Every year Black Friday gets bigger, busier, and bolder. Companies slash their prices, and we all flock to stores on the biggest shopping holiday of the year, sometimes sleeping outside just to get the best deals. But, what if shopping for Black Friday was a little bit easier, and less chaotic?

We put together a round up of Black Friday apps that might make the shopping day a little bit easier, and get you organized ahead of time. This year, many stores opted to have pre-Black Friday sales, and they posted some of their sales online. Most of these are found in the iOS app store, but they’re available in the Google Play store as well! Try them at your leisure, and let us know how they roll.

And don’t forget: even though ScreenTek doesn’t have a fancy app, we’re still having a great Black Friday Sale this year! Check our Facebook, and Twitter for our Black Friday deals, and shop away!

Apps:

Black Friday App
Foursquare (sometimes there are Black Friday perks for check-ins!
Nextag Shopping
SnapTell
Shopkick

Stores:
Target
Macy’s
Sears
Wal-Mart

 

 

New tech comes out every day, just look at this week: A possibly new Nexus tablet, along with Apple’s coveted iPad mini, (don’t forget all of the other stuff that came out at the Keynote) but what the heck do you do with the old gadgets you’ve got? You first instinct (if you decide not to give it away) would be just to throw it in the trash right? You’ve got no use for it anymore, so what else could you do with it if it’s not worth keeping around? You’d be wrong if you decided to throw it out. According to the EPA , recycling one million laptops saves the energy equivalent to the electricity used by more than 3,500 US homes in one year. In addition, for every million cell phones we recycle 35,000 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered. Don’t forget about the plastic materials that go into phones, tablets, and computers – that can all be recycled too. There are tons of companies that take part in mobile device recycling programs. Among them are: Apple Best Buy, Dell, LG, and Panasonic just to name a few. There are also tons of local organizations that specialize in electronic recycling; search your city for those – they may be closer to you than you think. Lastly, is there anything you should do before you donate, or recycle your electronics? The EPA suggests that you consider upgrading your hardware, and software instead of buying a brand new product if your products aren’t so far gone. You can usually supercharge your computer before it’s necessary to get a new one – upgrade the hard drive, the operating system, and add additional memory and RAM to beef up your gear. You should also wipe your hard drive so that you’re not dealing with a breach of your personal information later. Lastly, take out the batteries. Batteries usually need to be recycled separately. Recycling is good for everyone– it reuses materials that would otherwise need to be re-sourced , but it also gives our gadgets the opportunity to live on, even after we’ve decided that we don’t want them anymore. The process has been made much easier, and “e-cycling” centers are now widely available in most states. Need some other sources on how to recycle your tech, visit these links:

  The EPA’s guide to eCycling! http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/ecycling/index.htm http://electronicrecyclers.com/ (In California, Colorado, Washington, Texas, Indiana, North Carolina, and Massachusetts) A pretty cool recycling app http://1800recycling.com/mobile/ State recycling guidelines – http://1800recycling.com/state-guidelines/ Best Buy’s recycling program – http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Global-Promotions/Recycling-Electronics/pcmcat149900050025.c?id=pcmcat149900050025 Apple’s recycling program – http://www.apple.com/recycling/ Dell’s recycling programs: http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/dell-environment-recycling