One for our American readers, as the country gears up for "Black Friday" and the start of the festive shopping season. Crazy deals, geared more to advertising and turnover rather than profit and bottom lines abound on this day, both online and offline, and your smartphone can help you get the best deals. Michael Stroh gives some practical advice over on the Windows Team Blog.

As well as recommended shopping apps, Stroh highights the (available to American smartphones) fun that Bing Vision search can do with barcodes:

One built-in convenience I use all the time is Bing Vision, which taps your phone’s camera to help look up product descriptions, reviews, and prices. To start, tap your phone’s Search button (magnifying glass icon) to launch Bing, then tap Vision (the little eyeball icon). Bing Vision can recognize traditional barcodes, QR codes, and Microsoft Tags— just find it on the box and hold up your camera to it for a second or two.

Four shopping apps are also listed, so head over and see if you can make best use of them on Black Friday... or beyond!

We'll also point out that Amazon are shifting their stock on Windows Phones (other platforms are available) for one cent during the Thanksgiving period. Your monthly rental isn't affected, but it's a nice little leg-up if you're ready to step on the next rung of the smartphone ladder.