Welcome to a brand new week! Whether you’re working hard or just loafing around, you’re probably using your smartphone. Give it a treat with these, the best new apps this week.
Multi-Platform Updates
Distiller
When Distiller came out a few months ago, we loved its whiskey-suggesting features, pointing you toward a brand or style based on what you like and where you’re enjoying it. This week’s significant update to the free app builds on all that, adding a brand-new social side. Read notes from other Distiller users, like or comment on reviews, and follow whiskey lovers whose reviews and suggestions you find particularly helpful. Because good company and good whiskey just go together. [Android] [iOS]
Spring
Admittedly, this is kind of goofy: An app that re-proportions your full-body pictures to make you look taller. But it actually does a pretty convincing job — better than you’d expect from a simple smartphone app. Technology! [Android] [iOS]
Android
StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is one of the web’s best tools for discovering and keeping track of great articles, and this week’s Android update brings some powerful new features. Now, you can share links instantly via SMS, add an article to a list with two taps, and find new stuff to check out via recommended lists. A new navigation menu makes interests and followers even easier to access. [Free]
Olocode
Handing out your business card feels satisfyingly Mad Men, but what happens when your address or contact info changes? Olocode scans the info on a business card and auto-uploads it to your Android’s contact list. Even better, users get a six-character alphanumeric code: share this with other Olocode users, and they will get an automatic notification any time your contact info changes. Handy! [Free]
iOS
Refresh
You know the drill: Right before you meet up with a friend or a business contact you haven’t seen in a while, you do some furtive Googling, Facebooking, and tweet-creeping to cram on last-minute conversation details so you look like a great friend with a stellar memory. Refresh does the heavy lifting for you, pulling relevant details from a person’s Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and your email conversations and putting it all in one place. It even syncs with your calendar, offering you a refresher on the person you’re about to meet with so you walk in fully informed. [Free]
Indiegogo
Are you so excited about crowdfunding that you can’t bear the idea of abandoning Indiegogo when you get up from your computer? Fear not — the newly-updated iOS app keeps crowdfunding in your (apparently well-stuffed) pockets. This week’s tweaks let you view videos in full-screen and keep track of all your contributions from your profile. Now go out there and make some hack inventor’s dreams come true! [Free]
Wikipedia Mobile
You probably use Wikipedia on your iPhone as much as you do on your computer — the anywhere, anytime, everything encyclopedia is indispensable for settling lingering questions and disputes. This week brought a brand-new overhaul of the Wikipedia iOS app — with a new navigation sidebar, mobile article editing, tabs for saved articles and recent pages, and localisation tweaks. Now you can know everything, on the go! [Free]
Windows Phone
Fitbit
If you’ve got a WinPhone running 8.1 software and a Fitbit, this week’s update gives you the best of your wearable’s features. With automatic, wireless syncing through Bluetooth 4.0, you can pin the Fitbit live tile to your start screen to keep track of your activity all day long. Plus, the newly-updated food database holds accurate info for more than 350,000 foods, so you’ll know more about your body’s energetic intake and output. [Free]
Snapcam
Snapcam, the service that turns your smartphone pics into professional prints, just updated its Windows Phone app. Just scroll through your photos to create a photobook, arrange the layout, and customise the details. Each photobook starts at $US8, depending how many photos and how elaborate the layout you choose. [Free]