After a short recorded conversation where I had to state, for the record, what happened to the phone and other details, he told me he’d be sending me a check for the cost of buying a new phone outright ($299), plus sales tax, minus a bit of depreciation value (8%). So I should have a check for around $290 in 3 to 5 business days. Next week I should have a new iPhone.

I expect I’ll be shelling out an extra hundred bucks or so and getting a 16GB 3GS instead of another 8GB 3G, because why not? I can’t decide if I want to pay the extra to get the 32GB or not. That much space would be pretty much perfect for carrying around my music collection.

If your curious about insurance coverage for you iPhone, I obtained mine by calling my auto insurer (Nationwide) and asking about a “Personal Property Policy” for the device. They were confused by this at first, having never gotten a request to insure an iPhone before, but I prodded them a little to look into the issue, and they were able to write a policy for me.

The premium came out ot $35 a year, it covered “All Risk” and had no deductible or co-insurance.

I’ve carried insurance on my phone through the phone company for many years, having unfortunately broken phones before and been stuck. Back on Verizon, it was $6/month and had a $50 Co-Payment. The traditional insurer was a better deal by far.

I got a couple hundred bucks back from my state tax return this year, and extreme apple fanboyism caused me to jump ship from the hellhole that was Verizon Wireless to the slightly less evil AT&T for the hot and sexy iPhone.

I’ve found I use it pretty much constantly, so much that Jane refers to it as my “mistress” who I spend more time with than her. I couldn’t counter this argument, I was too busy playing Uno.

Tonight while getting out of the car with my hands full, I fumbled the device which cascaded to the ground, screen first. After a resounding “Shit!” that earned me a dirty look from a neighborhood mother, I examined the phone, which appeared to be fine. Initially, I merely marveled at how surprisingly resilient the thing is.

After I got inside and gave it proper inspection, though, it became clear that there is a substantial crack in the glass, which runs from the lower left corner all the way to halfway up the right side. The phone is, for the moment, still fully functional, however being that the device is only usable by putting pressure on the place where it’s broken, I don’t expect that to last.

Being a forward thinking individual, I opened a $500 line of insurance on the device days after buying it through my auto insurer for the price of $35 a year. The policy assumes all risk with no deductible or co-insurance on my part, so I should be able to secure a new phone easily. I will report back on how that goes when I call them first thing Monday Morning.