ve bought very easy. Super Crossfire, a more modern take on the Space Invaders formula, heads today’s games, followed by physics puzzler Aiko Island.
Adobe Reader (iPhone, iPad) Free
Adobe and Apple haven’t really been on friendly terms over the years, what with the fact that Apple’s iOS mobile operating system doesn’t support Adobe’s Flash software. That hasn’t stopped Adobe from bringing an app dedicated to its PDF file type to the iTunes App Store though, which promises to make viewing mobile documents a little easier for people who use the ubiquitous files for their work.
Adobe Reader lets users access PDF documents wherever they are, including password-protected files. You can view and read documents as well as peripheral information like sticky notes and annotations on documents. You can also wirelessly print from your mobile device using AirPrint or email them to others.
Slide To Buy (iPhone, iPad) $1.99
With the release of iOS 5, Apple’s latest iteration of its mobile OS, new features are available to iPhone owners for the first time. One is the ability to add functions to your device’s lock screen – like instantly pulling up your Photo app without having to unlock your phone and find it. Slide To Buy makes use of iOS 5 technology as well, allowing you to put a shopping list on your phone’s lock screen for heightened convenience.
The app is pretty simple: just plug in your shopping list and lock your device. The list gets added to your lock screen, where you can slide a control next to each item to check it off your list as you find it in the store. The list gets stored in the new notification center at the top of the screen, and you can quickly add quantities and other information to it that you might need to keep track of as you shop. Just make sure you’ve upgraded to iOS 5 before you purchase the app.
Super Crossfire (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Old-school gaming fans will recognize the premise of Super Crossfire: It’s a lot like the classic Space Invaders. But Super Crossfire gets some interesting touchscreen twists to make it something more than just an homage to one of the forerunners of video gaming. You control a spaceship fighting aliens by blasting away at them, sliding your finger back and forth on the screen to dodge enemy fire. But in order to avoid getting blasted, you can quickly warp from the bottom of the screen to the top and vice versa, avoiding getting shot or hit by enemies.
The warp mechanic means you’ll have to use special tactics to defeat your foes, like getting behind them to blast them from a certain angle. You’ll also gather gems you can use to upgrade your ship over time to make it more powerful. Super Crossfire features 19 enemy ships to battle, 150 enemy waves to destroy and Game Center support to give you online leaderboards where you can compare your scores to others.
Aiko Island (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Physics puzzler Aiko Island feels a lot like some other physics games, but it has some interesting things to add to the genre as a whole. The game is about getting rid of evil red objects (called Aikos) while protecting blue ones. To get rid of the red ones, you’ll tap them to pop them and try to get them to topple over. Usually, Aikos are square-shaped and stacked on top of each other, but sometimes they’re round, oblong, rectangular and other shapes.
You’re scored in Aiko on the speed with which you clear the screen of evil red blocks and how many taps, or pops, you use to do it. Manipulating physics, like gravity results in a higher score through the game’s 125 levels. Then you can take that high score to the game’s leaderboards from Game Center to see how you stack up.
