Well, it happened. In the midst of the predive excitement and suiting up on the boat, I forgot to take my iPhone 3G out of my swim suit pocket. It was a cold dive to 60 feet in Lake Michigan. Although I was wearing a "semi-dry" wet suit, my phone was not protected from water or pressure.
After surfacing and discovering the rectangular lump under my suit I wriggled it out to see that it was pretty water logged. The camera lens was filled with water droplets and the phone had powered down (or shorted out or whatever). I was due for a new phone anyway so I didn’t take it too hard. I was just bummed that I’d lose any pictures and data that I had on it.
When I got home, I pulled the SIM card out, blew air through it to shake out any water. Then I propped it up in front of a fan for several hours. Before going to bed, I put the SIM card back in, plugged it in to the charger......and much to my surprise, it powered up!!! I am still able to access email, internet, and make calls. All my data was still intact. The only permanent damage that I can see is that the screen is a little damaged (slight discoloration that’s hardly noticeable) and the camera doesn’t quite work any more. It takes pictures but the image quality is comparable to diving without your mask on.
So I guess I’ll limp along with this phone until the iPhone5 comes out.
And the lesson learned here (other than leave your phone on the boat) is that most of the iPhone electronics/battery are sealed enough to make it to 60 feet without catastrophic failure. Maybe after I get my new phone, I’ll see if it can survive 100 feet.
And if anyone was wondering, no I didn’t receive any calls while I was down there....