I seem to have angered the patron saint of mobile phones in some way this week, because it's been a very bad 24 hours so far as my phones are concerned.
A week ago I took the case off my iPhone because the plastic had started to peel, and I hadn't yet purchased a replacement. Which meant, of course, that I would have to drop my phone on a hard surface for the first time since I've owned it. When I did that last night, it shattered the glass on my phone. :(
Ironically, I'd just read a story in the NY Times last week about people doing iPhone screen repairs, and had mentioned to Gerald that he and Lane should think about starting a part-time business doing just that. So, we're speeding up the "let's try it" timetable and have ordered the parts and tools for the repair on my phone.
The cost of having the screen repaired at an Apple store is around $200. The cost of the parts, tools, and expedited shipping for a DIY repair was less than $25. Since my phone is already out of warranty, it doesn't really matter that we're voiding the warranty by doing this. And the comments from Amazon customers who've bought the same repair components are consistently positive. Keep your fingers crossed that we'll be able to successfully repair mine, because I wanted to wait to buy a new one until the new models come out this summer...
The phone trauma seemed as though it would be minimal, since I still had the Verizon Motoroal Droid that I got at GDC and hadn't really played with. I charged it back up last night, loaded a few apps and files onto it, set my Google Voice number to ring on it, and was ready to switch to that as my primary phone until the iPhone was repaired. However, the Droid had other ideas, and decided to pick last night as the perfect time to have its screen go completely dead. The phone's not dead; the status light blinks, the buttons and keyboard light up, and it plays cheerful sounds when it restarts. But there's nothing to be seen on the screen.
I took the Droid in to the local Verizon store, where they determined that they couldn't help me at all because the phone had been provided as part of the developer program. So I ended up on the phone with Verizon support for 30 minutes while they figured out what to do. They decided to FedEx me a replacement Droid, but because it's Friday today I won't get the Droid until Monday >.<
The good news is that while my iPhone looks awful, is somewhat hard to read, and feels icky to scroll my finger on, it still works pretty much perfectly. So I'm not completely without a phone for the weekend.
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