Ok I just want to say, if the device is powered OFF, its OFF. There's no physically-possible way for a powered off device to transmit any signal whatsoever.
All those phony warnings about how your phone can be tracked, even while "off" are bull just to scare lesser tech savvy individuals. When they say off, they mean when you have the screen off, but the phone is still powered on, but in a standby state. In this case yes its possible for your phone to "transmit a signal" while "off" but this is totally different then holding the power button down for 3 seconds, and pressing "Power Off." This is the equivalent to pressing Start -> Shut down on your computer. Its off. Period. I dunno about you guys but when my computers off it can't transmit me any porn so I guess it can't transmit anything else eitherwell guess what the same applies to your phone.
Now as for the debate of whether to pull the battery or power cycle through the OS, its the same end result only the means of getting there are different. Sometimes you NEED to pull the battery, point in case stuck at the M logo. Other times you just want to get a fresh boot. In that case it is not necessary to pull the battery.
For the sake of curing temporary bugs in the system, a power cycle via the OS is more than sufficient.
So glad some others out there share my resent for those who live by these false beliefs (powered off transmitting signals, battery pull doing something more than just turning off the device) lol. Thanks and hope this helps clear things up for anyone still confused.
Wanna give out your......Nevermind.
Within 5 minutes, anyone's phone Mic , camera and GPS can be monitored on any modern cell phone.
Please don't mislead people into false "security", this has been proven wrong too many times.
Anyway, the battery has to be out to truly power off a cell phone and it only needs pulled
if the phone locks up and you cannot soft reboot.