Chinese cooking usually blackens the kitchen with soot and grease and is the domain of an ayi, or household helper, who cooks for the family.

FORBES: Why Home Depot Struggles And IKEA Thrives In China

Other apps, such as HueVue and Colorblind Helper, assist with matching or harmonizing colors.

WSJ: New Outlook for Colorblindness

After acquiring Gate5 last year, Nokia decided that adding navigation capabilities was "a natural move, " and its forthcoming Smart2Go system will offer up free mapping and routing services and a fee-based turn-by-turn option if you've just got to have that robotic helper bossing you around (or can't take your eyes off the road).

ENGADGET: Nokia to offer Smart2Go mapping services Mobile

Back home in Burgundy, the grape was traditionally used as "Pinot Noir Helper" to add richness to a feeble vintage of Pinot Noir or to soften an overly rough one.

FORBES: Pinot Gris makes the Pinot family proud.

It seems pretty clear that GDP would have been a useful helper in determining stock performance, though by no means would it have been a perfect (or even the best available) tool.

FORBES: John Mauldin's Muddled Stock Return Model