Intel raises its dividend

By Aaron Smith, staff writerNovember 12, 2010: 10:17 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Intel Corp. announced Friday that it is raising its dividend by 15%, joining the ranks of other technology giants that have beefed up dividend activity.
Intel said the increase pushes its quarterly cash dividend up to 18 cents per share, or 72 cents per share on an annual basis.

"Our ongoing operational performance and confidence in our business going forward provide the ability to return more cash to shareholders," Chief Executive Paul Otellini said, referring to 2010 as Intel's "best year ever."
The move boosts the chipmaker's dividend yield to 3.4%, based on the company's Thursday closing price of $21.21 per share. That exceeds the yields offered by bonds such as the 10-year note, which was at 2.7% on Friday.
The company has been paying a cash dividend since 1992, and said it has already doled out $2.6 billion in dividends in the first three quarters of this year.
Intel's (INTC, Fortune 500) stock rose more than 2% on the news.
This is the latest example of a ramp-up in dividend activity as corporations look for ways to generate shareholder returns on their fattened wallets.
Intel is following in the footsteps of Microsoft Corp (MSFT, Fortune 500)., which ramped up its dividend in September for the first time in two years. The software company increased its quarterly dividend by 3 cents to 16 cents per share.

GOOG-411 shuts down, but there's an alternative

                                                                                                                                              Google's 411 service will shut down for good on Friday, but that doesn't mean the end of free calls to business numbers.

Launched in 2007, GOOG-411 was a free voice recognition search service for business listings drawn from the Google Local directory. You'd dial 800-GOOG-411 (or 877-GOOG-411), speak a search request (business name or category) into your phone, and Google would list results in audio.

When you selected a result, Google would place the call -- which meant if the number was long-distance, the call would be free to you.

According to PhoneNews, some cost-conscious callers would call GOOG-411 to place free calls to business numbers -- using it like a "friends and family number." I found this especially useful when calling tech support or customer service numbers -- which often, surprisingly, aren't toll-free.

But, even without the Google service, there's still another way to get around charges for calls to business numbers.

Microsoft's Bing suite of search tools offers a nearly identical service, called Bing 411. According to this audio demo, it works almost like placing a normal 411 call through your phone company -- only without the hefty charges most phone companies levy for this service.

PhoneNews notes it takes 24 hours to update friends-and-family numbers with your phone provider, so this service is useful when you unexpectedly need to call a long-distance business number