iPhone Apps Help Ease Black Friday Shopping

Apple iPhone developers have recently released several iPhone apps designed to make it easier for shoppers to get into and out of the shopping malls. And while some of those apps can be used any time, others are specific to Black Friday.

With over 100,000 iPhone apps already available, the ability to download Black Friday brick-and-mortar shopping aids is no surprise.

For instance, the Web site AppCraver.com has a list of eight iPhone apps suitable for the Black Friday shopping season.

These include a couple of free apps from companies such as FatWallet.com and the TGI Black Friday collaboration app by TGIBlackFriday.com and DealCatcher.com to find Black Friday ads, coupon, and discounts.

Another free app, Nearest, lets iPhone users find the closest gas stations and coffee houses while shopping.

AppCraver also pointed out several iPhone apps useful for Black Friday shopping and priced at 99 cents, including Park'n Find, which uses a GPS to show shoppers where their car is parked; Black Friday Wish, which allows users to build a wish list and then looks at different stores to find the best deals; and inoDeals, which compiles a searchable list of deals from multiple sites.

For $2.99, AppCraver wrote, shoppers can download Mall Maps, with detailed floor plans for over 1,000 shopping centers across the U.S., and Gas Buddy, which finds the lowest-cost gasoline in an area.

Meanwhile, the Web site BargainBriana.com has some other Black Friday shopping iPhone app suggestions.

These include, in addition to TGI Black Friday, such free apps as $ Checkout, which allows users to calculate the cost of a trip to the store by figuring in coupons and discounts; an app from Amazon which allows one to quickly look for a discount price on an item seen in a store; and ShopSavvy, which uses the iPhone's camera to scan in an item's barcode and look for similar products elsewhere.

BargainBriana also suggests Santa's Little Helper, a 99-cent app for building gift lists, and Pocket Santa, a $2.99 app for tracking holiday spending.