The day my iPhone touch screen died (updated)

I woke up on Friday and grabbed my iPhone from its dock, like I usually do, and headed out the door in a rush. When I received my first phone call I couldn't slide the "Slide to Answer" slider. Hmmm. Later, when I wanted to read some email, same deal. The touchscreen wasn't accepting any input.

I tried to shut the phone off by holding the power key at the top, but this requires sliding the slider at the top of the screen. Again, no dice. I tried power cycling it by holding the power button and the home button. Nothing.

My iPhone had suffered no recent trama, no drops, dunks or even splashes. I always keep it in a case and generally baby it. It has been dropped in the past, however. Who among us can claim that they've never dropped their phone? Mine had a couple of minor "character" marks on the corner of the aluminum case.

What to do?

Since it is my phone and I live by it, I had to have it fixed immediately. Not to mention the fact that text messages and voice mails were starting to back up. Because I was traveling, I stopped into the closest Apple store, in Ardmore, PA. Have you been in an Apple store in the week before Christmas? It's madness.

I bellied up to the Genius bar sans appointment and waited patiently. While sitting there I noticed the the loop cycling on monitors above me were stacked with people waiting for appointments. The screen of "Mac" appointments was full, as was the screen of "iPod" appointments. In fact, the scrolling screens also said something to the effect of "no more appointments were available today." Not good.

When one of the Genius' (Andy) had a moment to breathe he politely asked me what my deal was. Explaining that I had no appointment and a funky iPhone he told me that they were swamped and that he'd try to slip me in if someone didn't show or was late. Lucky for me he called my name within 10 minutes.

After running through the usual tests (power off, restart) it was pretty obvious that the multi-touch screen was hosed. He carefully scrutinized the dings in the top corners of the case and asked me if I dropped it. I told that I had but that it was months ago and that the touchscreen just died that day. Honest! He must have believed me because a few minutes and a signature later I was on my way with a new iPhone.

I noticed was that the new iPhone has deeper engraving on the rear than the original model. Also the serial number format is different. My June 29 iPhone's serial number was 7R725KDLLL6 (last four changed), My December 21 iPhone's serial number is 83750FLLLL6 (last four changed).

I used Field Test Mode (*3001#12345#*) to check which LCD panel it had and I'm slightly disappointed that is has the dimmer "7-series" panel. The new iPhone also ships with firmware 1.1.2 pre-installed so you can't jailbreak it without reverting to firmware 1.1.1. Not that I would do that anyway :)

Otherwise it's got that new iPhone smell and I'm elated at the excellent service considering that I didn't have an appointment and it was Christmas week in the second busiest Apple store in PA.

Have you had to swap out your iPhone?