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Oenophile App Drync Now On iPads, Adds Its Own Wine-Loving Social Media Platform [Daily Freebie]

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Vodka is great for fruity drinks and drunken stupors; and beer is what you nurse, alone at the edge of the bar, after you’ve been dumped.

Wine, on the other hand, is the ultimate social lubricant. So it makes sense that Drync, a sophisticated app for oenophiles (the sophisticated method to describe wine-lovers), has just launched its own social-heavy website to go along with its new iPad app.

UpTo Reinvents The iPhone’s Calendar (Again), Ditches Social For Simple [Daily Freebie]

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UpTo's radical remake.

UpTo’s original take on the iPhone calendar was fairly unusual. the app allowed you to follow the calendars of friends or organizations, whose events then appeared on your calendar; you could the interact withe the events more or less the same way you would a Facebook post: There were likes, comments and a handy “I’m in” to signify attendance.

The problem is, in order for anything with a social twist to work, lots of people need to use it — and based solely off my observations while using the app, that didn’t seem to be the case. Also, some users may have found the app overly complicated.

So now, UpTo has been radically redesigned with a focus on layers instead of social connection. But is it better?

iCitizen Turns Your iPhone Into A Powerful Political Tool [Daily Freebie]

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One of the most phenomenal — and frankly, underrated — aspects of the handheld computing revolution ushered in by the iPhone and its ilk is how much power, in the form of knowledge, has been placed, literally, in people’s hands.

Case in point: iCitizen is a new, free app that clearly and elegantly places pretty much all the information you need to know in order to make informed voting decisions — right in the palm of your hand. There you go: Direct democracy in the palm of your hand, courtesy of the iPhone (and the app’s developer).

Transport Tycoon’s Lite Version Should Be On Every Strategy-Lover’s iPad [Daily Freebie]

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Yes, the beatings and bright lights of GTA: San Andreas have finally been squeezed onto iPad and iPhone screens. But that’s not the only good news this week regarding iOS ports of big-name classics.

Transport Tycoon, an elegant SimCity-like game that focuses on planning, constructing and managing a transportation empire, has just released a free version of its iOS port, which was originally released at the end of October.

Yonder Is Pinterest For Outdoor Junkies [Daily Freebie]

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Pinning, posting or tweeting one’s way through a wilderness adventure always seemed a little antithetical to me; isn’t one of the reasons for going out into nature to get away from all this artificial electronic junk anyway? Yes, of course, I too am guilty of the odd flirt with Facebook from the bush — but I always feel so dirty afterward.

Yonder, a free app that creates a social circle for outdoor enthusiasts, won’t change how I feel about Tweeting from the trail — but at least it might push me closer to an equilibrium by turning the tables by inspiring me to get out there (boy, are those pictures gorgeous), and putting the outdoors in my social media instead of the other way around.

RadPad Is An Easy, Picture-Rich Way To Find An Apartment On Your iPhone [Daily Freebie]

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Apparently, Americans like to pull up stakes and move to greener pastures more often than almost anyone else — which would explain the swirl of activity at the umpteen websites that help renters find an apartment. As one of the umpteen, RadPad is a relative newcomer to the group that stands out because of its user-friendliness.

RadPad is sort of the graphic novel of the apartment-hunting site breed: It emphasizes big, pretty pictures over a dull jumble of text. RadPad says their staff tries to ensure all listings have at least three up-to-date images by actually calling the author of each listing as they’re posted to verify.

Inbox Cube Adds A Big Visual Kick To Your iPhone Email [Daily Freebie]

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Since there are relatively few good alternatives to the iPhone’s stock Mail app, a newcomer to the group usually sparks our curiosity and interest; what’s the cool new spin? Will we actually use it? Will we use it enough that it eventually replaces the Mail app on our home screen?

In the case of attachment-obsessed newcomer Inbox Cube, the answers are fun, yes and possibly.

Roadtrippers Reveals All The Good Stuff Along Your Road Trip Route [Daily Freebie]

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Ah, the open road. Nothing like some great tunes, an agreeable companion and endless blacktop to relieve the stress after — or enjoy a little peace before — that remote Thanksgiving gathering (note that I said a companion, as in singular; if you’ve got kids, I’m guessing you’ll probably want to fly).

Before you head out, you might want to do a little planning with something like Roadtrippers, a helpful site and accompanying iOS app that can show you hip, hidden or just plain weird points of interest along your planned route.

With New Templates, Springpad App Even More Different To Evernote Than Ever Before [Daily Freebie]

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Springpad launched on the heels of Evernote in 2008. Though the two are superficially alike — they’re both cloud-based note-taking services often accessed though their respective iOS and Android apps — Springpad was always a little more geared toward collecting and organizing groups of things, like products or recipes.

Springpad’s latest update further underscores this difference; it now has a set of templates that can be used for organizing different categories of saved items, as opposed to the more open format of Evernote.

React Messenger’s Zaniness Is Half FaceTime, Half iMessage [Daily Freebie]

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Sarcasm doesn’t travel well over text message — and I can say that through bitter experience. I’ve probably come close to being slapped, dumped, kicked in the crotch, fired, and/or run over by a riding mower because of some sarcastic text I’ve sent that was misconstrued as mean when it was supposed to be hilarious.

Or so I’ve imagined; I have no real gauge, because in each instance I couldn’t actually see the reaction on the face of the recipient. At least one of the developers behind React Messenger must have faced the same problem, because they’ve come up with a solution that snaps and sends a quick, expressive selfie along with each text.

MediSafe Lets The Whole Family Manage Grandpa’s Medication [Daily Freebie]

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A year and a half ago, Bob Shor’s diabetic dad asked him if he had seen his dad take his insulin. Bob’s answer, “No, I didn’t see you take your meds” was interpreted by his father as “No, you haven’t taken them.” His dad overdosed that day, which Bob says was the reason he and his brother Rotem created MediSafe, a collaborative app that helps keep track of long-term medication.

The app will remind users when it’s time to take meds, and display dosage and an image of what the meds actually look like. There’s even a refill reminder and personalized information and details about taking the drug and effects. But the big feature is the app’s collaborative nature.

Cameo Is Vine, But All Grown Up With Muscles, A Flashy Wardrobe And A Hip Music Collection [Daily Freebie]

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I remember a few tech bloggers going nuts over Vine when it hit the street back in January. I wasn’t convinced; it seemed too limiting, felt too gimmicky. Vine turned out to be a more creative tool than I’d imagined — at least for others. But the concept never really hooked me enough to want to use it.

Cameo, on the other hand, had my juices flowing almost immediately. Like Vine, Cameo shoots short, six-second HD (720p) clips that can be uploaded to Cameo’s website or shared via social media and email. Unlike Vine, multiple six second shots can be combined into a two-minute (maxiumum) clip, with light editing tools, effects and music added to the mix. And Cameo even lets you collaborate with friends.

AppSeed Instantly Turns Your Napkin Doodles Into An App’s Interface [Daily Freebie]

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Just as easy-to-use creative apps like iMovie and GarageBand have made it easier to craft music and videos, so AppSeed is poised to make it much easier to build iOS apps. Simply using the app to snap a photo of a rough sketch scribbled onto a notepad or napkin will turn that sketch into working, interactive interface pieces that can be arranged, re-arranged and tested.

DataMan Next Warns Of Data Overages, DataMan Pro Gets Hourly App Data Tracking [Daily Freebie]

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DataMan Next is currently on sale for free.

Two of the versions are on sale till the end of the week: The most basic version, DataMan Next, is free (from a buck); and DataMan Pro is on sale at $5, which is half off its regular $10 price. The Pro version also now reports hourly data usage by app, which pretty much makes it the most detailed data-tracking app out there.

Disney Infinity: Toy Box iPad App Arrives, Free For a Limited Time

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Just after CES wound down back in January, I was part of a (relatively) small group of journalists and bloggers present at the Disney media event that revealed Disney’s Infinity game universe to the world. Problem was, I had no clue why I’d been invited, as all the hoopla was about the console game. Toward the end, I bumped into Bill Roper, Disney’s product development chief, and asked why I was there as I gulped down a delicious, miniature milkshake.

His answer was cryptic. But the reason I’d been invited has just made its entrance onto the app store today — it’s the Disney Infinity: Toy Box iPad app, a virtual sandbox mashup that allows anyone with an iPad to take a variety of Disney characters and play with them in different Disney worlds. And it’s free — for now.

TuneMob Makes You The DJ Of A Really, Really Small Party [Daily Freebie]

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Here’s a problem: Let’s say you’re a diabolical dictator bent on world domination. You’ve decided to bypass the corporate mass media (which can’t be trusted) and inform the little people of your plans via podcast. You create one—only you don’t have a method of broadcasting the podcast, since you insist on personally playing your message directly onto the iDevices of your soon-to-be thralls.

The answer, of course, is the world-domination tool TuneMob. As long as you can gather everyone in the world into the same room. And by everyone, I mean a maximum of seven people. Who all need to be running TuneMob. And have fairly newish iDevices.

See Exactly What Your Friends Have Planned With Wonderfully Social Calendar App UpTo [Daily Freebie]

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UpTo might be the best social calendar app ever made. I’ve never really seen anything like it; so if it isn’t the best (or really the only) social calendar app around, whatever else is out there must be perfect — because UpTo is pretty damn fantastic.

The whole point of UpTo is to create a social experience around calendars, in a way that’s at once instantly recognizable and ridiculously simple to use.

Weathermob Now Lets You Check What Other Surfers, Golfers, Hikers Are Saying About the Weather [Daily Freebie]

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Social weather iPhone app Weathermob has just seen a big, fat update, which Weathermob‘s PR people describe as “a deeper, more delightful and safer understanding of weather.”

With new activity-based (surfing, hiking, golfing, gardening) channels and additional detail added to the realtime weather trends aggregated from its users, this is social weather, and unlike anything else available at the app store.

Skobbler’s ForeverMap 2: Fully-Featured Offline Navigation App With Bicycle Routing

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ForeverMap 2 is one of those great apps that should be a no-brainer download for any even moderately frequent map user. Unlike either the standard iOS Maps app or the Google Maps app, ForeverMap 2 can download and store custom maps on your device — allowing you to use the map and accompanying navigation features even without a wifi or data connection.

Today, ForeverMap 2 has been updated with behind-the-curtain improvements to make it much faster, and it now also includes guide information from Wikitravel. It can even route bicycle trips. Best of all, Skobbler has dropped the price from $3 to free till the end of the day.