Drync
Latest
Daily Update for August 14, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Drync touts itself as 'the Shazam for wine'
When you are listening to a song that you don't know, but really like, it's common to whip out the ol' iPhone, launch Shazam and find out the name of the tune. But what about a situation where you're drinking a bottle of wine at a restaurant and would like to know more about it or even buy a bottle of that specific brand and vintage? That's the idea behind Drync (free), a "wine image-recognition app" that's been around since 2009, but is re-launching today with a new focus on making over 30,000 wines available for home delivery in 41 states. Drync provides instant identification of more than 1.7 million different wines simply by snapping a photo of the label with your iOS device. The label -- which doesn't have to be on a wine bottle, so you can even snap an image of a label in a magazine or on a billboard -- runs through a sophisticated image-recognition algorithm and you're presented with information about the wine. Want ratings from other users or wine experts? They're available for a number of wines, and you can also purchase wines for delivery if that's allowed in your state. If the label you've imaged isn't in the Drync database -- for instance, a Montrachet 1978 from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti -- you can submit the label for a human to curate. Your wine-tasting activities can be shared with your buddies on Facebook or Twitter, and Drync says they'll soon be providing personalized and social recommendations.