Urban Phone Legends

We all get those emails from friends with great tips and waringh passed along the internet - they are the 21st century Urban Legends and here are a few a bout cellhpnes - have a read and then see if you guessed which ones are true and whuch are false:

"THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOUR CELL PHONE COULD DO."


Tip Number 1 (true or false?)
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.


Tip Number 2 (true or false?)


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!"


Tip Number 3 (true or false?)

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.

Tip Number 4 (true or false?)


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 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.







How did you do?
Beware forwarded emails offering tips and tricks "you never knew." Most of the claims in this message are either false or have limited applicability. We'll examine them one by one:






CLAIM: The worldwide emergency number for cell phones is 112.


Not quite. Throughout most of Europe and a few countries outside of the EU, dialing 112 will connect users to local emergency services. However, the number won't work in North America, nor most of Asia and Africa. Many, but not all, cell phone models will allow special emergency numbers to be dialed even if the phone lacks a SIM card or the keypad is locked.


CLAIM: Unlock a car door with your cell phone and a spare remote key.


False. Cell phones and remote keyless entry systems work on entirely different radio frequencies. Therefore, cell phones are incapable of re-transmitting the signal from a remote key to unlock a car door.



CLAIM: Press *3370# to access 'reserve battery power.'


False. On some Nokia phones, users can punch in special codes and toggle between speech codec modes to 1) enhance voice transmission quality at the cost of diminished battery performance, or 2) enhance battery performance by decreasing voice quality. Apparently, some users have misconstrued the latter as "tapping into reserve battery power." On that score the email is doubly erroneous because *3370# is the code for enhancing voice quality, so using it actually decreases battery life!


CLAIM: Press *#06# to disable a stolen cell phone.


Not exactly. On some cell phone models, but not all, pressing *#06# will cause the phone's 15-digit International Mobile Equipment Identity to be displayed. Some service providers, but not all, can use that information to deactivate the handset. In any case, it isn't necessary to supply an IMEI number to cancel your cellular account in the event of theft; simply call your provider, give them the appropriate account information, and tell them the phone was stolen.

Next Blog - can a cell phone really explode if you use it while connected to the charger?  Stay tuned....