Urban Legends Debunked: Cell phones

I just got this email telling me 5 tips that I should print out, put in my wallet, and email to everyone I know – because it could save a life…

5 Things You Never Knew Your Cell Phone Could Do

For all the folks with cell phones. (This should be printed and kept in your car, purse, and wallet. Good information to have with you.) 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

CLAIM: 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.

ACTUALLY: The telephone number 112 is the international emergency telephone number for GSM mobile phone networks.[via Wikipedia] It does not necessarily work on mobile phone networks based on other technologies. In other words, if you don’t have a GSM phone, this advice (Verizon, Qwest, Cricket, Sprint, etc.) won’t help at all. Then again, it’s only relevant if you travel to and use your GSM phone in Europe.

SECOND Have you locked your keys in the car?

CLAIM: 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!

ACTUALLY: This simply does not work. When a group of co-workers and I tried it we all ended up looking stupid. If you try it, please let me know, I want to have my camcorder handy.

THIRD Hidden Battery Power:

CLAIM: 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.

ACTUALLY: No, there’s not. All the battery power is stored in the battery itself. Your battery indicator might not be reflecting the actual amount of power left in it, but nothing short of recharging or replacing your battery will get you more power. If you need to get a message out and you’re too low on power to make a phone call, try sending an SMS text message, doing so takes SUBSTANTIALLY less power than making a phone call — less reception bars, too.

FOURTH B: How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

CLAIM: 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. If your phone gets 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.

ACTUALLY: This depends on your phone. If it’s a non-GSM phone your phone identifies itself using a unique identifier (a serial number, IMEI, or something similar). Telling your phone company that your phone was lost or stolen is the first thing you should do (you’re still liable for all activity made on your phone up until you report it stolen). Your provider will then "turn off" the phone, meaning it will no longer be an active device on their network, which will prevent someone from using it. If they want to use it they’ll have to have an account with the same provider you use and ask them to associate the phone’s "serial number" with their account — which should throw up red flags if you reported it lost or stolen (they could also "unlock" the phone to use it on another provider, but this takes skill, tools, and time, and your average thief will just toss your phone and swipe another one). GSM phones are different, they have a SIM card that can be removed and replaced — someone could take our your SIM and use their own SIM, but they’d be using their minutes and their plan. And that magic "serial number" on the phone, it’s probably not going to do you much good, your provider is more concerned with the SIM number than the phone’s serial number. Also, since most phones are "locked" chances that your phone will work on another network (T-Mobile to AT&T, for instance) is unlikely. Providers do this to try to discourage you from leaving their network and going to another one, or if they want to have a monopoly on a specific type of phone, like the iPhone). Again, it’s too much work to unlock your phone for use on another network, so they’ll probably just toss is and swipe another one.

FIFTH Free Directory Service for Cells

CLAIM: 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.

ACTUALLY: True, but you’ll have to listen to an advertisement, and since the reason it’s “free” is because +1 (800) FREE-411 sells sponsorships to the businesses it includes, the results may be by paid position rather than best match, closest location, etc. Other companies offer the same type of service. Microsoft has a “free” 411 service that you can get by calling +1 (800) Call-411; Google has theirs, too: +1 (800) GOOG-411. (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071030-get-lost-a-google-411-and-microsoft-live-search-411-throwdown.html) None of these options will get you out of paying for minutes to the 800 number, nor to the connected call; most (if not all) of these will only give you results for businesses, no residential or cell numbers.

Conclusion

The email concludes my saying:

“This is the kind of information people don’t mind receiving, so pass it on to your family and friends.”

Actually, this is the kind of information that should be verified BEFORE sending it on. If it sounds too good to be true, or like “magic,” it probably is.

Feel free to “reply to all” with a link to this article if you get a similar email. 😉