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5 Things You Never Knew Your Cell Phone Could Do

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with The Mortgage & Property Connection

A good message for cell phone users.  Isn't that pretty much everyone?

 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 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  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).
 
 
THIRD Hidden Battery Power
 
Imagine your cell battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370#. Your cell phone 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 phone next time.

FOURTH  How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?
 
To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: *#06#. 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.
 

FIFTH Free Directory Service for Cells
 
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)FREE411, or (800)373-3411 without incurring any charge at all. Program this into your cell phone now.

An additional safegard is to add your emergency person as ICE (In case of an emergency).  Police, firemen and such will look in your cell phone contacts for "ICE" if they find this, they will hit send and your emergency contact person can give information on your behalf if needed.

Joe Virnig
RE/MAX Gold Coast REALTORS, Ventura County, California - Ventura, CA
No Ordinary Joe
I'm going to have to try some of these out.  I did not know about them.
May 05, 2008 12:54 AM
Dorene Shirley
The Mortgage & Property Connection - Campbell, CA
Silicon Valley Real Estate
Joe - I didn't know them either!
May 05, 2008 12:58 AM
Rich Quigley
Chicago, IL
Dorene, I wasn't aware of these capabilities. I'll have to check them out. Thanks for the informative post.
May 05, 2008 01:06 AM
Rebecca Schrader
Competitive Insurance of Dundee - Dundee, FL
*3370# did nothing.  Do you need to push "OK" or "Send"?  This is one that I was unaware of that could help me a whole lot.  It may not be a universal engineering function, but a brand specific feature.
May 05, 2008 01:18 AM
Dorene Shirley
The Mortgage & Property Connection - Campbell, CA
Silicon Valley Real Estate

Thanks Rich - Rebecca made an important comment on suggestion number 3.  I tried it and used send and it didn't do a thing.  So I searched it and here's what I found:

From a Snopes.com article: The claim that pressing the sequence *3370# will unleash "hidden battery power" in a cell phone seems to be a misunderstanding of an option available on some brands of cell phone (such as Nokia) for Half Rate Codec, which provides about 30% more talk time on a battery charge at the expense of lower sound quality. However, this option is enabled by pressing the sequence *#4720#--the sequence *3370# actually enables Enhanced Full Rate Codec, which provides better sound quality at the expense of shorter battery life.

May 05, 2008 02:49 AM
Dorene Shirley
The Mortgage & Property Connection - Campbell, CA
Silicon Valley Real Estate
Thanks Rebecca - I should have tried it first before posting.  Look at the comment above...
May 05, 2008 02:49 AM
Cindy Bryant
Redesign Etc. Home Staging - Houston, TX
"Houston Home Staging Pros"
I've heard about some of these but didn't know if they were true.
May 06, 2008 04:52 PM
Anonymous
Anonymous

thanks for the welcome to active rain & the tips

May 17, 2008 12:52 PM
#8