Tech Review: Black Friday apps help with holiday shopping

Black Friday is becoming Black Five-Day, as some stores roll out a week of sales beginning Monday. These apps can help you target the weeklong deals and the daily doorbusters. Many of the apps are similarly named, but since all are free, you can download them all and use the ones that best suit your needs.

TGI Black Friday 2014

(iOS, Android; free)

Updated and redesigned for 2014, TGI Black Friday helps you plan before you head out to the malls with the goal of adding some orderliness amid the frenzy. You can view Black Friday ads from major retailers and compare prices. If you are a soldier in an army of family shoppers, you can continually email your lists so everyone doesn't come home with the same gifts.

Black Friday 2014

(iOS, Android; free)

This app from the popular consumer shopping site DealNews lets you create a Black Friday list from ads of major retailers. It offers easy access to deal news.com, the company's website that offers tips not only on good bargains but on deals to avoid. Its list of "hottest deals" is updated frequently, especially during the week leading up to Black Friday.

Black Friday Deal Finder

(iOS, Android; free)

An adjunct to the shopping website fatwallet.com, this app is well designed, making it easy to sift through the reams of ads that can be overwhelming. While the app is useful in stores, the company's goal is for you to use its free FatWallet Checkout system to purchase your gifts either through the app or on the website. For iOS devices, the app is simply named Black Friday.

Ebates

(iOS, Android; free)

While not a specific Black Friday app, Ebates can help turn some of your holiday gift purchases into cash for you. When you buy items at the more than 1,700 stores that participate in Ebates, you can receive rebates of up to 25 percent of your purchase price. Its value as a Black Friday app is you can locate stores that have good deals and participate in the cash-back program.

Tech bytes

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