My new iPhone has shipped. It just left Alaska and is on it’s way to Indiana. Yes, I’m an early adopter. You got a problem with that?
It’s a good thing, because last Thursday, while in clinic, I dropped my current iPhone in the toilet.
I can’t tell you how many people have asked me if I reached in and retrieved it. I don’t understand that question. It was my iPhone! Of course I retrieved it! No, I hadn’t used the toilet yet. But it wouldn’t have mattered if I did. I have three children; my hands have been in far worse, and you do understand it was my iPhone?
It was only in there for a second, but still – the screen started flickering, the speaker stopped working, and the backlight died. I tried to turn it off, but it kept turning back on due to some short. I figured I was sunk. It sucked because even though my new phone was on the way, I still had a week to go. Moreover, I was planning on using it as a perfectly good iPod after I stopped the cellular coverage.
I brought it home and prepared to mourn. But I remembered something I’d read on the Internet about rice helping to dry out a wet phone. I poured some in a ziploc bag and put the phone in. In six hours, the condensation had disappeared from the camera hole. By the next morning, it seemed dry.
I charged it, but still – no backlight. Everything else worked, but no go on the light. I checked the Internet, and someone recommended factory restoring the software. I snickered – what could the software have to do with the backlight? But what did I have to lose?
After the software restore, the light still didn’t work. I started to bring the phone back from a backup and planned my next step.
That’s when it happened. The light came back on.
Days later, the phone works perfectly. You’d never know something had happened.
So for all of you who drop your phones in the toilet, and for those of you who lie and say they fell in a puddle or the sink or the bath, there’s hope. Don’t give up. Miracles do happen.
I’m still glad my new iPhone will be here Thursday, though. This one was in a toilet.
Update: You can stop emailing me. I already updated my old phone to iPhone OS 4. Do you not understand what I mean by “early adopter”?
