This past weekend I had a near tragedy. I washed my iPhone in the washing machine. Here’s how it happened since I am super duper careful with how I treat my possessions. First, my dog vomited on m

y comforter. I put down my iPhone on the bed, not my night stand, and cleaned up the mess. Later that morning, I gathered the comforter and put it in the washing machine. Luckily my washing machine is a front loader and it uses water sparingly, which means, the iPhone was never submerged in water. Another lucky thing is that the iPhone was protected in the middle of the comforter. It got wet, but never drenched as if I had dropped it into the deep end of the pool.

To dry my iPhone out I put the air on in my car. The car air is as dry of air as you can get. I put my iPHone in a mesh bag and taped it to the front of an air vent to let the dry air run through the phone. I used warm air, not hot. I left it running through the heated air for about an hour. After that I took my phone and put it in rice in a vacuum bag. The rice draws out the air and the vacuum

bag allows no moisture in. So far, my iPhone works fine, and the streaks in the screen are clearing up. I am hoping the streaks on the screen will completely dry. I have kept the iPhone in the vacuum bag with the rice for two days. I plan on leaving it in the bag overnight and checking it tomorrow morning again. I kept from using the phone for 2 days now because I really want the components inside to dry out and not heat up and corrode since the water I was using had soap mixed in. I have not checked the speakers yet.

Overall, if you ever drop your iPhone in water, to dry it out, use warm air, never hot hot air as in a blow dryer, and then put your iPhone in a bag of rice and seal it. I used one of those food save

r vacuum bags and used a Ziplock vacuum to take all the air out. The vacuum bag will allow the air to stay dry and keep moisture out. the rice will also help soak up any moisture left. Also be sure to take the SIM card out. This will allow the phone to air out even more giving access to inside the phone, even thought that slot is small, it still can help dry out the phone.

Abilene Christian University in Abilene, TX passed out iPhones to their Freshman class to start using in the classroom.  Interesting idea.  I don’t even have an iPhone right now because, well, they are too expensive, but one day when I too am a tenured-track professor, I can take attendance right from my phone. But, what interests me, is the fact, professors can create interactive features to their lectures, which creates interactive learning!!!   And, I LOVE interactive learning!!!!

Cell phones welcomed in some classrooms

Cell phones have long been anathema in the classroom, banned as a potential distraction, at best, and as a possible vehicle for cheating, at worst. But lately, educators have begun changing their tune on mobile phones.

Abilene Christian University will hand out Apple’s iPhone 3G smartphone to two-thirds of this year’s entering class of 950 freshmen. Students will be expected to use the devices to brainstorm ideas and get virtual handouts and podcasts during class. Instructors will use them for such tasks as monitoring attendance.

“This is a new platform for learning, in the same way a laptop or a desktop was a new platform,” says William Rankin, co-director of mobile learning research at the school in Abilene, Texas.

A Teen heading off to college this fall found a way to make the Apple iPhone work with another wireless company.

Teen to Apple: Never say never

Hackers got credit for another victory Friday, as news spread that a New Jersey teenager broke into his iPhone and reconfigured it so the machine could make calls via a wireless carrier other than AT&T.

The iPhone, available since late June, is supposed to work only with AT&T, which has a five-year exclusive contract. But limiting the touchscreen phone to a single carrier immediately was seen by many tech-savvy tinkerers as an invitation to assert their control over the device.