GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - Back to school is a great time to upgrade from books and notebooks to tablets and smartphones.

With new wireless technology, tablets allow students to have a world of learning apps at their fingertips, while being able to search online and do their required reading and note-taking all in one place.

Brent Nelson, with Verizon Wireless, joined KARE 11 Sunrise to talk about mobile devices and apps to help ease back into school.

Smartphones are quickly becoming the tool of choice for mobile moms who want to make the most of their back-to-school budgets, and can also be a great tool for college students when shopping for and returning books.

Viewers can now use their smartphones to save both time and money on their back-to-school shopping trips. It's as simple as downloading the following free apps, available on Apple and Android devices:

• Local Sales and Deals Shopping: Using your smartphone's GPS, this app locates the sales at your favorite local stores.
• Shop Savvy: With the smartphone's camera, you can scan barcodes to find the best price, search for deals and save money.

• Discount and tax calculator: Use this app to estimate ahead of time how much items will cost and how much will be saved during a sale.

• Car Finder: After a long day of shopping, use this app to help you find your car in the crowded parking lot.

• For the College students, The Amazon Student App, free on iPhone and Andriod devices, allows instant price-checks on textbooks and more. Simply scan a barcode to check a price, or use one-click access to scan items you want to buy or sell back. Amazon's convenient trade-in program can turn books, games, movies, and electronics into Amazon Gift Cards.

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