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Author
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Topic: Five cool things you didn't know about cellphones
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Snaggy
Sir Snaggalot!
Member # 123
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posted February 22, 2007 10:43
Are these real? I don't know yet...
from http://cryptome.org/
FIRST
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
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
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.
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Ashitaka
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posted February 22, 2007 10:50
First
If I dial 112 with a locked keypad, what to I tell the operator that picks up? hey , guess what cool trick i just learned?
second
remoteless entry works with radio waves. I doubt this works.
third
There is only one battery in my cell phone. there is not hiudden reserve battery.
fourth
sound logical
fifth
sounds fishy to me. I bet you are charged.
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"If they're not gonna make a distinction between Muslims and violent extremists, then why should I take the time to distinguish between decent, fearful white people and racists?"
-Assif Mandvi
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Xanthine
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan!
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posted February 22, 2007 11:16
Cell phones also receive and transmit with rally high frequency radio waves or low frequency microwaves (somewhere on that continuum). But I'm still not sure that would work. Nor do I really care because I refuse to own a cell.
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And it's one, two, three / On the wrong side of the lee / What were you meant for? / What were you meant for?
- The Decemberists
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stevenback7
SuperBlabberMouth!
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posted February 22, 2007 12:10
yeah nice tricks but i really don't care for them much because the only reason i have a cell phone is to call home and nothing else.
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Comic Book Guy: There is no emoticon for what i'm feeling.
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Stereo
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan!
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posted February 22, 2007 12:26
quote:
Originally posted by Ashitaka:
First
If I dial 112 with a locked keypad, what to I tell the operator that picks up? hey , guess what cool trick i just learned?
I believe the correct procedure when you wrongly call emergency is to wait and explain it is an error. Still, I wouldn't try just for the sake of it.
quote:
Originally posted by Ashitaka:
third
There is only one battery in my cell phone. there is not hiudden reserve battery.
But it seems plausible that there is a battery management software that would allow just that. Might especially be usefull with the first trick (given it does work) - you find yourself in need of emergency help, and your cell battery is "dead" - hack into the reserve, and contact 911. (It would even make more sense if the battery is the kind that doesn't gain its full charge if not fully discharged before. It would shorten the battery life, and everyone knows replacement can be quite a bit pricey.)
quote:
Originally posted by Ashitaka:
fifth
sounds fishy to me. I bet you are charged.
Agreed there must be some way they recoup the fees. And by the whole look of it, the list itself was probably made by those owning that phone number. Some kind of viral marketing, perhaps. Pretty smart, though.
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Eppur, si muove!
Galileo Galilei
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Sxeptomaniac
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posted February 22, 2007 12:48
1) Well, I decided to try the 112 thing with my phone's keypad locked and it doesn't work. No surprise there, as it seems that it would be a poorly-considered feature. I didn't try it dialing normally.
2) Definitely sounds implausible.
3) Also seems unlikely.
4) As far as the bizarre set of keys to find your serial number, that seems likely to be specific to a certain model of phone. However, every phone I've ever seen has the serial number on the back of the phone where the battery is attached, so you can simply check it by pulling the battery. It's also on the packaging your phone comes in, so you can just save that label, instead.
5) I have heard of free 411 services. They usually have a short advertisement at the beginning of the call, and/or they take money from businesses in order to make them a preferred result.
Now, to check my answers: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/cellphones.asp
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Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere. - C. S. Lewis
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Ashitaka
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posted February 22, 2007 12:49
quote:
But it seems plausible that there is a battery management software that would allow just that. Might especially be usefull with the first trick (given it does work) - you find yourself in need of emergency help, and your cell battery is "dead" - hack into the reserve, and contact 911. (It would even make more sense if the battery is the kind that doesn't gain its full charge if not fully discharged before. It would shorten the battery life, and everyone knows replacement can be quite a bit pricey.)
Batteries are stored chemical potential. If the rection potential in your cell battery is used up I do not believe any software could unlock more chemical potential.
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"If they're not gonna make a distinction between Muslims and violent extremists, then why should I take the time to distinguish between decent, fearful white people and racists?"
-Assif Mandvi
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Ashitaka
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posted February 22, 2007 12:54
While it is true that cell phone use and transmit radio frequencies, they are not radio frequency repeaters. They do not transmit radio waves. If this cell phone opening a car trick were possible, it would also be possible for my radio here in switzerland to recieve a radio brodcast from the united states if I happen to be calling someone in the united states on my cell phone on thier cell phone if they stand next to a radio broadcast tower. (or anywhere that on can recieve a radio broadcast for that matter.) It just doesn't work like this.
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"If they're not gonna make a distinction between Muslims and violent extremists, then why should I take the time to distinguish between decent, fearful white people and racists?"
-Assif Mandvi
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GrumpySteen
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan
Member # 170
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posted February 22, 2007 13:09
Heh... the list is good for a laugh, but some of them are too unbelievable. Yay for Snopes, though... that site is great for looking up virtually any forwarded mail you get to see if it's real or not.
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Worst. Celibate. Ever.
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dragonman97
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posted February 22, 2007 13:53
quote:
Originally posted by Steen:
Heh... the list is good for a laugh, but some of them are too unbelievable. Yay for Snopes, though... that site is great for looking up virtually any forwarded mail you get to see if it's real or not.
Heh...as soon as I saw the title, I was ready to visit Snopes. Titles like that almost always mean 'urban legend.' In fact, I'm not even sure I'll bother reading this thread, lest my BS-ometer break... ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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There are three things you can be sure of in life: Death, taxes, and reading about fake illnesses online...
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Zwilnik
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan!
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posted February 22, 2007 14:27
1) 112 works (999 also overrides the keypad lock in the UK)
2) they've been trying this on Brainiac's Test Tube Baby on Sky and it works!
3) doesn't work on my Sony Ericsson. Maybe it did/does work on a specific phone, but more likely myth.
4) This is promoted a lot here in the UK and would be a reasonably good deterrent if everyone did it. (most phone have a simple button sequence to get the number too IIRC). Unforunately not enough people do this.
5) no idea. very much US only ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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The Universe is entirely made up of elements.
The most important of which is the element of surprise.
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uilleann
Discontinued
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posted February 22, 2007 15:00
OK, but explain how the second one works.
You point an RF transmitter at a phone. Then what? Since you're not likely to vibrate a mike at RF, I can only assume that either the mike or the wire attached to it acts as an aerial. Next, you need to digitally transmit this frequency, so it needs to fit within a) the sample rate of the ADC, and b) within the frequency range after high (and low?) frequency filtering. Now you are ready to transmit this data across the phone network.
Next, you need to reproduce this RF from the speaker at the other end. Somehow, the receiving phone needs to be an RF transmitter on the correct frequency. Assuming that the frequency was correctly encoded in the data packets, you'll be trying to generate radio frequency signals through a circuit designed to play audible noise.
Seems a bit of a stretch. One of the things Snopes mentioned is that people believe that this works because they try it with the RKE transmitter still within range.
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Ashitaka
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posted February 22, 2007 15:02
quote:
Originally posted by Zwilnik:
2) they've been trying this on Brainiac's Test Tube Baby on Sky and it works!
Could you provide more information about who proved this works? This should not work unless the car is being opened by a touch tone style unlocking mechanism(sound waves). Most locks are however use radio waves(electromagnetic radiation waves).
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"If they're not gonna make a distinction between Muslims and violent extremists, then why should I take the time to distinguish between decent, fearful white people and racists?"
-Assif Mandvi
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Zwilnik
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan!
Member # 615
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posted February 22, 2007 18:17
quote:
Originally posted by Ashitaka:
quote:
Originally posted by Zwilnik:
2) they've been trying this on Brainiac's Test Tube Baby on Sky and it works!
Could you provide more information about who proved this works? This should not work unless the car is being opened by a touch tone style unlocking mechanism(sound waves). Most locks are however use radio waves(electromagnetic radiation waves).
Brainiac's a TV mad science show (mostly known for blowing up caravans and microwaves). They'd had the same "heard about this on the net, does it really work?" question and tested it themselves and it worked. (essentially, radio blip type key fob and 2 cellphones) they also got viewers to check it out for themselves.
However.... some of their caravan explosions are definitely fake (ie TV pyro charges rather than the actual explosives they claim they are), so we'll try and test the experiment with our car tomorrow
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The Universe is entirely made up of elements.
The most important of which is the element of surprise.
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Callipygous
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posted February 22, 2007 19:16
A more useful trick with a car remote ("blipper") is that if you are just out of range, place the blipper against your forehead and try again. It increases the range of the blipper a lot.
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"Knowledge is Power. France is Bacon" - Milton
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uilleann
Discontinued
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posted February 22, 2007 19:22
Make it a fair test. Put a few miles between the two phones so that the RKE unit is well and truly out of range. Or, arrange to press the button before dialling the call, repeatedly, so than once you make the call, you have confirmation that the unit is out of range first.
Then, you will know that any success was indeed transmitted over the phone network and not because the RKE was still in range of the car.
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dragonman97
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posted February 22, 2007 19:33
quote:
Originally posted by uilleann:
Make it a fair test. Put a few miles between the two phones so that the RKE unit is well and truly out of range. Or, arrange to press the button before dialling the call, repeatedly, so than once you make the call, you have confirmation that the unit is out of range first.
Hey, here's an idea for someone: [not you, since you don't have a mobile =P]
Try it from inside a Tube station...
...then try and call me from Gitmo!
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There are three things you can be sure of in life: Death, taxes, and reading about fake illnesses online...
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Ugh, MightyClub
BlabberMouth, the Next Generation
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posted February 22, 2007 19:42
Putting uilleann's and Calli's thoughts together, might I suggest you try the RKE from a spot shortly outside normal range while adjacent to a cellphone which is powered on but NOT connected? Or maybe dialled into some other phone which is itself nowhere near the car. I wonder if by some odd trick of physics the cellphone antenna might somehow amplify nearby RF signals. I've noticed my computer speakers emit a series of odd bleeps just before a nearby cellphone rings...
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Ugh!
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Zwilnik
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posted February 22, 2007 19:43
quote:
Originally posted by uilleann:
Make it a fair test. Put a few miles between the two phones so that the RKE unit is well and truly out of range. Or, arrange to press the button before dialling the call, repeatedly, so than once you make the call, you have confirmation that the unit is out of range first.
Then, you will know that any success was indeed transmitted over the phone network and not because the RKE was still in range of the car.
The only problem with that part of the plan is that because one of us has the car and the other the car keys, one of us has to walk two miles with the keys.
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The Universe is entirely made up of elements.
The most important of which is the element of surprise.
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uilleann
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posted February 22, 2007 22:22
Good exercise.
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Stereo
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posted February 23, 2007 08:27
quote:
Originally posted by Ashitaka:
Batteries are stored chemical potential. If the rection potential in your cell battery is used up I do not believe any software could unlock more chemical potential.
Sorry for the delay on answering your point. Maybe I didn't came as clear as I thought, but what I meant is the software may decide the battery is "empty" before it really is. So even though the battery still has some charge left, the software makes us believe it's empty. But this artificial limit can be overriden by a code, allowing for the use of the remaining charge.
Which would make sense considering my phone's behaviour. I don't use it much, so sometimes I take it out and it's off. Did it run out of battery or did I forget to turn it on? So I try to turn it on, and it does - until it shuts down again. If the battery was really empty to begin with, it wouldn't turn on at all now, would it?
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Eppur, si muove!
Galileo Galilei
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TheMoMan
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posted February 23, 2007 09:04
Stereo____________________Maybe your phone has PMS.
Power Managemant Software, and somewhere in a hidden menu you have the auto off feature turned on.
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If it don't glow it ain't Ham Radio
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Zwilnik
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posted February 23, 2007 15:07
Well, I can confirm the remote car unlocking trick definitely doesn't work on a BMW Mini. So either Brainiac were faking their experiment or it only works on certain makes of car.
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The Universe is entirely made up of elements.
The most important of which is the element of surprise.
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uilleann
Discontinued
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posted February 23, 2007 19:38
Stereo: The Psion Revo and Revo Plus PDAs have such a reserve, because the main batteries are the sole power source of the RAM (no back-up). If you could activate the reserve, you could force more power out of it but knowing that you'd have to get it recharged all the sooner. I don't know if doing that is possible.
The capacity of that reserve, however, seems to be substantially over-stated I think mine was down to about three days instead of the full two weeks. The Psion 5 and 5mx just use a button cell for the back-up battery. How long that will keep the memory charged up for, I have no idea.
I guess this is why we're all moving to Flash RAM.
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TheMoMan
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posted February 24, 2007 03:59
Hi all____________________The remote unlocking thing is so intriguing to me, I must have missed some thing in all of my manuals for my Ham radios. Also last night I went and tested for a License upgrade to Amatuer Extra, highest permit here in the States and passed, now to find some money for that new tranmitter
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If it don't glow it ain't Ham Radio
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