Your smartphone can help to pay for itself.   I’m Fred Fishkin with technology BootCamp,  a report on gadgets and gear.     How much does your mobile phone cost you?   If you have an Android smartphone, a company called Slidejoy has an app to display ads on the lock screen.  Use it, and your phone can earn money you can use towards the bill or you can donate to charity.   CEO Robert Seo….

“You download our app and every single time you turn on your phone you’ll see a different advertisement.  So the user has a choice of sliding to the right or to the left.  If you slide to the right you just go to your home screen to carry on and do whatever you need to do on your phone.  If you go to the left, then you actually engage with that ad.”

You earn the same amount of money either way and Slidejoy estimates the typical user will earn between five and fifteen dollars a month.  You see the ad before you get to the screen that would unlock your phone.  Seo says the plan is to have a version of Slidejoy available for iPhones later this year.   You can find us at BootCamp.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.