Top Black Friday apps for iOS

Get the best deals on Black Friday with these iOS apps that are perfect for braving the biggest shopping day of the year.

Black Friday Survival Guide

This simple app shows you the latest deals from major stores so you can map out your shopping attack plan. Rather than flipping through circulars, this app has all the deals listed out for you, and you can save the best deals to a favorites list so you can refer back to it when you're out in the trenches on Black Friday.

The app has just four buttons across the bottom for navigation. The News button gives you up-to-the-minute deal announcements. The Stores button lists out all the stores with deals, and touching a store breaks down the discounted items into Doorbusters (deals that people will physically line up for) and online (deals you can get simply by shopping at the store's Web site). A Categories button breaks down the deals into common categories -- great if you know the item you want and don't want to sift through all the deals. Finally, a Shopping List button shows your favorite deals you have already selected, so you can use this list as your main page if you decide to hit the stores.

Zappos Mobile

The online store that got famous for shoes (and fantastic service) is not just for shoes anymore. So if you want to avoid the crowds and inevitable traffic, Zappos has one of the most intuitive shopping apps available.

The easy-to-understand interface lets you drill down through categories, like shoes, clothing, housewares and more. Then you can swipe to scroll through items to narrow your search.

When you touch an item, you get a product page where you can choose colors and sizes, read the details, and read reviews. But the best part is the way Zappos handles previewing the item, with a swipeable image at the top that shows all sides of the product to help you decide if you want it.

Shop Savvy

Though there are many bar code scanners in the App Store, Shop Savvy offers fast scanning and unique added features to make it a handy shopping companion on Black Friday. Shop Savvy lets you use your iPhone camera to "scan" a bar code, then view the item and prices from various locations, and you can scan QR codes at the touch of a button. The interface is set up to be as simple as possible, but it offers nice touches such as the ability to initiate a scan by swiping upward on the product display screen.

After a bar code scan, you're presented with an image of the item and given places to shop for it online or at nearby stores (Shop Savvy uses your GPS location), online reviews of the product, and the ability to share your findings via e-mail, Twitter, or Facebook. You also can categorize your items in lists that are neatly arranged in folders you create. -Cnet