Well, that’s a whole lot of fun. I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket today and discovered that it’d been rebooting silently in my pocket for at least an hour. It just kept cycling through a boot cycle every 30 seconds or so, showing an Apple logo then turning off, then showing the logo again, then turning off. I plugged it into my laptop and it booted up just fine, but it immediately asked me if I wanted to power the iPhone off. It seems to work as long as it stays plugged in, but it’ll start rebooting again as soon as I unplug it.

Digging around a bit, I think the lock button on the top of the phone is broken. While it’s plugged in, it’s almost impossible to get it to work, and I end up getting the ‘Do you want to power off’ screen more often then a locked iPhone. Trying to get back to the home screen from inside of apps by pressing the big round button doesn’t always work; I end up with a screen shot instead, which is a sign that the lock button is being pressed.

Wonderful, what I really wanted to do today was to run to the Apple store and try to get a non-existent replacement phone.

Update: An Apple store 20 minutes away had a Genius Bar opening in 30 minutes, so I signed up for it online and jumped in the car. It took them about 3 minutes to decide that I needed a new phone, so they grabbed out out of the back and sent me on my way. Total time to repair, including travel time: about 50 minutes. Not too shabby.