5 Things You Never Knew Your Cell Phone Could Do

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:

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

SECOND: 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 almost always unlock. 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).


THIRD: Hidden Battery Power

Imagine your cell battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370# . Your cell phone will rest art 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.

FOURTH: 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..

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 SIMcard, 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.

FIFTH: 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 411information option, simply dial: (800) FREE 411, or (800) 373-3411 without incurring any charge at all. Program this into your cell phone now. This is sponsored by MacDonald's.

Hartnell Taking Care of Business

The Philadelphia Flyers are learning they don't have to resemble their Broad Street Bullies ancestors to be treated like they do. Normally that kind of linkage would be a good thing, because those mid-'70s Stanley Cup teams were the toast of the town and represented the pinnacle of success for the organization. But these days it's a problem for the Flyers, who are spending far more time on the penalty kill than on the power play.

Sports Sponsorships - Anheuser-Busch InBev

The top spender in sports, wielding a $365 million marketing budget -- is giving up a number of prized exclusive deals with major leagues, a major shift in strategy for the marketer. In recent months, the brewer has reworked more than a dozen pro-team partnerships involving the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer in ways that sacrifice exclusivity for cheaper deals. The move has allowed beer-industry rivals to step in and pick up key deals once off-limits to them.

Grossman's Video Reel

FI Creative promo reel

Marketing Execs: Researchers Could Use a Softer Touch: ARF Panel Talk Emphasizes Need to Ditch Surveys and Listen to Consumers' Stories, Feelings

By Jack Neff

Published: January 27, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- Long known for crunching numbers and being statistical gatekeepers of the marketing industry, market researchers need to shift their focus toward listening and developing ideas better on the front end and away from "feeding the metrics monster," Kim Dedeker, market research VP for Procter & Gamble co., told an Advertising Research Foundation forum on the industry's future.

It's potentially a huge change for P&G, the industry's biggest buyer, which now spends about 80% of its market-research budget on evaluating ideas prior to launch rather than listening to consumers on the front or back end of a product launch to help spawn ideas or improve products.

Softer skills
Ms. Dedeker was one of several players who said researchers need to employ softer skills, such as finding and telling compelling stories or making greater use of ethnography and online communities. The latter has helped lead brokerage Charles Schwab to an unlikely surge in new accounts and funds under management in recent months even as financial markets plummeted.

"What we've lost, because of that focus [on evaluating product concepts], is the opportunity to listen more on the front end and co-create with consumers and to sense and respond on the other side," said Ms. Dedeker, P&G's VP-external capability development for consumer and market knowledge.

She blamed corporate habit and Wall Street expectations for low risk and predictable results for the focus on the gatekeeper role, adding that she has heard that other package-goods marketers, automotive companies and others have told her their research outlays are similarly skewed.

"We're so focused on initiative qualification scores, on the check box that comes with the survey and feeding the metrics monster within our companies," Ms. Dedeker said.

Ms. Dedeker said marketers need to look at engaging consumers more, using tools such as social media to glean insights and winning back the trust of consumers by showing concern about them as human beings.

For Charles Schwab, social media -- specifically custom communities created by Communispace for such groups as Gen Xers or boomers within five years of retirement -- has been a solution for getting beyond conventional surveys and connecting with consumers in their own voice.