Don’t let this happen to your iPhone

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It was a perfect brand-new 3G iPhone -- for 21 days, 10 hours and 22 minutes. I loved it, read books on it, praised it on Jacket Copy.

Then I dropped my iPhone -- it slipped! -- from about three feet, and it hit the sidewalk. Apple’s design gurus had miscalculated -- one fall and the screen shattered across the top corner. Little bits of glass began to chip away.

The Apple store had bad news. The only way to replace a cracked iPhone screen is to buy a whole new iPhone.

You might think a component like a broken screen could be replaced -- nope. And AppleCare, the company’s extended warranty plan, doesn’t cover accidental damage. Alex in customer service said it was sad, but that nothing could be done. It was like the time he bought a brand-new car only to have someone immediately ding it in a parking lot. Um, no -- not the same thing, really, unless he had to replace the whole car.

How many other iPhone customers have shattered the screens of the month-old 3G? Hard to say. Apple’s press office wouldn’t: ‘I don’t have that information for you,’ was the representative’s response.

With 23 months left on the AT&T contract and a cracked iPhone, what’s a Mac lover to do? Pony up another $299 for a new iPhone 3G, of course, and hope that the American Express buyer-protection plan comes through. Also, buy a bouncy protective case. And maybe adapt some mitten clips so it never falls again.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Kellogg writes about books at the LA Times’ Jacket Copy blog