Gadgetory

welcome to tap that app i'm jason parker and this is the show where we cover the hottest apps in the mobile space the gift-giving season is here and if you're like me and want to avoid the shopping rush the traffic and the crowds i have the perfect trifecta of big store shopping apps for you to find the cream of the crop i looked at a bunch of shopping apps for major stores like Nordstrom target Zappos and Walmart and then narrowed it down to my three favorites these apps are the easiest to use and make it a snap to comparison shop and get exactly what you're looking for to get started the Sears app for iPad lays out shopping categories on a continuous scrolling page everything from appliances and clothing to beauty products and toys can be found by browsing the main page but if you want to search for something hit the products button in the upper left here you'll find a list of categories and a search box to enter exactly what you want we'll search for Craftsman tools the sears app gives you a big list of search results and by touching an item you get a bigger image of the product the list price a description of the item and options for adding it to your shopping list or even sharing it on social sites what makes this app great is how quickly you can navigate through the catalog and the well design layout makes it easy to shop on your iPad like all the apps I'm talking about today the Sears app is free next step no shopping app list would be complete without the Amazon mobile app rather than setting up its catalog and categories like sears the amazon app gives you featured or sale items on the home page but relies on the search box for getting around its inventory we'll try searching for blu-ray player as that is a popular item this season as you can see the amazon app lists all the blu-ray players on the left with the lowest prices listed and shows the star reviews for each product tapping a product brings it up in the right side window the product page indicates if it's currently available and lets you perform tasks like adding it to your wish list buying it immediately or sifting through prices at various locations on the bottom the apple a's out detailed specs customer reviews and similar items that are easy to navigate with of your finger if you have an amazon account you can sign in and view current deals recommended items your wish list and more just like the website amazon is also a free app and is a fantastic resource for holiday shopping and comparing prices between stores my third apps today doesn't have the variety of the first two but offers a layout that might be the best of the bunch Zappos was initially known for shoes and that hasn't changed but they have a few categories to look through that will be useful this holiday season to show how smartly the app is designed we'll try searching for men's clothing the app displays categories with big pictures so they're easy to see on the iPad going to the jackets and coats section you'll notice that they're listed with big pictures so it's easy to browse through different styles can swipe to look through all the selections or tap a coat to go to the product page not only does it display a giant picture of the product you can swipe to see more views or change the color and app responds instantaneously the right side shows pricing and size selections and you can quickly look at product details browse through reviews or read about the brand in more detail you also can sign in to your account and add items to favorites or share items on Twitter via SMS to a friend or through email as you can see even though the free Zappos app doesn't have the variety of products the other two have the shopping experience might be the best of the group on the iPad that's all we have time for today but if you want a much more relaxing shopping experience this holiday season i recommend you tap any of these big storage shopping apps that's it for this week's show if you have any suggestions send them to tap that app at cnet com i'm jason parker and we'll see you next time you