Your cell phone can do a lot more than it led you to believe. It’s not that it lied to you, it’s just that you never took the time to truly get to know your phone. But, that’s between you and your phone. Today we’ll just concentrate on what you can do to get the most out of your relationship with your cell phone.
Easter Egg #1 – Battery Boost
Your cell phone has been stashing away battery power for a rainy day. It’s not that it didn’t trust you, it just wanted to make sure that it had enough juice to live on – in case you neglected to give it some battery charging love.
Just hit *3370# on your keypad and your cell phone will lend you that power until the next time you give it a charge. But don’t think you can just take that reserve power and not charge your phone soon. After you use that reserve power, there may be some data loss.
Easter Egg #2 – Car Lockout Help
Locked yourself out of your car? Locked your keys in the trunk? Hopefully not, but should you find yourself stranded with a set of spare remote keys at home, your cell phone will lovingly retrieve them for you. Well, it won’t actually go get them, but you can remotely unlock your car through your cell phone. (You have to have remote keyless entry)
Bring your cell phone about a foot away from your car and have your friend put the spare keys up to their phone, say “abracadabra,” and press the “unlock” button. Voila! Your car should open like magic.
Easter Egg #3 – Emergency Help Anytime, Anywhere
In an emergency, your cell phone could save your behind – even if you’re not on your network. Your cell phone loves you so much that it will go out of it’s way to find any network in the world and get you some 911 help.
Dial 112 and, no matter where you are, your cell phone will find a connection and get you through to an emergency operator. Remember, this is a worldwide emergency number, so you can use it anywhere (having a GSM phone will make compatibility more likely – sorry Sprint and Verizon users).
Easter Egg #4 – Lose / Theft Lockdown
If you and your cell phone ever get separated, it will lovingly wait for you to return – no matter who comes along and tries to take advantage of it. Any would be thieves will find that your cell phone won’t give up the love, even if they swap out SIM cards.
To have your phone wait for you, you need to get the IMEI number – this is like your phone’s serial number. Dial *#06# into the keypad and you will get a string of numbers on the screen. Write this number down for safe keeping. If you lose your cell phone, call your wireless carrier and give them the IMEI number. They will lock the phone and make it useless for anybody else. You may never see your beloved cell phone again, but it’s nice to know that it will wait in eternity for your return.
Easter Egg #5 – Free 411
Now, whenever you and your cell phone need to look up a number, you can either pay upwards of $2 or use a free directory assistance service.
Google’s new service serves up directory assistance in Google Labs’ GOOG-411 service. Like you would expect, just dial GOOG-411 and an automated system will find your query.
And don’t forget the ever-popular 1-800-FREE-411. This service works essentially the same as Google Labs’ service (and actually came before GOOG411), but it’s nice to have a choice.