The Week in iOS Apps: Back to the Future!

This week’s roundup of new and updated iOS apps features old movies repurposed as new games, as well as a few offerings to make you more productive.

This iPhone game has been so beloved for so long, what possible upgrades are left? Well, there’s one big one: After three years on the market, the original Angry Birds game is now free! Yeah, there are some new levels in the latest upgrade to the game, but still: Free!

Macworld gave this calendar app high praise when it debuted last fall. Now the $4 Fantastical app for iPhone has unveiled a dizzying list of feature upgrades, including multiple alerts for a single event, a scrollable events list, and time zone support, among others.

There might be some good reasons to get an Android phone, but Google makes it easier to stick with iOS when it produces cool apps like the free Field Trip for our platform. Just open the app, and Google’s aggregated list of experts—at publications including Thrillist, Food Network, Zagat, and Run Riot, among many others—can show you the history of the area where you’re standing, as well as the best places to shop, eat, listen to music, and more. You can share favorite locations and bookmark them for a return visit.

It’s a great week for cinema-minded iOS gamers. The $4 AVP: Evolution brings you the latest battle between Aliens and Predators. Back to the Future: The Game lets you take on 1950s bullies for free. The $1 Temple Run: Oz gives you the glorious feeling of running freely as James Franco. All the games are available for iPhone and iPad.

This free app for iPhone and iPad has long let users have group chats with friends or family, allowing social communication to be as social as possible. This week’s update adds a fiscal wrinkle: The new “Split” tool lets various members of the group use a credit card to contribute money to a cause—say, buying a birthday cake. That money is then collected and spent by a single member. Now it’s easier than ever to hit your friends up for cash.

This free presentation-creation app for iPad was relaunched this week with a ton of new features, including the brand-new ability to create pie charts, bar graphs, and stat charts. Bulleted list-making is another new feature, as are new gestures for managing, picking, and using photos for your presentation. In-app purchases (usually around $2) can let you create custom themes for your work, dazzling your clients and customers when it’s time to make the sale.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Path, the social networking app for iPhone and iPad, has come a long way since its early days as a simple image-sharing service. This week’s upgrade builds on that evolution; users can now privately message each other—either individually, or in small groups—and a new “Stickers” feature lets you add a dash of emoji to your Path experience. A new in-app shop lets you buy photo filters and other stickers to further customize your identity.

Again, this is a case where a video game character is so beloved that we’re not sure we need to say much. What do you want to know? The $2 Sonic Dash game for iPhone and iPad features Sonic the Hedgehog. He’s running lots of places. He’s doing it really fast. It sounds like more of the same—but then again, that’s the charm, isn’t it?

Apple’s suite of iWork apps saw a range of small upgrades this week … LaunchCenter Pro offers new support for Twitter and Text Wrangler … and Skype (pictured) now offers improved chatting abilities.