4 ms·

I had a similar issue - the glass on the back of my Pixel (5 I think?) cracked right by the power button, and it seemed to be kind of OK but I got a new phone a

by kimixa 3y ago

I had a similar issue - the glass on the back of my Pixel (5 I think?) cracked right by the power button, and it seemed to be kind of OK but I got a new phone anyway, but left the old one in my glove box of my car where I used it for the bluetooth entry to the parking garage at work (and because re-enrolling was a pain). It didn't have the sim setup or wifi enabled so didn't think much of it. This worked fine for a few months, just turning it on at the gate then off afterwards and threw it back in the glove compartment. Until one day driving home I heard a weird beeping, then a voice from the glove box asking what my emergency was. I shouted back pulling over and fumbling to get the phone out, and told the responder my phone had called them by itself. I was a little surprised as I thought every call, even abandoned, had to be followed up on, in case there was coercion? But I guess not if you just blame the phone. I guess the buttons had shorted to turn the phone on, then ended up going into the emergency call? I couldn't even turn it off at that point as the power button refused to work and the digitizer was partially non-functional. A bit of a pain, and a (hopefully small) waste of an emergency responder's time, but I can see this sort of thing being relatively common - in "normal use" I've had my phone somehow end up on the emergency call menu, just being jostled and unlocked or fat fingering the wrong buttons, so wouldn't be surprised if unneeded emergency calls are relatively common on even fully functional devices. But I guess that cost is worth paying if it's more convenient and quick when there is an emergency?

Twisell 3y ago
I'v heard from my safety volunteer colleague that damaged (or neglected) lithium-ion powered devices should be regarded as malicious fire hazard. So unless you actively intend to set your own car on fire I urge you to end this habit and send the broken phone to an adapted recycling procedure. (This is also why unrelatedly to the many pollution issues, throwing lithium-ion into landfill is like setting up a time bomb for our kids)
qwertfisch 3y ago
In Germany it is not possible to call emergency without an active SIM (if it is PIN protected, the PIN has to be entered before). This has been deliberately disabled since February 2009 because there were too many anonymous calls for fun or (how idiotic!) to test if a secondhand phone still works.
- alias_neo 3y ago
  That sounds kind of insane; the whole point of being able to call emergency numbers in the UK on a phone without a SIM, and/or without unlocking it, is that it's an emergency. The solution you describe sounds like a potentially dangerous technical solution to a cultural problem. I don't hear of people phoning 999 in the UK to test a second hand phone works, or for fun. What happens in the case where the only phone to hand happens to be someone else's and said person is incapacitated, or otherwise incapable of unlocking it?

by kimixa 3y ago

Twisell 3y ago

I'v heard from my safety volunteer colleague that damaged (or neglected) lithium-ion powered devices should be regarded as malicious fire hazard. So unless you actively intend to set your own car on fire I urge you to end this habit and send the broken phone to an adapted recycling procedure. (This is also why unrelatedly to the many pollution issues, throwing lithium-ion into landfill is like setting up a time bomb for our kids)

qwertfisch 3y ago

In Germany it is not possible to call emergency without an active SIM (if it is PIN protected, the PIN has to be entered before). This has been deliberately disabled since February 2009 because there were too many anonymous calls for fun or (how idiotic!) to test if a secondhand phone still works.

alias_neo 3y ago
That sounds kind of insane; the whole point of being able to call emergency numbers in the UK on a phone without a SIM, and/or without unlocking it, is that it's an emergency. The solution you describe sounds like a potentially dangerous technical solution to a cultural problem. I don't hear of people phoning 999 in the UK to test a second hand phone works, or for fun. What happens in the case where the only phone to hand happens to be someone else's and said person is incapacitated, or otherwise incapable of unlocking it?