Never Miss an NFL Game or New Movie Thanks to UpTo iOS Calendar App

The 2012 World Series is right around the corner. Football is in full swing. The fall cultural calendar is bulging with opportunities. If any of these things matter to you, consider downloading the free iOS app UpTo (current version 1.5.1; for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad).

UpTo is a nicely-designed social calendar app. It connects to your Facebook account (if you let it), so you can selectively share stuff on your calendar with Facebook friends in custom groups. You could, say, create a “Work” group of Facebook friends, one for “Family,” and so on. And you can easily share upcoming events with them, too.

UpTo’s best feature is also its newest: a “Discover” section full of event streams. The developer, Rock City Apps, says there are more than 400 such streams available to follow. Some examples include Primetime NFL, College Football Showdowns, Movie Releases, TV Premieres, Formula One, PGA Tour, NASCAR TrackPass and U.S. Holidays. When you follow a stream, its events are automatically synced with your iPhone calendar.

While the app works as advertised, I did experience a few technical glitches. UpTo crashed a couple of times. And on two occasions when I tried to follow the U.S. Holidays stream, the app froze. Those issues aside, the app’s Facebook connection was of little use to me, as none of my friends use UpTo. The app makes it easy to invite them to use it, however.

UpTo isn’t the only social- or shared-calendar app option for consumers. Others include Skedj for iOS, which as of this writing will be available “very soon;” Cozi Family Organizer (free, for iOS and Android), which lets you maintain a shared family calendar, as well as shopping and to-do lists; and Business Calendar ($5 for Android), one of many apps that syncs with Google Calendar, which lets you share calendars with other users.

All told, UpTo is worth a download—especially if you don’t want to miss the next NASCAR extravaganza.