How to find your car in a parking lot

"I found it!"

Wandering aimlessly through parking lots is a thing of the past with some new gizmos for smart phones. Wired has the details:

Parking Mate is an all-in-one parking app for the iPhone. You can set a GPS marker for your car's location, use the parking meter timer, take a photo of your car's location, set a schedule for street sweepers in your 'hood, and see all that data at a glance in the "Current Parking Details" function.

Carr Matey is an Android app that not only will tell you where you left your car, but it will fulfill your daily need for things pirate-themed. Want to set a GPS trace? Just mark your "vessel" with the "drop anchor" button, and you'll get step-by-step directions on how to get back before high tide. If you're parked underground or indoors, which can interfere with GPS, the compass feature will guide you to your vehicle. Carrr Matey even has a setting called Harbor Mode, which lets you input the level, letter, color, and space number of your chosen parking space. And, as with Parking Mate, this app includes a meter timer for those left out on the street.

Looking for a space? Google Open Spot (also for Android) can help. Users can mark when they've left a parking space, alerting other users that a space is available. Oh, the kindness of strangers.

Foursquare (all major mobile platforms) is useful for remembering the locations of parking garages around a city center. Check in whenever you park and you'll have a reminder of where to find your car at the end of the night, as well as a searchable list in your history. Bonus: Check in at any one garage more times than anyone else and you'll become the mayor. What's the benefit? Pretty much just bragging rights. But ask the manager of the facility if they have a special deal for Foursquare mayors. They'll probably look at you like you've just escaped from a hospital, but they might swing you a discount.

Use Facebook's mobile website or the latest version of Facebook's mobile app to check in through Places and you'll be able to keep a record of where you've parked in your Facebook news feed.