Five Free Apps » shopping

Black Friday 2011! 5 Killer Sites to Give You a Headstart on Holiday Shopping

Brian Mongold — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:59:42 +0000

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving, and the day that kick-starts the holiday shopping season. Black Friday originally started in 1966 and has been referred to as the busiest shopping day of the year, continually cracking the top 5 sales days each year.

With Black Friday 2011 quickly approaching, it’s time to start preparing for the mega-shopping event. While many rush the stores to see which items are on sale, the sites identified below will do all the homework for you. You’ll find all the best deals, coupon codes and more in both online stores and your local stores.

Don’t wait for a newspaper or fliers to be mailed to you. Instead, keep tabs on one or more of the sites below. They’ll give you the headstart you need to find the best early Black Friday deals in both online shopping and with in-store purchases.

DealNews.com’s Black Friday

Excellent site that provides the best bargains and coupon codes. This Black Friday portion of the site brings you Black Friday ads sorted by store, category, hottest, or deals. My favorite category is “hottest,” which displays the very best individual deals, rated on a 5 star scale.

Deal Taker.com’s Black Friday Deals

Find Black Friday advertisements, Black Friday sales, coupons and all the latest deals, brought to you by DealTaker.com. They hit all your favorite sites, such as Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon, Target and many more.

Black Friday 2011 (bfads.net)

Read the latest Black Friday updates and keep up with the hot deals, ad scans, Black Friday guides and more.

Black Friday 2011 Thanksgiving Day Black Friday Ads (black-friday.net)

Check out all the Black Friday ads, create your own shopping list so you don’t forget about the deals, see which products are the most popular and surf all the latest online deals.

Black Friday GottaDeal (blackfriday.gottadeal.com)

Keep up to date on the latest store ads, sort the sales by store, sort by category or sign up to be notified when new ads from your favorite stores are posted.

What’s your favorite Black Friday site? Looking to purchase anything in particular this shopping season? I typically use DealNews.com to find the best deals, but find all the sites listed above quite useful. This year, I can’t say I’m targeting any particular product, but will be on the lookout for a good deal online. Doubt I’ll take on the crowd this year.

Lifelike Craig Transforms Craigslist Into A Feature-Rich Interactive Newspaper For iOS

Brian Mongold — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:41:48 +0000

Visiting Craigslist.org from your desktop browser is an unpleasant experience. The design and usability of the site leave much to be desired as Craigslist.org is ultimately littered with blue links that consume each and every page of the site. Navigating to your desired category requires multiple clicks and I’ve always personally avoided Craiglist, despite the quality of ad listings the site contains. Could Lifelike Craigslist change my stance on Craigslist? For the purpose of this review, I’ve chosen to use the iPad platform.

Lifelike Craig, available in the iTunes App Store for $0.99, is a universal iOS app that repackages Craigslist.org into an interactive classified newspaper. The app has a great retro look and feel, yet takes full advantage of the iOS platform with an assortment of impressive features and gestures.

Lifelike Craig completely re-imagines Craigslist, launching the app into a unique newspaper. Since downloading the app, I’ve gone from avoiding Craiglist.org to incorporating it into my go-to shopping sources using it each time I shop. Here are the primary difference-making features that I’ve found most valuable within this app.

Smart Search: Rather than clicking on multiple links to search for items in all the different surrounding cities, Lifelike lets you personalize the app by using a drop down menu to search for and save your favorite locations for quick access. In addition, auto-location mode (Goa) lets you search and browse all categories near your current location.

Personalization: Lifelike personalizes your Craigslist experience, while greatly enhancing your search for listings. In addition to using the Goa feature (mentioned above), saving searches and adding ads to your favorites can save you a significant amount of time. You can also increase or decrease the font size.

Gestures: perhaps the coolest aspect of the app is the integration of gestures. By swiping your finger in a circular motion around an ad, the add is then marked with a red circle and automatically added to your favorites. Getting rid of ads is just as simple. By swiping your finger in Z, the ad will be appear blacked out.

In-ad Features: By clicking on an add, you’ll find many useful features. You can reply to an ad without even leaving the app, share the ad via Facebook, Twitter or email, map the location of the poster, save the ad to your favorites or even flag the ad.

10-Image Gallery: A recent update has provided the ability to add up to 10 high resolution images to a listing. Tap on an image to view all the images in a gallery view.

Filtering: the drop down menus are fully integrated throughout the app, letting you quickly access and filter only the content you want to browse.

The countless features, overall experience and very affordable $0.99 of this universal app makes it a must-have. While I typically point out all the negative aspects of each app I review, I struggled to find much that I didn’t like. Lifelike’s Craiglist app will keep you coming back for more. In addition to being great on the iPad, it’s equally as nice on the iPhone. Check out the demo video that highlights the app on an iPhone.

Optimize Your Business With These Free BlackBerry Apps

Brian Mongold — Sun, 01 May 2011 22:30:55 +0000

When it comes to business apps, BlackBerry performs well in this category. Whether it’s apps that help you manage your business better or those that help the performance of your device, the apps below can greatly enhance your everyday lives.

Unlock App For BlackBerry, which has a patent pending, is the app BlackBerry business users have been waiting for. Run your business from your device. It’s intended for mobile phone distributors, show owners, website and eBay sellers and the like. The invitation ID is “appworld” and you’ll find instructions and more information in the app link.

Contaxx uses vCard technology to create a digital business card and exchange the information electronically. It takes one click to send your contact information to another mobile user’s phonebook. It works from your BlackBerry to any smartphone, Mac or PC.

Role Call Reminders Lite lets you create tasks from an email with just one click. It works with both Outlook and Gmail and displays tasks in your BlackBerry Tasks Application and other task applications that sync with your device. To use this app, you’ll want to ensure BlackBerry Task Application is already loaded.

Nice Office lets you manage your email, calendar, contacts and tasks. You can store forms and documents online and send them to others.With this app, you can get detailed reporting and tracking of transactions and calls and create custom fields. The app is free, but will cost you $9.95 per month for an account. The first 30 days are free.

Memory Booster is one of the most useful BlackBerry apps. The app works by optimizing your device and reclaiming your memory that’s being unused.

What do you think of the apps mentioned above? Did I miss any apps that deserve to be mentioned? Let me know your thoughts.

iPad One Year Later: Five Amazingly Free iPad Apps That Keep Me Coming Back For More

Brian Mongold — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 16:05:52 +0000

I’ve officially had the iPad for one year and have used it more than I’d care to admit. Prior to me purchasing the device, I planned to primarily use it for organization, reading and watching movies. However, my habits have been changed from my personal preferences and the apps I use.

In the last year, I’ve downloaded and tried over 300 apps (probably more). I’ve been very fond of several apps, but just never used them for some reason. However, there have been a select few that I use every single day. Rather than racking and stacking the apps I believe are the best, I wanted to highlight the apps I use just about every day.

Zite (free on the iTunes App Store) creates a personalized magazine and gets smarter the more you use it. As you read articles, you use a simple thumbs up or thumbs down to specify whether you liked or disliked the article and tell Zite whether you want to see more articles from the author, source, tag, etc. To better personalize Zite, you’ll be able to choose tags that match your interests (i.e, Gadgets, Entertainment, Music) and sync your Twitter and Google Reader account.

As one representative from Zite told me, the technology monitors a bunch of signals on the web to tell if an article is trending–tweeting, tagging, commenting, liking, etc. There is no human curated content or direct human intervention. I love Zite and it’s now my primary source of news. I like that it provides a variety of sources in the topics that interest me. I’ve found quite a few new sites that I love from Zite. Content looks clean and transitioning through different articles is fast and seemless. Zite is kinda like Pandora for your news.

HootSuite (free on iTunes App Store) combines accounts and pages from the big social media giants Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. You can personalize your control panel with feeds, keywords, hashtags and what you want to see in the order you specify. Update all your accounts with one message, schedule Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare updates and even track your click statistics.

I used to use the official Twitter app for my Twitter needs, but Hootsuite is a perfect all-in-one social solution for me. It looks great, is loaded with features and lets me setup columns I want to see. The ability to track your click stats is also quite useful.

Evernote (free on iTunes App Store) is an app that helps you remember anything and everything with its note taking functionality. You can create text, photo and audio notes and save them in your Evernote for later use. Evernote provides auto-synchronize so you can take your notes anywhere with you whether you have an iPad, iPhone, Android or just want to view your notes from your PC or Mac.

I currently have over 100 notes stored in this awesome app. The search feature lets me quickly find my notes without needing to remember where I placed them. I use Evernote for quick access to information such as ideas for projects, model numbers information about appliances, vehicle information (i.e, VIN number), birth dates and so much more.

DropBox (free on iTunes App Store) lets you wirelessly sync and share files to your smartphone, iPad and computer. Save photos, videos and files and view them in your Dropbox. Send a file to a friend by using a public link. Once the individual opens the link, the file will start downloading. Since the Dropbox basic plan offers 2GB of free storage at anytime, it’s a great way to send large files to friends.

DropBox is amazing! It’s the easiest free way I’ve found to send pictures from your iPad to your PC or smartphone. In fact, for this post I captured screencaps on my iPad, then sent them to my PC using DropBox. I’ve also used the app to send a file that was almost 1GB to a friend. If you want the best option to send a large selection of photos to your computer or smartphones, check out PhotoSync ($1.99 on the iTunes App Store).

Pulse (free on iTunes App Store) like Zite is an amazing app to catch all your news without the need of using your browser. With Pulse, you add sources (up to 60) for all your favorite websites. Pulse turns your sources into a colorful and interactive mosaic. You can even add Facebook and Twitter feeds and it integrates with Google Reader for a quick way to add your favorite RSS feeds.

I use Zite for news and articles and Pulse to keep tabs on latest content from my favorite sites. Pulse looks great and offers either the clean and elegant Pulse view or web view. You can share articles you like via Facebook, Twitter, email or Instapaper. I also like that Pulse uses Offline sync, which can be very valuable when a WiFi connection isn’t available.

Other Free Favorites

USAA (free on the iTunes Store) is an almost perfect app if you bank with or use any USAA services.

AppStart (free on the iTunes Store) is a pretty amazing app by AppAdvice that provides all the best iPad tips and tricks and some awesome lists to find the best apps.

Flipboard (free on the iTunes Store) is a nice alternative to Zite and Pulse. It was named the app of the year by Apple.

Windowshop (free on the iTunes Store) is Amazon’s native iPad app that is extremely useful if you don’t know what to buy for someone. I shop from Windowshop more than any other site or app.

AppShopper (free on the iTunes Store) is the tool I use to find all the newest apps, price drops, what’s popular, etc. AppShopper is any reviewer’s go-to app.

Did I miss any of your favorite apps? Surprisingly, I use the apps above more than iBooks, Pandora, Netflix and all the apps I thought I’d get more use from.

10 Popular iPad Games on Sale for a Jaw Dropping 99 Cents

Brian Mongold — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 16:38:23 +0000

What does $10 buy you these days? How about 10 popular iPad Games that just a week or so ago would cost you $86. If you bought the iPad for someone as a gift, you’ve already spent $500 or more. A perfect compliment to the device is an iTunes Gift Card or Gifted Apps.

These App Store sales are mind blowing! A visit to the App Store during this sale feels a bit like a late Black Friday or Cyber Monday. EA originally kicked off sales of up to 90% off 70 titles for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Now, a few other game developers are following suit. However, these sales are only for a limited time, so start Gifting some great Apps or get your iTunes Gift Cards ready.

Each of the apps below are only $0.99 during the sale.

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit $0.99 (was $9.99) 4 Stars, 249 ratings

This game has great visual effects and graphics, precision controls with your vehicle and pure racing fun. You can challenge a friend or go head-to-head with a Cop vs. Racer showdown using local Wifi.

SCRABBLE for iPad $0.99 (was $9.99) 3.5 Stars, 879 ratings

SCRABBLE lets you play up to 25 multiplayer games at one time, features HD graphics, Party Play Mode with up to four friends and the ability to connect and play with your Facebook friends. Play up to 25 Multiplayer Games at a time. You can play in both portrait and landscape mode.

SimCity Deluxe $0.99 (was $6.99) 3.5 Stars, 219 ratings

This classic game puts you in charge as a Mayor and City Planner and your job is to build and manage your dream city. SimCity Deluxe offers great visuals, HD graphics, realistic animations and great fun. You get up to 7 scenarios, 41 renowned landmarks and several natural disasters that will threaten your city.

MADDEN NFL 11 $0.99 (was $12.99) 3.5 Stars, 92 ratings

Madden has been recreated for the iPad and it’s ridiculously fun. The graphics are HD quality, the game has authentic stadiums with all the detail and offers head-to-head play, Vintage Voltage, Season and Playoff mode and of course all the stats and lets you make trades. Game features include Total Defensive Control, GameFlow and Hot Routes.

TETRIS for iPad $0.99 (was $7.99) 3 Stars, 259 ratings

TETRIS brings HD graphics, intuitive controls and some exclusive features to the iPad. The game include a D-Pad for maximum control, an endless Marathon Mode, Magic Mode and the original TETRIS music. Magic Mode features five power ups in Wrecking Ball, Minimizer, Bubble Wrap, Magic Crayon and Smashdown. You can track your stats and listen to your iTunes music while playing.

Need for Speed Shift for iPad $0.99 (was $9.99) 4.5 Stars, 43 ratings

Need for Speed Shift gives you a in-car cockpit point of view and a first person crash dynamic. You’ll get 28 cars, which include 8 iPad exclusive cars and 18 tracks. The game offers physics-based accelerations, responsive manual controls and much more. You can track your progress with Driver Profile, play in Career Mode, upgrade and customize your cards and race against your friends with local Wifi.

Mirror’s Edge for iPad $0.99 (was $9.99) 4.5 Stars, 27 ratings

Mirror’s Edge offers some amazing visuals, face-to-face with split screen, multiplayer action and iPad optimized race environments. You play as Faith Connors, an underground Runner, who must stop a deadly threat in a “perfect society” full of sinister surveillance. The game provides 14 levels of racing fun.

Reckless Racing HD $0.99 (was $4.99) 4.5 Stars, 65 ratings

Reckless Racing offers up to 16 tracks and 3 different modes of top-down racing fun. The graphics are HD quality and the ability to custom paint your vehicles. You can take on characters such as Otis, Lurlene, Cletus and Bubba.

Pictureka! for iPad $0.99 (was $4.99) 4 Stars, 95 ratings

This game is a bit different from the others. With Pictureka!, you quickly find and tap hidden objects in pictures with crayons. Based on the original board game, Pictureka! gives you an adventure mode on 5 islands, pass ‘n’ play with up to 3 other friends.

Tower Madness HD $0.99 (was $7.99) 4.5 Stars, 66 ratings

This 3D tower defense strategy game has been redesigned for the iPad. It includes split-screen multiplayer, a campaign progression system and 39 maps in diverse environments. You’ll battle against 17 different alien enemies with up to 14 weapons.

Cyber Monday 2010! Best Sites to Find the Top Deals Online

Brian Mongold — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 00:24:43 +0000

With the craziness of Black Friday now behind us, it’s time for Cyber Monday to kick off a new round of discounts. I’ll take Cyber Monday any day over Black Friday. The deals are comparable and the pain is much less severe, since you can skip the crowds and the chaos that follows. On Monday, you’ll be able to sit back, relax and concentrate on the online deals. That’s what makes Cyber Monday so nice.

Here’s a quick rundown of the top sites that will aggregate all the online deals for you.

CyberMonday.com – Shop.org’s CyberMonday site lets you sort by All Coupons & Offers, Free Shipping Offers, Holiday Shopping or simply by just browsing all the merchants. My favorite aspect of this site is the rundown of Our Favorite Deals and the Top 10 Hottest Product Deals.

CyberMonday.net - Sort by some of the most popular categories, which include Free Shipping Deals. Skip over the Cyber Monday ads, which are really just AdSense Ads, and check out the Most Popular Sales, which list those with free shipping, money back, etc.

CouponChief.com – You can use CouponChief anytime to find some great coupons and discount codes, but they have a special section for Cyber Monday coupons as well. Users rate, review, and validate the coupons to help weed out expired and invalid coupons.

DealNews.com – Direct links to each store’s Cyber Monday deals. You can sort by price, hotness rating, etc. DealNews is still my personal go-to-site for all the best bargains, whether for Black Friday, Cyber Monday or any other day.

DealTaker.com – I love DealTaker’s Cyber Monday sales! This frequently updated site gives you the top Cyber Monday stores and my favorite section, which displays the Latest Cyber Monday deals.

FatWallet.com – This site is very valuable, as it lists all the deals that provide Coupons & Cash Back, while displaying the Best Deals. Perhaps even more useful is the deals submitted by the user forums and and Live Deal Feed, with deals posted by members, the staff and stores.

Did I miss any of your favorite sites? Will you be shopping tomorrow?

Black Friday Roundup!

Brian Mongold — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 16:37:28 +0000

Black Friday is here and there are literally thousands of deals to pick from. Not only are we amped up, but retailers are looking for profits that get them out of the red and into the black. Black Friday is arguably the biggest shopping day of the holiday season, are you participating?

If so, here’s a quick roundup of all the Black Friday sites, apps and tools you’ll need.

Black Friday Survival Kit

Black Friday Kicks Off! Store Hours, Web Tools & Apps to Shop & Save

Free iPhone Apps to Beat the Crowd and Save

Five Free Android Apps to Pwn Your Holiday Shopping

5 Killer Sites to Give You a Headstart This Holiday Season

20 Unique Shopping Sites

Want more? Five Free Apps has quite a few Black Friday posts that will show you even more ways to save. Happy shopping!

Free Black Friday iPhone Apps to Beat the Crowds & Save

Brian Mongold — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:28:11 +0000

Black Friday is one week away! Are you ready for the exciting, yet chaotic Black Friday adventure? Obviously Black Friday is still on my mind as it is on the minds of many of you. Is shopping exciting for me? No. Is finding an amazing deal on a gift for myself or others exciting? Oh yeah!

While your favorite stores rush to send off their Black Friday Sales Fliers, why not get ahead of the game? Who needs to wait for a local newspaper or sales flier to make it to your mailbox? Not this guy.

I’ve scoured the App Store, trying out more Black Friday, shopping, coupon and deal-related apps than I’d like to admit and have narrowed down the 5 best I believe will help you make the most out of Black Friday. Whether you’re planning to visit local stores or just shop online, these apps have you covered.

BlackFriday2010

This app has two browsing modes: Browse Ads and Top Deals. Within the Browse Ads section, you can view the Black Friday Ad, view listed products or visit the store website. Top Deals chooses the best deals from all the stores and lists them for you. Each listing displays a product image & info, deal specifics and active dates. I was able to find a Refurbished 16GB WiFi iPad for $449, magazine subscriptions for $4 and more.

Shopkick

This app is a bit different from the rest as it makes shopping fun and rewarding. It uses your location to find deals closest to you. As deals are displayed, you can go to the store and display the discount code on your phone to the cashier. I saw a $25 off $100 coupon, accessed the deal, then received the coupon code to show the cashier while being leveled up in the process. In addition to finding the great deals, you can collect rewards, such as gift cards, just for walking into a store, scanning a product or checking in.

TGI BlackFriday

TGI Black Friday shows you two different views in Popular Deals and Newest Ads. You can then sort by store, category or even search for a product. My favorite feature of this app is the ability to quickly view the different deals and either email it to yourself or add it to My List. As you’re browsing, keep a running list of all the best deals that interest you and reference the list anytime from the app.

BlackFriday powered by DealNews

Ahh, my favorite money savings store had to be included in the listing. Just like DealNews.com, this app rocks! The different views consist of Stores, Categories, Search, Deals and My List. Within the Stores view, you get all the stores listed alphabetically with the number of ads for each. My aspect of the app is the Deals, which display all the newest deals and Hottness rating. If you see a deal you like, click save and it’s added to My List.

Groupon

This app isn’t Black Friday specific, but the amount of money you can save made it worthy of the listing. Groupon currently is available in 70 cities and offers one or more deals each day, depending upon merchants in the city. Deals offered are typically pretty significant, with as much as 50% or more off products, entertainment and more. Within the app, you can quickly see the deals closest to you, view any related discussion and purchase from the app. You then redeem them by simply showing the cashier your phone.

What’s your favorite iPhone or iPod Touch App you’ll be using this holiday season? Did I miss any of your favorites? Let me know what you think.

Poll Results: What do you want for Christmas? XBox Kinect Top Choice

Brian Mongold — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 19:05:59 +0000

With the holiday season approaching, I wanted to know which techy gadget you had on your wish-list. The voting was extremely close this week as the XBox Kinect narrowly bested the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Finishing a distant third was the iPad. Of course, this is only a small sample size and many of the readers of Five Free Apps already have their own iPad, but the results are still very interesting.

What Do You Want For Christmas?

Approximately 32% of respondents or 1 of 3 of you would love to have a XBox Kinect under your tree. Finishing a close second was the Samsung Galaxy Tab which surprised me with 27% want to get your hands on.

After the Kinect and the Samsung Galaxy, there was definitely a drop off. The iPad received 14% of the votes and the Playstation Move garnered 9% of the votes. The iPhone 4 and Kindle tied at 5% and the iPod didn’t receive any votes. Perhaps that’s due to some of the other high end devices being choices. Write-in votes included the Desire HD and the Super Mario Brothers Galaxy 2 game.

Now that last week’s poll is closed, I wanted to ask you a question that’s surely been on my mind. With cable and satellite bills being less affordable and so many free and cheaper options available, I wanted to get your take on the best solution available to potentially replace your $120 or so monthly bill. I don’t currently see an all-in-one replacement, but wanted to get your take. Please do voice your opinion and vote below.

This Week’s Poll: What’s the Best Cable/Satellite TV Alternative?

[polldaddy poll="4084019"]

5 Free Android Apps to Pwn Your Holiday Shopping

Brian Mongold — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 01:29:41 +0000

If you’re like me, you aren’t the most prepared shopper. I’m not a coupon clipper, an early bird or one who typically plans in advance. Give me an opportunity to just shop online, rather than visit the store, and I’m already surfing the net. Well, the good news for Android users is that this holiday season doesn’t have to be like the others. Today, I wanted to give you five useful apps that will inform you on all the deals, let you be prepared with your shopping list, quickly calculate discounts, price shop and even give you electronic discounts at your finger tips. Happy Shopping!

TGI Black Friday

5 Stars, 5 ratings, 5k to 1k downloads, Download

Though it’s a brand new app on the market, TGI Black Friday looks promising and will come in quite handy for Black Friday. It shows you all the early Black Friday ads for the major retail stores, gives you a way to make your own personalized shopping list and email it, price comparison and downloadable PDF ad scans.

OI Shopping List

4.42 Stars, 7k ratings, >250k downloads, Download

If you’re going shopping, you need to have an app for your shopping list. What I like about the OI Shopping List is that you can keep track of your shopping items with both quantity and price, while using checklists and shopping to-do lists. A good alternative to OI Shopping List is Evernote.

Discount Calculator

4.40 Stars, 2k ratings, >250k downloads, Download

This simple app is exactly what’s in the name. Within all the Black Friday ads, you’ll see countless discounts represented by percentage. Rather than working math problems, this app will let you focus on shopping and do the calculations for you. You’ll quickly see how much you’ll save for the sales items, along with what the final price will be.

ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner

4.37 Stars, 50k ratings, >250k downloads, Download

ShopSaavy is a handy tool to have when you’re in-store shopping. You just launch the app, then aim your camera at any barcode. Once it beeps, you’ll get a list of all the prices for that same product online and in your local stores. This can save you some big bucks this holiday season.

The Coupons App

4.68 Stars, 49k ratings, >250k downloads, Download

Of course your shopping experience wouldn’t be the same without coupons. Who wants to clip out and carry around coupons though? This app requires no scissors and does all the work for you. The widget provides real-time coupons for your favorite stores, restaurants, etc. You can use the barcode scanner to price match, share your coupons via email/Facebook/Twitter, save your coupon and even use the voice search to find the coupon you’re looking for. All you do is show the cashier the coupon on your phone when you check out.

What’s your favorite shopping apps for the Android? If I missed any of your favorites, tell me about it.

Veteran’s Day 2010 Discounts & Freebies for Military Vets

Brian Mongold — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 01:54:37 +0000

Restaurant Freebies

Applebee’s Restaurant – Free dinners to veterans throughout Veterans Day November 11th; selections will be from a new Veterans Day menu.

Outback Steakhouse – Free Blooming Onion and beverage.

Golden Corral (16 Nov 10) – Free buffet dinner from 5-9 p.m. to anyone who has ever served in the U.S. military Staff.

Subway (11 Nov 10) is showing its thanks with free six inch subs to all Veterans or Active Duty members.

McCormick & Schmick’s (7 Nov 10) will offer a free entree to military veterans for its 12th annual Veteran’s Appreciation Event. Menu picks include such seafood items as parmesan crusted tilapia, roasted cedar plank salmon and almond crusted rainbow trout.

Krispy Kreme – One free doughnut of any variety.

UNO Chicago Grill- Free entree or individual pizza with an entree or pizza purchase of equal or greater value.

Coushatta Casino Resort – The Louisiana casino and resort is offering a free seven-clans lunch or dinner buffet to veterans or active military. MarketPlace Grill & Express – Veterans and active-duty military receive free entrees.

Masala Wok - The Northern Virginian restaurant is offering a free entree to veterans.

Hy-Vee supermarkets – The mid-western supermarket chain is offering a free breakfast to veterans.

Abuelo’s Mexican Food Restaurants – All veterans and active-duty military receive a free entree.

Carolina Burgers & BBQ – In Matthews, NC is offering a free meal to all service members and veterans.

Retail Stores

Brides Across America – Provides free wedding gowns to qualified military brides.

Lowe’s & Home Depot – Extra 10% off to active-duty military members, National Guard and reserve members, retirees, honorably discharged veterans and immediate family members.

Sam’s Club – Over 25,000 Hugo canes will be given away to U.S. veterans in need of mobility assistance. Membership is not required, but supplies are limited, so check with your local store.

Amazon.com – Free “Veterans Day Honor” MP3 album download. The album includes 12 songs by The Bands and Ensembles of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Cabela’s Outdoor Store - Offers their employee discount to all veterans, active-duty military and reserves, law enforcement, fire and EMS personnel Nov. 11-12. Discounts vary from 5% to 50%, depending on the item.

Build-a-Bear Workshop - Members of the armed services including the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Reserve Officer Training Corps, will receive a 20% discount Nov. 11-15 on any one transaction at Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Dollar General – 10% discount for all veterans, active-duty military, National Guard and reserve and their immediate families.

Fashion Bug – 20% off all plus-size and misses clothing purchases with a copy of military ID or spouse’s military ID.

Entertainment

JAGS/TEXANS Military Appreciation Game on 14 November.They are selling tickets to all military (active/retired/reservists/guard/vets) and their family members for this game. Tickets are 10.00 a piece and includes a pass to a Military Appreciation Tailgate Party sponsored by Winn-Dixie, Pepsi, Sonny BBQ, Bubba Burgers, Moe’s Southwest Grill. Call 904-542-3028 or email Ms. Jean Endsley at jendsley@usojax.com for more info.

National parks, forests and monuments – Admission is free to everyone on Veterans Day.

Knott’s Berry Farm – Free park admission to U.S. armed forces personnel and a guest during Veteran’s Month, November 1-26.

Colonial Williamsburg – Free admission Nov. 6-11 for active-duty military, guard and reservists, retirees, veterans and their dependents.

San Jacinto Museum of History – Free visits to the Observation Deck, theatre, and special exhibit for veterans, active duty military personnel, and their families.

Historic Jamestown – Free admission to veterans, current Armed Forces members and their family members.

Battleship Cove – Free admission and a special ceremony for veterans, active, duty and reservists.

Vicksburg National Military Park – Free admission for all.

Birmingham Museum of Art – Free admission to the ticketed event “Life and Liberty ” on Nov. 10-11 for veterans and active military.

Vulcan Park and Museum- In Birmingham, Alabama is offering discounted admission through November to the park and museum.

Greenbay (WI) New Zoo – Free admission to veterans and their families.

Central Florida Zoo – Free admission to the Sanford , Florida zoo with proper ID.

Strategic Air & Space Museum- Free admission for veterans Nov. 11-14 to the Ashland , Neb. museum.

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum – in Oklahoma City offers free admission to veterans and five guests from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Veterans Day.

Natural Elements Spa & Salon – In Chesapeake , Virginia , will provide free services from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to both active duty and retired military

Anytime Offers

All the following businesses offer military discounts if you ask.

Restaurants Arby’s, A&W, Back Yard Burgers, Burger King, Captain D’s, Chick-Fil-A, Cotton Patch, Denny’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Farmers Boy, IHOP (20 percent discount with military identification), Java Cafe, KFC, Long John Silver, Pancho’s Mexican Buffet, Pizza Hut, Quizno’s, Sizzler, Sonic, Taco Bell, Whataburger

Services AT&T, California Cryobank, Geico, Jiffy Lube, Meineke, Sears, Portrait Studio

Travel and Leisure Blockbuster, Movie theaters, Ripley’s attractions and museums, Professional Sports teams

Products Apple Computers, AutoZone, Barnhill’s, Bass Pro Shop, Bath and Body Works, Big 10 Tires, The Buckle, Champs Sports, Copeland’s Sports, Dell, The Discovery Channel Store, Dress Barn, The Finish Line, Foot Action, Footlocker, Gadzooks, GNC, Goody’s, Great Party, Happy Harry’s, Home Depot, Hot Topic, Jockey, Lerner, Lowes, Michael’s, NAPA Auto Parts, New York & Company, Pac Sun, Payless Shoes, Play It Again Sports, Pure Beauty, Sally Beauty Supply, Spencer’s Gifts, Suncoast, Timberland Outlets, Wilson ‘s Leather

Cell Phone Service Discount – All Federal employees are able to get a 15% discount on their personal cell phones by calling their carrier and mentioning the “Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 – Discount to Federal Employees Past and Present.” You will need to know the military member’s supervisor’s name, phone number, and full address, so that his/her military status can be verified. Use the following contact numbers: Cingular – 800-319-6393 Sprint – 877-812-1223 T-Mobile – 866-646-4688 Nextel – 800-639-6111 Verizon – 800-865-1825 [Source: VA Frederick Service Office Maryland VSO

Select Comfort, maker of the Sleep Number bed, are offering a free travel pillow to any active or retired military member with valid ID who comes into one of the Sleep Number stores to find their Sleep Number setting between October 31 and November 14. They’re also offering $750 off the Queen or King size Sleep Number i8 bed sets, free standard delivery, and 30 percent off select bedding solutions.

5 Firefox Add-ons to Find Deals, Get Coupon Codes & Comparison Shop

Brian Mongold — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:23:34 +0000

Are you a online shopper looking to save some cash? While many still prefer to visit stores, I’ll save my time and money and find my stuff online. In many cases, you can find a cheaper sticker price along with coupon codes and in some cases free shipping. Bottom line, effective online shopping is the way to go. Take a look at these five free Firefox Add-ons below that’ll help you shop effectively and efficiently.

Ookong – Never Miss a Deal on Amazon

5 Stars, 12 reviews, 1500 weekly downloads

Ookong is a Firefox Add-on that helps you better track items you’re looking to purchase on Amazon. The extension allows you to view the price history for any given product, track the changes in price and best of all notify you when the price drops. All the items you want to track can be saved in the built-in “Following” list within Ookong. This handy tool can save you some big bucks with the price-drop notifications and the ability to take a look at the price trends.

Offer Assistant

4 Stars, 33 reviews, 10k weekly downloads

Discounts, coupons and rewards is what Offer Assistant brings you. By using search results from Google, Bing and Yahoo, Offer Assistant helps you get the best bang for your buck from over 1500 retailers. You can customize and prioritize your shopping experience. When you conduct your searches, you’ll find icons specifying discounts that are available. The add-on also helps you by reminding you about coupon codes that apply during checkout.

Priceblink

5 Stars, 22 reviews, 1200 weekly downloads

Priceblink helps you save money by providing price comparisons, searching through 3000 shops for the lowest prices. When you search for your products, you’ll also see price comparisons and shipping costs along with coupons, shipping codes and the always useful user ratings.

Windowshopper – Automatic Price Comparison Add-on for Firefox

4 Stars, 23 ratings, 27k weekly downloads

Windowshopper is ideal for comparing prices. The tool works with 2100 online retailers in US Online Stores.If a deal is available for the product you search for, the deal will be displayed. If not, they show you similar products that are bargains. Save any product to your Faves by clicking the Fave tab.

foxydeal

4 Stars, 8 reviews, 700 weekly downloads

As you search for stuff to buy, foxydeal will let you know when you can get it cheaper from another retailer. foxydeal sorts through 3200 stores in six countries to include the US, UK, Australia, Germany, France and Italy. Coupon codes are available for more than 5000 stores in the US, UK and Germany. foxydeal plan to also feature Sweden, Denmark, Brazil and Canada in a future version release.