Fresh iPhone Apps for Nov. 8: Hello Vino update, iBeatThat, Ninja Pong, Sky Gamblers: Rise of Glory

Your iPhone can help in lots of different ways. Using today’s Fresh iPhone Apps, it can help you choose the right wine for dinner with Hello Vino, and it can help turn Facebook into a giant extreme sports competition with iBeatThat. You can read about both of them below. It can also function as a great portable gaming device, thanks to titles like Ninja Pong, a casual game in which you help bounce ninjas from one side of the screen to the other, and Sky Gamblers, a World War I flight simulator with a pretty intense online multiplayer mode.

Hello Vino – Wine Recommendations update (iPhone, iPad) Free

Get your wine recommendations instantly with Hello Vino. It’s designed to help you pair food with wine offerings so you always know what the best drink is for each occasion. You don’t need any kind of wine knowledge to use Hello Vino, the app does all the work when you input what you’re eating, allowing you to read wine reviews and even save wines for later when you find some you like.

A big update to Hello Vino makes it a whole lot more social, adding Facebook and Twitter integration that allows you to share your favorite wine discoveries with others. You can also use your iOS device’s camera to scan wine labels with the app’s new label recognition feature. It also includes reviews from other users to help you make your decisions.

iBeatThat (iPhone, iPad) Free

Like sports? Turn every sport into a competition between you and your friends with iBeatThat, an app that turns life into something of a big game of HORSE. The app lets you connect with your friends via Facebook, and then post your accomplishments in extreme sports like snowboarding or skateboarding. The idea is, your friends see what you’ve done, and then try to best you. Then they post it, you see it, and you beat them.

iBeatThat lets you record your accomplishments using your iOS device’s GPS features and its video camera. You can post your videos to YouTube and Facebook using the app, and once you start besting your buddies, you can assign first, second and third place ribbons to each. You can keep track of your titles using the app, and search through various competitions in order to see what others are doing or take part.

Ninja Pong (iPhone, iPad) $0.99

A casual game similar to classic brick breaker-type games, Ninja Pong is pretty simple. In each level, you control a platform that bridges the gap between the left side of the stage and the right. Ninjas need to jump from one side to the other, but they can’t quite make it. You need to position the platform to allow the ninjas to bounce off it and make it to the other side.

Ninja Pong comes with two modes – Arcade and Endless – and in each, your job is to bounce as many ninjas across as you can, while avoiding bombs and flaming arrows that can destroy your platform. You can also catch things like coins, which you can spend on items in the game, and grab collectibles that can increase your score even more. Game Center support also supplies online leaderboards and achievements.

Sky Gamblers: Rise of Glory (iPhone, iPad) $4.99

Your iOS devices’ internal technology does a pretty good job of turning your iPhone or iPad into a flight simulator, and Sky Gamblers: Rise of Glory takes full advantage of all those spiffy electronic gizmos. The game puts you in the pilot seat of a World War I airplane and tasks you with flying through 12 different campaign levels, using your device’s tilt and accelerometer capabilities to steer.

In addition to Sky Gamblers’ story mode, you can also create your own missions in its custom mode and even play online against other pilots in multiplayer with as many as seven other flyers. It includes 10 historically accurate planes, and also features Game Center support to give you leaderboards you can use to test your skills against other players all over the world.

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