Great Android apps for Thanksgiving

The recent snowstorm in the northeast knocked most of the fall foliage off the trees – taking quite a few of the trees with them, alas – but that’s no reason not to look forward to Thanksgiving 2011.  The innovative entrepreneurs of the Android market are here to help, and here are a few of their better ideas for this year’s Turkey Day.

If you’ve already planned out your turkey and stuffing and just want to put your phone in the holiday spirit, you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding any of the dozens of festive Thanksgiving wallpapers available for download.  If, on the other hand, you’re as disorganized as we tend to be, you might want to try out Thanksgiving Planner.  The app includes a comprehensive checklist of 163 items (which you can customize, of course), ranging from cooking and serving to guest invitations and time-frame reminders.

No amount of organization is going to save your Thanksgiving if you don’t know what to do with the bird, but thankfully the My Turkey Recipes app is here to help.  Users from all over the country can submit their own individual recipes, which are then independently verified for accuracy and originality before they’re uploaded to the app itself.  And if you’re afraid of leaving that delicious dish in the oven for too long, try out Intuitit’s Timer app, available in paid and free-with-ads versions.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t include those apps that will help you get through Black Friday unscathed, and there are Android apps for that as well.  Rated by Gizmodo as “one of the best barcode apps for Android,” the ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner allows you to aim your phone’s camera at a barcode, after which it will instantly provide you with a price comparison for both online and local products…which you can also buy directly from your phone, assuming you’ve provided your credit card information.  The Black Friday Survival Guide is also a must-have app, as it lists the latest sales in real time, lets you browse through stores by category, and can even tell you if the item you’re looking for is currently in stock at the store where you’re hoping to buy it.

And don’t worry; while you’re happily digesting your succulent Thanksgiving turkey, we’ll be hard at work compiling fitness apps to get you back into shape after the holiday season.