Howdy, folks -

Got an interesting puzzle - interesting to me, anyway.

Last week, while doing some mowing, I found a Sony-Ericsson phone in the
grass by the side of the road. It's in pristine shape, physically, and
pulling the back off it reveals the model info and such, but no clues to
ownership. The battery was *TOTALLY* flat when I found it, but with the
help of some online stuff I stumbled across, I've managed to rig a power
supply for it (I'm handy with electronics) to charge the battery, and I
can get it to power up in what appears to be "proper" fashion, but
that's where I hit a wall - I'm not a cell-phone owner/user.

Part of why I don't own a cell phone myself is the fact that where I
live is basically a radio "black hole" due to mountain terrain that
makes ground-based TV, most radios, and every cell phone that's ever
visited the property about as useful as mudflaps on a submarine, so I
can't get it to call anywhere. If I even knew where to TRY to get it to
call! The contact list appears to be empty, and the only call in the
list (in the "outgoing calls" section of the calls list) shows a date
more than 2 months ago, and a time of 1 minute, suggesting that it might
have been a mis-dial - when I try calling that number from my land-line,
it gives a "this number has been disconnected" message) which makes me
think the thing has been lost and long since given up on. No obviously
visible clues to ownership - Whoever own(s/ed) it apparently wasn't into
the "personalize my phone" thing.

So, the question is how, if at all, can I find out who this thing
belongs to? Or can I, based on what's available from the phone itself?
*WITHOUT* spending any money to do it - it's a fancy "pile of junk" as
far as I'm concerned, and as such, I'm *NOT* going to be laying out any
$$ or very much effort on tracking down the owner - Before I do that
it'll become an addition to my "might be strippable for various
electronic bits and pieces" box.

Assuming I can't easily find out who belongs to it, I wouldn't mind
using what appears to be camera functions built into the thing for
various purposes of my own, but I can't figure out how that works on
this little beast - anybody got any info on that? I'd love to be able to
shoot pictures/movies with it, then pump 'em into my computer, but so
far, all I get when I play with the controls and work my way into the
"camera-icon" stuff is a black screen - Perhaps the camera part is
bollixed, and that's why it was laying on the side of the road?

Anyway, if anyone can help me figure this thing out, I'd be glad to hear
any advice.

As I said, I *WILL NOT* spend any money on the project, and am only
willing to invest very little effort, so spare me the "take it to a
dealer" or similar advice.

On the other hand, make me an offer for it, and I might be persuaded to
ship it to you rather than scraping it for parts.

Either way, thanks!

"FoundCell" <Spamkill@dont.bother.its.invalid> wrote in message
news:Spamkill-7819BB.07010320062006@nnrp-virt.nntp.sonic.net...
|
| Howdy, folks -
|
| Got an interesting puzzle - interesting to me, anyway.
|
| Last week, while doing some mowing, I found a Sony-Ericsson phone in the
| grass by the side of the road. It's in pristine shape, physically, and
| pulling the back off it reveals the model info and such, but no clues to
| ownership. The battery was *TOTALLY* flat when I found it, but with the
| help of some online stuff I stumbled across, I've managed to rig a power
| supply for it (I'm handy with electronics) to charge the battery, and I
| can get it to power up in what appears to be "proper" fashion, but
| that's where I hit a wall - I'm not a cell-phone owner/user.
|
| Part of why I don't own a cell phone myself is the fact that where I
| live is basically a radio "black hole" due to mountain terrain that
| makes ground-based TV, most radios, and every cell phone that's ever
| visited the property about as useful as mudflaps on a submarine, so I
| can't get it to call anywhere. If I even knew where to TRY to get it to
| call! The contact list appears to be empty, and the only call in the
| list (in the "outgoing calls" section of the calls list) shows a date
| more than 2 months ago, and a time of 1 minute, suggesting that it might
| have been a mis-dial - when I try calling that number from my land-line,
| it gives a "this number has been disconnected" message) which makes me
| think the thing has been lost and long since given up on. No obviously
| visible clues to ownership - Whoever own(s/ed) it apparently wasn't into
| the "personalize my phone" thing.
|
| So, the question is how, if at all, can I find out who this thing
| belongs to? Or can I, based on what's available from the phone itself?
| *WITHOUT* spending any money to do it - it's a fancy "pile of junk" as
| far as I'm concerned, and as such, I'm *NOT* going to be laying out any
| $$ or very much effort on tracking down the owner - Before I do that
| it'll become an addition to my "might be strippable for various
| electronic bits and pieces" box.
|
| Assuming I can't easily find out who belongs to it, I wouldn't mind
| using what appears to be camera functions built into the thing for
| various purposes of my own, but I can't figure out how that works on
| this little beast - anybody got any info on that? I'd love to be able to
| shoot pictures/movies with it, then pump 'em into my computer, but so
| far, all I get when I play with the controls and work my way into the
| "camera-icon" stuff is a black screen - Perhaps the camera part is
| bollixed, and that's why it was laying on the side of the road?
|
| Anyway, if anyone can help me figure this thing out, I'd be glad to hear
| any advice.
|
| As I said, I *WILL NOT* spend any money on the project, and am only
| willing to invest very little effort, so spare me the "take it to a
| dealer" or similar advice.
|
| On the other hand, make me an offer for it, and I might be persuaded to
| ship it to you rather than scraping it for parts.
|
| Either way, thanks!

If there still is a SIM card in it, and you have a CLI unit that shows the
number of the caller, try calling your own number with the mobile phone
somewhere where the phone can contact the base. Most operators can help
telling who the owner of a number is, (unless it's a pre-paid anonymous
SIM). There is a quite big chance however that the SIM card already has been
blocked by the former owner, to that you cannot make the call.
Another method might be to trace the phone using the IMEI code (enter *#06#
on the keyboard to get a 15 digit unique ID for the phone displayed on the
screen). There is a possibility that the phone has been registered to an
owner by the operator. This code can be used to lock the phone in case it
has been stolen or otherwise lost.
In many countries in Europe, there has recently been a campaign to add the
contact "ICE" in your address book; ICE stands for "In Case of Emergency",
and is intended to be use if, for example, someone finds you unconcious or
finds your phone. The ICE contact should contain a number to someone close
to the owner of the phone. A contact named "HOME" or "Mummy" or similar is a
good candidate to look for in someone's address book otherwise. But, as you
mentioned, if the former owner wasn't into the "personalize my phone" thing,
and perhaps wasn't "techie" enough to create contact list entries in the
phone, it does not help in this case.


/Dan

/Dan

In article <e7e0ue$55h$1@news.al.sw.ericsson.se>,
"Dan Altemyr" <no.this.is.not.my@email.address> wrote:

> If there still is a SIM card in it,

Pardon me while I go "huh?"

What's this "SIM card", and where do I look/how do I check to find out
if it has one?

> and you have a CLI unit that shows the
> number of the caller,

CLI = caller ID? If so, that's a no-go. My land-line is a "bare minimum
dial-tone only" that gets used almost exclusively for dialing up my ISP.
No "fancy toys" of any kind on it.

> Another method might be to trace the phone using the IMEI code (enter *#06#
> on the keyboard to get a 15 digit unique ID for the phone displayed on the
> screen).

OK, that worked, and I've got a meaningless (to me, obviously - I'm sure
*SOMEBODY* can make some sense out of it) string of digits copied down.
Now I find myself in the classic "Marmaduke finally caught a mailtruck"
dilemma - namely, "Now that I've caught it, what do I do with it???"

> There is a possibility that the phone has been registered to an
> owner by the operator. This code can be used to lock the phone in case it
> has been stolen or otherwise lost.

Operator presumably equals Cingular, in this case? (since Cingular
branding is splattered all over the phone, and pretty much every menu)
Presumably my next move is to call Cingular with this number, and see
what, if anything, they have to say?

> In many countries in Europe, there has recently been a campaign to add the
> contact "ICE" in your address book; ICE stands for "In Case of Emergency",
> and is intended to be use if, for example, someone finds you unconcious or
> finds your phone. The ICE contact should contain a number to someone close
> to the owner of the phone. A contact named "HOME" or "Mummy" or similar is a
> good candidate to look for in someone's address book otherwise. But, as you
> mentioned, if the former owner wasn't into the "personalize my phone" thing,
> and perhaps wasn't "techie" enough to create contact list entries in the
> phone, it does not help in this case.


No help at all, since, as far as I can figure out, there's nothing in
the contact list. Not "nothing useful", but "nothing *AT ALL*". I would
be tempted to guess this means the former owner was as "cell-phone
illiterate" as I am.

The only number I can manage to get displayed is in the "dialed calls"
list, showing that the call lasted 1 minute, happened over 2 months
(coming up on three, now) ago, and dialing it from my land-line gets me
to a "This number has been disconnected or is no longer in service - no
further information is available about..." phoneco recording. Which
makes me think that it may have been a mis-dial to begin with.

How long is one of these things supposed to hold onto list info like
that when not powered, anyway? Or is it likely that my diddling around
to jury-rig a power supply for it caused "brain-wipe" on the unit? I
finally settled on 5 volts at half an amp based on the battery markings,
but before reaching that decision, I went thorugh several iterations of
"Is 1.5 volts enough juice to make it work? No? How about 2.0? No? Well,
what about 3? Still no? How about..." (lather, rinse, repeat) until I
finally got it to vibrate (and spook the bejeebers outta me!) and turn
on, then start reporting that it was charging.

Possibly the low-voltage condition caused some sort of "brain-wipe" to
happen? So for all I can say with any certainy, the contact list may
have had everything but the owner's shoe size in it before I started
messing around, if you take my meaning...

Guess my fingers tripped over themselves when I made the first post.
Sorry for any confusion this may have caused, and I just noticed it.

Other than the transposed digits, the rest of the discussion up to now
is correct.

On Thu, 22 Jun 2006 10:43:34 -0700, FoundCell
<Spamkill@dont.bother.its.invalid> wrote:

>In article <e7e0ue$55h$1@news.al.sw.ericsson.se>,
> "Dan Altemyr" <no.this.is.not.my@email.address> wrote:
>
>> If there still is a SIM card in it,
>
>Pardon me while I go "huh?"
>
>What's this "SIM card", and where do I look/how do I check to find out
>if it has one?

Look under the battery.
>
>> and you have a CLI unit that shows the
>> number of the caller,
>
>CLI = caller ID? If so, that's a no-go. My land-line is a "bare minimum
>dial-tone only" that gets used almost exclusively for dialing up my ISP.
>No "fancy toys" of any kind on it.
You can usually get it by dialing a code. The phone company will
charge you 50 cents or so for using it. i think it *69 on a touch tone
phone, 1169 on a dial phone. It will give the number of the last
caller if it is available.
>
>> Another method might be to trace the phone using the IMEI code (enter *#06#
>> on the keyboard to get a 15 digit unique ID for the phone displayed on the
>> screen).
>
>OK, that worked, and I've got a meaningless (to me, obviously - I'm sure
>*SOMEBODY* can make some sense out of it) string of digits copied down.
>Now I find myself in the classic "Marmaduke finally caught a mailtruck"
>dilemma - namely, "Now that I've caught it, what do I do with it???"
>
>> There is a possibility that the phone has been registered to an
>> owner by the operator. This code can be used to lock the phone in case it
>> has been stolen or otherwise lost.
>
>Operator presumably equals Cingular, in this case? (since Cingular
>branding is splattered all over the phone, and pretty much every menu)
>Presumably my next move is to call Cingular with this number, and see
>what, if anything, they have to say?
>
>> In many countries in Europe, there has recently been a campaign to add the
>> contact "ICE" in your address book; ICE stands for "In Case of Emergency",
>> and is intended to be use if, for example, someone finds you unconcious or
>> finds your phone. The ICE contact should contain a number to someone close
>> to the owner of the phone. A contact named "HOME" or "Mummy" or similar is a
>> good candidate to look for in someone's address book otherwise. But, as you
>> mentioned, if the former owner wasn't into the "personalize my phone" thing,
>> and perhaps wasn't "techie" enough to create contact list entries in the
>> phone, it does not help in this case.
>
>
>No help at all, since, as far as I can figure out, there's nothing in
>the contact list. Not "nothing useful", but "nothing *AT ALL*". I would
>be tempted to guess this means the former owner was as "cell-phone
>illiterate" as I am.
>
>The only number I can manage to get displayed is in the "dialed calls"
>list, showing that the call lasted 1 minute, happened over 2 months
>(coming up on three, now) ago, and dialing it from my land-line gets me
>to a "This number has been disconnected or is no longer in service - no
>further information is available about..." phoneco recording. Which
>makes me think that it may have been a mis-dial to begin with.
>
>How long is one of these things supposed to hold onto list info like
>that when not powered, anyway? Or is it likely that my diddling around
>to jury-rig a power supply for it caused "brain-wipe" on the unit? I
>finally settled on 5 volts at half an amp based on the battery markings,
>but before reaching that decision, I went thorugh several iterations of
>"Is 1.5 volts enough juice to make it work? No? How about 2.0? No? Well,
>what about 3? Still no? How about..." (lather, rinse, repeat) until I
>finally got it to vibrate (and spook the bejeebers outta me!) and turn
>on, then start reporting that it was charging.
>
>Possibly the low-voltage condition caused some sort of "brain-wipe" to
>happen? So for all I can say with any certainy, the contact list may
>have had everything but the owner's shoe size in it before I started
>messing around, if you take my meaning...