Chris | 
04 4th, 2008| 
I just read a postof Chris Pirillo’s explaining some useful tools your cell phone can provide in emergency situations, one of which is FALSE!
- Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network in an Emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you. Keep in mind, 112 can be dialed even if your keypad is locked!
- Have you locked your keys in the car?Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. 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. This saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, but if you can reach someone who has the other ‘remote’ for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).
- 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.
- 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 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.
- 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 to get any number you need… for free. Program this into your cell phone now.
The second bullet explaining how to unlock your car using your cell phone seemed to be the most valuable tip/trick. As a proponent for accuracy and validation, I decided to google this seemingly too-good-to-be-true statement and discovered that it is indeed FALSE!
As explained here and here, cell phones simply do not have the technology to carry out such ambitious actions. I suppose someone figured they could apply the idea of OnStar, the expensive tracking system offered in all GM vehicles, to the expanded use of a cell phone.
It would be really beneficial for cell phone manufactures and providers to equip our cell phones with the technology to do so, protecting the feature with a pin number to avoid someone whose stolen a phone from stealing the same person’s car. I’d totally buy it! Sing me up! (feel free to run with this idea if it hasn’t been thought of yet -just give me some kudos!)
If anyone has actually tried to unlock their car through their cell phone and succeeded let me know! Just don’t let me find out you were in the working boundaries of your key remote/fob!