Things you might not have known about your Cell Phone

(I was flamed for posting this last year because some tips were not available on some carriers. Just keep your receipts for a prompt, courteous refund of your entire purchase price)

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.)

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 (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.

THIRD (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.

If your phone is 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....

FOURTH (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.

This is sponsored by McDonalds.

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

These are great tips for those who are not aware of them.

some Trivia:
Do you know some of the reasons for 112 being an emergency number? This has been the fire workers number first and then general emergency in Germany for more than a hundred percent of my lifetime

If you don't remember telephones with a rotary dial, the numbers were in counter-clockwise order with number 1 a little to the right over the top and the rotary turned clockwise to select and counter-clockwise to dial the number.

Dialing a number was done by interrupting the flow of current. Once for 1, twice for 2, thrice for 3 ... and ten times for 0.

Now here comes the catch. Often after work hour telephone bills started to rise. Cleaning staff, not only them but they are the ones at work after office hours, used the office telephones to call long distance. So companies started to insert a little lock in one of the holes of the rotary dial. If that lock was in the second hole one still could dial any phone number consisting of ones and twos. 112 fits in there.

And here's the real trick. You still could dial any number worldwide even if that lock was in place. You just needed to establish the right rhythm of dialing all the numbers just pressing the hook. Zeros were challenging. Counting to eight, nine or ten was difficult.

Some people like those old rotary dials a lot, for instance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN00LxT-F-0

The first tip dials 911 in the U.S. but won't work for Verizon's service.

The second tip is a hoax. Well-meaning, but a hoax.

I stopped reading the rest, but the degree of accuracy (or lack of it) for these items is thoroughly covered in snopes.com

Hey, I dialed 112 thinking it was just assistance to find the emergency number in my area ((911), I hung up the phone right away.

I got a CALL BACK from emergency services thinking I was in trouble. So, DON'T dial this in the US your are activating the "911" system.

That is exactly what it says: "The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112."

While it is not yet available worldwide, more and more countries join the system.
112 usually will connect you to your emergency system. For international travelers this is important that an emergency number is not a local thing. As far as I know, if you dial 911 in Germany you will be routed to the German emergency system.

Matt, you know me well enough to know that I would not intentionally perpetuate a hoax. It was offered in good faith and intended to help folks that I care about. I don't even own a cell phone.

If this information is potentially harmful, please advise so I can retract it from others I shared with.

Don, this "battery reserve" section is actually cut and pasted from the Snopes site. Harmful is pushing it. Of no value is closer. No harm though.

Hi Don. No harm done, of course, and I do know from your long history that you wouldn't intentionally post something harmful. I've seen these tips a few other times over the years.

I suppose the only potential for harm on #2 would be someone who was in a life-or-death situation and expected that an otherwise dead cell phone would work with this trick. Not the time to find out this is nonsense.

Cheers.

Well, if their phone is dead, they can't boot it to enter the character string, so....

There's certainly a lot of disinformation around.

"Believe half of what you see son and none of what you hear".....

Good one. What I meant by saying "otherwise" dead, was a phone that will turn on but doesn't have enough juice to transmit.

... and out of the chaos a voice talked to me: "Smile and be happy, it could be worse." I smiled and I was happy and it was worse.

"Never challenge worse." Bill Cosby