Listen to an Ad and Make Free Calls With This App
There
is no shortage of apps you can use to call other people in order to cut
down on your phone bill, but most of them have a simple problem - they
require both users to have the same app installed.
There are also a number of good apps that allow you to make voice calls for a fee, but these also come with some problems that can be solved, and if you're calling a telephone number, you're usually still paying some amount for the privilege.
Enter Nanu, a voice calling app that claims to use much less bandwidth than competing products, and comes with a feature that makes calls completely free.
The way it works is simple - Nanu gives you a few free credits every day, and you can use these to pay for phone calls. The credit it gives you is not very high, but you can also perform actions like downloading other apps to 'earn' more free credits. In practice, it's similar to apps that give you free recharges to pay for mobile data, but obviously in this case the credit can only be used with Nanu.
Thankfully, the Nanu app itself is nicely laid out, easy to use, and the call quality is good too, so it isn't a big issue. Users can call any landline or mobile number using the free credits provided by the app.
The catch is that the free credits don't carry forward from one day to the next - so, for example, you can't build a stockpile of free credits over the week to blow up in an hours-long call to the US on the weekend.
(Also see: 5 Net Neutral Apps That Give You Free Mobile Internet Data)
The interface of the app is pretty simple - when you launch the app, you'll see recent calls, and you can enter Nanu's dialer to call anyone. You'll see the credit balance and how many minutes of talktime this works out to, directly from the dialer.
Through the menu, you can see the free credit, and you can go to the Free Credits menu to earn more credits. For example, downloading the Amazon app got us five free credits, while playing a Web game was worth 49 free credits.
Testing the app across 2G, 3G, and 4G networks, the call quality remained extremely clear. Even on 2G connections, you could hear the other person very clearly. Nanu claims that it uses 80 percent less data than other VoIP platforms such as Skype and Viber.
The company states that Nanu uses 105kb of data per minute, and when you call someone, you'll also listen to an ad while waiting for the other person to pick up the call. Calling within India costs you 2 credits per minute, and you can look up the rates for other numbers.
Thanks to ad-supported calls and daily credits, Nanu offers actual free calling around the world. That's not a bad deal, and it works on both iOS and Android, so it may be worth your while to check out the free app. The worst thing you'll have to deal with is a few ads.
There are also a number of good apps that allow you to make voice calls for a fee, but these also come with some problems that can be solved, and if you're calling a telephone number, you're usually still paying some amount for the privilege.
Enter Nanu, a voice calling app that claims to use much less bandwidth than competing products, and comes with a feature that makes calls completely free.
The way it works is simple - Nanu gives you a few free credits every day, and you can use these to pay for phone calls. The credit it gives you is not very high, but you can also perform actions like downloading other apps to 'earn' more free credits. In practice, it's similar to apps that give you free recharges to pay for mobile data, but obviously in this case the credit can only be used with Nanu.
Thankfully, the Nanu app itself is nicely laid out, easy to use, and the call quality is good too, so it isn't a big issue. Users can call any landline or mobile number using the free credits provided by the app.
The catch is that the free credits don't carry forward from one day to the next - so, for example, you can't build a stockpile of free credits over the week to blow up in an hours-long call to the US on the weekend.
(Also see: 5 Net Neutral Apps That Give You Free Mobile Internet Data)The interface of the app is pretty simple - when you launch the app, you'll see recent calls, and you can enter Nanu's dialer to call anyone. You'll see the credit balance and how many minutes of talktime this works out to, directly from the dialer.
Through the menu, you can see the free credit, and you can go to the Free Credits menu to earn more credits. For example, downloading the Amazon app got us five free credits, while playing a Web game was worth 49 free credits.
Testing the app across 2G, 3G, and 4G networks, the call quality remained extremely clear. Even on 2G connections, you could hear the other person very clearly. Nanu claims that it uses 80 percent less data than other VoIP platforms such as Skype and Viber.
The company states that Nanu uses 105kb of data per minute, and when you call someone, you'll also listen to an ad while waiting for the other person to pick up the call. Calling within India costs you 2 credits per minute, and you can look up the rates for other numbers.
Thanks to ad-supported calls and daily credits, Nanu offers actual free calling around the world. That's not a bad deal, and it works on both iOS and Android, so it may be worth your while to check out the free app. The worst thing you'll have to deal with is a few ads.
Tech Stocks’ New Attraction: Dividends
Cash pouring into older technology stocks reflects investors’ willingness to pay up for investments that provide steady income
An IBM mainframe. “If there’s excess capital, we’re committed to returning that to investors,” an IBM
spokesman says.
Photo:
Getty Images
International Business Machines Corp. , which pays an annual dividend of $5.60 a share, has been one of the biggest contributors to the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s gain this year. Cisco Systems Inc., which didn’t pay a dividend during its 1990s heyday but now pays $1.04 annually, in the last week of July closed at its highest level since before the financial crisis.
The wave of cash pouring into older tech stocks reflects investors’ willingness to pay up for investments that provide steady income. Government-bond prices are near all-time highs, sharply depressing yields, and dividend-paying utility and telecommunications stocks are up more than 20% this year, far outpacing the Dow industrials and the S&P 500.
Some investors fear that the gains in shares of Cisco, IBM and other income generators are a sign that the embrace of dividend stocks has gone too far. IBM and HP Inc. have increased their dividend in recent years and now yield more than 3%, reflecting the annual dividend payment as a share of the current stock price—even as sales and profitability slipped at both companies. Yields on utility and telecom shares were lower in late July than in the past eight years of annual yields, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, as share prices in the industries have been bid up.
ENLARGEENLARGE
“Companies with no growth or negative growth are compensating by growing their dividends instead,” said Dan Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Co.AdvertisementThe sight of big-name technology companies paying large dividends is causing some double takes. Executives and analysts often contended during the technology boom of the 1990s that a company that paid a dividend was implicitly acknowledging limitations on its growth potential.Companies such as Facebook, Amazon.com, Netflix and Alphabet, which pay no dividends, have been favored by investors in recent years for their growth, with annual sales often increasing by double digits. Shares of Facebook reached all-time highs last week after the company reported strong sales growth for the second quarter. Year to date, Google Inc. parent Alphabet’s Class A shares are up 1.7% and Amazon.com’s are up about 12%, while Netflix’s have fallen 20%.But the days of fast growth are far behind many others, which helps explain why shareholder payouts are rising. A decade ago, the tech sector contributed about 5.6% of the S&P 500’s dividends, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. In 2015, it contributed 15%.“First and foremost, we use capital to invest in our business,” IBM spokesman Ian Colley said. “We’re growing a great deal in cloud computing and other high-growth areas. If there’s excess capital, we’re committed to returning that to investors.”RelatedCisco started paying a dividend in 2011, and since then its dividend yield has grown from 1.4% to 3.4%, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. From 2011 through the end of 2015, its sales have increased an annualized 4.2%—a fraction of the growth of newer tech companies, according to WSJ Market Data Group.Since the start of 2011, Cisco’s share price has risen about 50% and is now above $30 for the first time since 2007. The stock traded at 15.3 times its past 12 months’ earnings in late July, below its 10-year average of 17.5 times earnings, according to FactSet. The S&P 500, in contrast, traded at 18.2 times earnings, above its 10-year average of 14.9 times earnings.Cisco declined to comment, citing the company’s quiet period ahead of its earnings release.The tech sector doesn't have to be about chasing unicorns,” said Mike LaBella, portfolio manager at $23.6 billion QS Investors, who invests in companies that provide dividend income. Unicorns typically refer to startups valued at more than $1 billion. Mr. LaBella’s income strategy has a 10% allocation to the tech sector. His holdings include Cisco and IBM.Tech companies in the S&P 500 that pay a dividend are up about 11% this year, compared with a 4.6% gain for tech companies that don’t pay a dividend.Some investors and analysts say the U.S. stock market will have trouble sustaining its record highs if companies with more growth potential lag behind steady, dividend-paying companies.And a market pullback can quickly wipe out an entire year of income for these stocks. Since the start of 2013, IBM’s stock has fallen by at least 10% on four separate occasions. Its stock is down about 16% in that period.
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