Protest sweetener spawns new app

Paris: French protests this week have spawned a new top-selling Apple application in the country: one that lets drivers track fuel availability at gas stations.

Strikes and disruptions at French oil refineries to protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to raise the minimum retirement age left as many as 50% of the country’s 12,000 service stations with shortages of some fuel products this week. It saw serpentine lines at gas stations.

Mobicarbu, a fuel-price tracking iPhone app that’s been modified to show where service stations are out of gas, surged to third place on Apple’s most-popular downloads this week, joining games such as “Angry Birds” and “Cut the Rope”.