Phone Tricks Secrets

Secretly Monitor A Room
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Monitor your baby or secretly spy on your friends.
A simple secret trick that works with most cell phones that have a speaker phone option is monitoring a room. You can use your phone as a baby monitor--free minutes plan is advised for that--or as tool to secretly spy on someone. Turn off the sound on your speaker and set the phone to 'Auto Answer.' If you can't turn the speaker off, place a strip of tape over it to muffle the sound of the noise around you. Set your ringtone to 'Silent.' If your phone doesn't have a silent ringer, you can download one free at PhoneRated.com. Place the phone in a concealed area of the room you wish to monitor and call your phone from another phone in another area to listen.
Make Free International Calls
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Download a soft-phone to make free international calls online.
The Messiphone website offers a wide variety of cell phone tricks and secrets for eight different brands of cell phones including Samsung, Nokia and Blackberry. A little known secret about Internet accessible Apple iPhones is that you can make free international calls from them. Download a free program called Tuitalk to your phone and make mobile-to-mobile and mobile-to-land line calls to more than 40 countries domestically and worldwide. The website hosts a simple video tutorial to walk you through the free download.
Create Free Ringtones
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Use your microphone to record homemade ringtones.
Most cell phones--old and new--have some type of voice or sound recording option and if yours is one of them you can make free ringtones. Use the recording tool--usually found in 'Tools' or 'Applications'--to record your voice, music, television, sound effects or any sounds you like. Save the recordings in your gallery or media folder and assign them to your contacts or as your main ringtone.
Flashlight
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Your back light makes a handy flashlight.
One simple cell phone trick that really comes in handy is using your cell phone as a flashlight. Though you may not notice during daytime hours or in well lit rooms, the face of your cell phone gives off a considerable amount of light to keep your screen and keypad lit. In the darkness, just turning on your phone can illuminate small areas and increase your visibility. In a pinch, your cell phone makes a convenient mini flashlight.

How to Get Jokes Texted to Your Cell Phone

1. Navigate to a website that offers a free daily joke texting service. Some popular choices include sms44.com, zedge.net and frengo.com.
2. Sign up for the site's joke texting service by providing your cell phone number in the spaces provided.
3. Submit your sign-up information to begin receiving jokes via text message from the sites you chose.

How to Send SMS From a PC to a Handphone

1. Ask your intended recipient for the name of his or her cell phone service provider.
2. Determine the character string for the SMS gateway for the recipients service provider. The character string looks like the latter part of an email address. For example, the SMS gateway for T-mobile (t-mobile.com) is '@tmomail.net'. Details for other carriers is provided in Resources.
3. Compose an email and put the recipient's cell phone email address in the 'To:' field. For example, if the recipient's phone number is 555-321-1234 and her network is T-Mobile, then the email is addressed to '5553211234@tmomail.net'
4. Write a short message to your recipient using the 'Subject' field or the body of the email. Keep in mind that SMS are limited to 160 characters. Longer messages will be truncated into several smaller messages.
5. Click 'Send' and the SMS is sent to your recipients cell phone handset.

How to Connect a Nokia Hands Free Kit

1. Power on the Bluetooth Nokia hands-free kit. Turn on the phone if the power isn't on yet.
2. Bring up the menu on the phone and select 'Bluetooth.' A new menu will appear. Select 'Pair new device from the menu.'
3. Punch in the pair code for the Nokia hands-free device. The code depends on the product you have and your phone model. Once you type in the code your phone will search for the Nokia device.
4. Press 'OK' and the Nokia hands-free device will be connected to your wireless phone.

How to Trace an SMS Number

1. Save the SMS number on your phone. You can also write it down on a piece of paper.
2. Choose a reverse phone look-up services. A few that you can consider using include PeopleEngine, BestPeopleSearch and Numberway. You will get some free information on these sited. But you will have to pay a fee for more detailed info like the person's name, address and service provider attached to the number you want to look up. As of 2010 these services usually cost $14 to $29, depending on whether you just want information on one number or a series of numbers.
3. Type in the number of the SMS you received and click on the 'Search' button. Wait for it to tell you what information is available. Again, you will get some free information such as the city that the number is registered, but for more details you will need to pay for it. You will be told beforehand what details are available. Many of these services come with a money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the information that you get. Once you have entered your payment information, a report will be emailed to you.

How to Send an SMS Text to a Phone

Smartphone
1. Go to your contacts list.
2. Touch the name of the person you wish to text. The next screen should give you options such as calling this person or texting his phone; touch on the texting option.
3. Type your message using the onscreen keyboard, which is similar to a computer keyboard. Press 'Send' when you are finished.
Numeric Keypad
4. Go to your contacts list and select the name of the person you wish to text. Choose the option to send an SMS message.
5. Use your numeric keypad to type out a message. Each number on the pad corresponds to certain letters; for example, the '2' key corresponds with 'A,' 'B' and 'C.' Press a key several times in succession to reach the letter you want. For example, since 'C' is the third letter on the '2' key, press the '2' key three times to type a 'C.'
6. Pause for a moment between letters. When you stop hitting a number key, the phone advances to the next letter. Repeat the process until you have finished your message, then hit the 'Send' key.

How to Send an SMS From a Webpage

1. Open a Web page designed to send text messages from the Internet (see Resources).
2. Enter the recipient's 10 digit phone number in the 'To' or 'Mobile Number' field.
3. Type in a return email address in the designated field. Use the drop-down box to select the recipient's mobile carrier.
4. Type your desired message in the 'Enter Text Message' field. Most sites limit characters to 140 or less.
5. Agree to the site terms and conditions (if applicable.) Click the 'Send Message' button to send your text message.