APP OF THE DAY: Comet mobile app for easier electrical Christmas shopping

Technology superstore Comet has released a new mobile application, which promises to make buying electrical appliances and all kinds of tech gifts much easier this Christmas with the help of detailed specs, lots of customer reviews and even videos about many of its products.

Developed by Grapple Mobile, the app is very easy to use as the products are broken down into categories, like Kitchen & Home, Health & Beauty or Games & Consoles. You can then browse each category or just enter a search term in the bar at the top if you already know what you’re after.

Once you get to your product of choice you can read through the details, look at articles and videos about it, add it to a wishlist, read reviews, go on to share it with your social networks or just buy it.

You’re then directed to Comet’s secure website where you can go ahead and buy the product and choose whether you reserve one in your nearest branch (you can view a map of where that is if you don’t already know) or have it delivered.

One of the handiest features is the barcode scanner, which allows you to scan a product in store to find out more about it if there isn’t an assistant at hand to give you a sales pitch. This isn’t particularly innovative (lots of apps have barcode scanners nowadays), but it is a great way to merge the offline and mobile shopping experiences, particularly when it comes to tech products that can be pretty confusing if you’re not already familiar with them (like your dad buying you a curling iron).

The Comet app isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s a simple and useful addition to your collection, which will hopefully make buying tech products for your loved ones this year a little easier.

Available for iPhone/iPad, Android and Blackberry devices for free.