12 iPhone Apps to Help You Survive Black Friday

by Nicholas Kolakowski

This app lets you keep shopping lists for multiple stores, add pricing and quantities, calculate sales tax, add phones and notes to a list, and create lists either through an auto-complete feature or else by scrolling through a built-in catalog of items.

Who has time to sit in front of their PC and shop? With the Amazon Mobile App, shoppers can scan through Amazon.coms product listings, compare prices, read reviews and make purchases. The app also allows users to snap photos of desired products and store them on both the Amazon Mobile App and Amazon.com, through a feature called Amazon Remembers.

This app presents a streamlined version of the eBay interface, letting users search, bid, view countdown timers on auctions in real time, call customer support directly and monitor sales. This app is available in English, French, Germany, Italian and Spanish.

This app for online comparison searching lets users search by product name, product number, bar code (UPC, EAN and ISBN), manufacturer, author, actor, publisher and other categories-so you can see whether that item available at Wal-Mart for $19.99 can be had at Best Buy for $17.99. The $1.99 version of the app features the bar-code scanner.

Coupon Sherpa ports coupons onto your iPhone, many of which can then be scanned in-store by displaying a bar code. Categories include everything from automotive to clothing to department stores. An in-app Google map makes locating stores an easier task.

Keep track of holiday gifts through this app, which lets users keep track of individual and total budgets for everybody on your list, note dates for holiday-related events, and even install a security PIN to prevent anyone from snooping around your iPhone and spoiling the surprise.

CardStar lets users store their card information on their iPhone; then, instead of having to carry around the actual cards, the user can present their iPhone screen with that cards bar code displayed for scanning. The apps merchant list now includes 350 companies in 19 categories.

This app lets users compare product prices, even if the products in question are in different sizes or quantities, by inputting amounts, package size and price. Its calculator can also display the percentage discount, or calculate premiums.

This app scans bar codes and then provides inventory and pricing information from a variety of real-world and online retailers. Some App Store commenters prefer RedLaser ($1.99) for ease of scanning, but ShopSavvy seems to access a good variety of stores for pricing information.

By snapping an image of any book, DVD, CD or video-game cover, this app will provide a rating for that product along with links to Google, eBay, IMDb, Barnes & Noble and Wikipedia. This app currently supports only books, DVDs, CDs and video games sold in the U.S., but it nonetheless provides enough reviews, pricing and other information to maybe make a smart buying decision.

This app allows users to calculate sale price with things such as sales tax taken into account, incorporates alternative currency symbols, and includes an up-to-date list of in-store coupons.

This app displays coupons for restaurants, stores and other services closest to your location. Users can find a store using a map, apply a filter for favorite stores, and use the coupon by showing the bar code or number on their screen to the cashier.