KIRKSVILLE, MISSOURI -- The holidays are joyous time, full of fun; however, they can also be a hectic, stressful rat-race when you’re trying to find the perfect gift.
But, people all over the country are using smart phones to lighten their holiday-load. I visited with Kirksville’s U.S. Cellular, who was on the Consumer Reports’ Holiday “Nice” List, and they showed me some free applications that can make your holiday shopping a breeze.
Using the Samsung Galaxy Tab, he showed me a coupon app.
“We scroll through here and we find 15% off Kohl’s shopping,” said Nathan Waddell, U.S. Cellular’s Missouri Director of Sales. “So, you press on that. It'll pull up the actual coupon. You can zoom that in and you take that coupon right into the store and they scan that right off your phone. No more carrying around paper coupons, or if you forgot it or it's crumpled up and ripped; just store it right on your phone.”
Are you looking for a gift for someone, but you have no idea what to get them? There’s an app for that.
“When you open this application, you can scroll [through] and it gives you ideas of gifts for her or for him,” said Waddell. “I'm looking for something for my wife... it pulls up some different ideas. If I’m looking at, let's say a clutch wallet, I can press that... and it will bring up different variations, brands, prices and locations of that to make my shopping experience much easier.”
What about where you can find the cheapest gas to go get that gift? Yep, there’s an app for that, too.
“Casey's here is $2.70,” said Waddell, while using the Galaxy Tab. “If you press on it, it gives you a GPS indicator of where it is and it will give you directions on how to get there. So, before you even start, you can find out where the most economical fuel prices are before you even go shopping, which is always a plus for everyone.”
So, you’re standing in a store; you just found the perfect gift, but what if you can find it cheaper somewhere else? You don’t have to drive around and look.
"Is this the best price I can get?” he asked, motioning to a product. “You don't want to drive all over town. You take this [your android device], line it up with the UPC code, it scans, and then from that point... all we do is we go "Product Search." It will search on the web to tell you all the specs on this particular product, the price, and we can find the best deal while you're standing in the store.”
All of these apps can be found for free on your android device, in the Android Market Place. Just search for the app you want, and download within minutes.
If you’re interested in getting an android device, or you want to know how you can use your android device to do the things you want, you can always visit U.S. Cellular, 1902 S Baltimore St # 100, and ask.
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