Things You Never Knew Your Cell Phone Could Do

[snopes]

We've covered all of these before in separate articles, except for #3, a claim I haven't seen before:

----------------------------------------

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies.
Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for
survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:


FIRST Subject: Emergency
The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself
out of the coverage area of your mobile; network
and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any
existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and
interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked.
Try it out.


SECOND Subject: Have you locked your keys in the car?
Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday.
Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the
spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your
cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have
the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the
mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from
having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be
hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other
"remote" for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).
Editor's Note: It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over
a cell phone!"


THIRD Subject: Hidden Battery Power
Imagine your cell battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370#
Your cell will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a
50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge
your cell next time.


FOURTH Subject: How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?
To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on
your phone: * # 0 6 # A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This
number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere
safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and
give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even
if the thief
changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably
won't get your phone back, but at least you know that
whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there
would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

And Finally....

FIFTH Subject: Cell phone companies are charging us $1.00 to $1.75 or
more for 411 information calls when they don't have to. Most of us do not
carry a telephone directory in our vehicle, which makes this situation
even more of a
problem. When you need to use the 411 information option, simply dial:
(800) FREE 411, or (800) 373-3411 without
incurring any charge at all. Program this into your cell phone now.

[annabohly]

I'm gonna try #2. We just got security alarm on out cars with keyless entry.

[SkyeWynters]

I tried #3, but my phone "thought" for a moment and just flashed "not available" on the screen.

Too bad too, that would be a neat little feature

[Mad Jay]

Originally Posted by annabohly

I'm gonna try #2. We just got security alarm on out cars with keyless entry.

Don't bother Well, try it out if you must. There's no harm trying it out

[Deepfrydegg]

Maybe I missed the point. I thought all of those claims were bogus.
None of them really work, do they?

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Deepfrydegg

Maybe I missed the point. I thought all of those claims were bogus.
None of them really work, do they?

Well most of them are crap but 112 is the Europe-wide emergency number. Even though 999 is the standard emergency number here, 112 will connect you as well.

All phones sold here will allow you to dial 999 or 112 even if the keypad is locked, and it will connect to any network within range. IIRC even an unregistered handset will allow you to dial these numbers.

*#06# will give you your IMEI number, which your service provider can use to disable your handset. If they are willing.

[landmammal]

Originally Posted by snopes

FIFTH Subject: Cell phone companies are charging us $1.00 to $1.75 or
more for 411 information calls when they don't have to. Most of us do not
carry a telephone directory in our vehicle, which makes this situation
even more of a
problem. When you need to use the 411 information option, simply dial:
(800) FREE 411, or (800) 373-3411 without
incurring any charge at all. Program this into your cell phone now.

This one's not bogus! It's pretty slow-going getting the number you want (voice recognition software sucks, have to listen to ads), but if you're not in a hurry and not near the internet or a phone book, it's not bad.

[ganzfeld]

Originally Posted by snopes

THIRD Subject: Hidden Battery Power
Imagine your cell battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370#
Your cell will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a
50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge
your cell next time.

This hack was first reported for Nokia phones. It apparently is not true, as the key sequence in the claim actually activates a feature that reduces talk time by 5%:
http://www.programmerworld.net/artic...okia_codes.php
I haven't been able to confirm this with any Nokia source but the function mentioned (Enhanced Full Rate Codec) is listed as available on some models.

[ganzfeld]

Here is one Nokia manual that confirms the hack, which does not activate a reserve battery.
http://nds2.nokia.com/files/support/...PAC_UG__EN.pdf

My guess is that someone saw "30% more battery time" on the related feature (which reduces voice quality for longer battery life rather than enhancing quailty for shorter battery life, as the code mentioned does) and mistook this to mean "reserve battery". Then, in his excitement about more talk time, he gave the wrong the code sequence.

[One-Fang]

On keyless entry, have we ever discussed this one:

Your remote only works from a reasonably short distance. If you are further away and realise you have forgotten to lock your car, you have to walk back, right? Wrong. Press the remote to your head and press the button. This extends the 'working distance' of the remote unit. But how, I don't know. How far, I don't know either. I did test this out on my own car, and it works.

[FullMetal]

Originally Posted by One-Fang

On keyless entry, have we ever discussed this one:

Your remote only works from a reasonably short distance. If you are further away and realise you have forgotten to lock your car, you have to walk back, right? Wrong. Press the remote to your head and press the button. This extends the 'working distance' of the remote unit. But how, I don't know. How far, I don't know either. I did test this out on my own car, and it works.

I heard that it basically turns your body into a big antenna. remote starters work like that too. (my two way compustar remote doesn't however...) but I've seen it with Astrostart...

I dunno though. must be those "Iron Boogers"

[hambubba]

You forgot the part about opening your mouth wide in the direction of the car while you are using your head as an amplifier.

[One-Fang]

LOL hambubba. Not sure I tried that. I did discover if you face away from the car it doesn't work as well.

Perhaps I should try it one day while I'm picturing the car, which is securely out of my range of vision.

[Andrew of Ware]

Originally Posted by snopes

FOURTH Subject: How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?
To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on
your phone: * # 0 6 # A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This
number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere
safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and
give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even
if the thief
changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably
won't get your phone back, but at least you know that
whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there
would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

I tried this and indeed a fifteen digit number did appear. The window it appeared in made it look like a number I was tring to ring. I did not tap the 'OK' as I have no idea who I might have got through to. Anway, I have made a note of the number.

[Rumiko]

FOURTH Subject: How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?
To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on
your phone: * # 0 6 # A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This
number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere
safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and
give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even
if the thief
changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably
won't get your phone back, but at least you know that
whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there
would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

tried this as well, and it worked, it started out with "IMEI"

then a 14 digit number appeared, separated by spaces, then followed by /202, whatever that means....

[Andrew of Ware]

A couple of weeks ago I bought my first new mobile for about nine years and I entered the code in no. 4 and I got a fifteen digit number. In fact the manual for the phone said that I type in the code in number 4 and make a note of the fifteen digit number.

[Griffin2020]

If you have a smartphone (Windows Mobile) that connects to an Exchange server (2003 or 2007), the handset can be completely wiped from the Exchange server. Microsoft has created a wipe utility to be used in the eventuality of a lost or stolen phone to protect proprietary corporate data.

Is a nice feature.

[Andrew of Ware]

Gulp!

My new phone is a 'Windows Mobile Messenger' - an hp iPAQ hw6915 - does that mean that Microsoft can wipe it clean?

Originally Posted by FullMetal

I heard that it basically turns your body into a big antenna.

What I do is just hold the remote over my head and hit the button (better line-of-sight range?). Seems to work for me....

[Singing in the Drizzle]

FOURTH Subject: How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?
To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on
your phone: * # 0 6 # A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This
number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere
safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and
give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even
if the thief
changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably
won't get your phone back, but at least you know that
whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there
would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

When I had my phone stolen. I just called my provider and they quickly shut my phone off and sent me a new one for a small fee for the phone. That 15 didget number and your phone number has to be linked in order for any cell phone to work. Your provider has to know both numbers and can easly shut your phone off.