Hi Gadget Geeks –I wrote Judie recently about the frustrating time I had living with a smartphone with a broken touch screen and she thought it would make a good Gear Diary story. Hope you can learn from my experience!

I’ve been a Pocket PC Phone Edition owner since the summer of 2003, when I bought a Samsung i700 for use with Verizon Wireless. I’ve been using various PDAs (mostly Pocket PCs and an M100 Palm Pilot) since 1999 when I first bought a Casio E-125. Currently, I own the Samsung i730 (bought July 2005) and it’s been a good run. Well, sufficed it to say that I love my i730-I really use it all the time to manage my work day and my personal life.

Whether it’s my banking contacts or the numerous meetings or deadlines I have to meet or managing what and where I’m meeting my girlfriend for our next date (sometimes even trying to figure out where that ladies’ shoe store is in Soho or the East Village or to find out if the engagement rings at Blue Nile are really nicer than Tiffany’s) or which doctor’s appointment I need to take Mom to, my i730 is there with pocket internet explorer, contacts, calendar and pocket word (so I can keep notes on how my girlfriend likes her hot chocolate and chai lattes at Starbucks ) to get me through the day. Thank goodness for pocket Google when you’re trying to find that elusive East Village Indian restaurant or need that pocket pc alarm to remind you of that 2pm meeting with your boss! Well, things came to a screeching stop a couple of Wednesdays ago during a busy day a the office - I had a very short lunch break before my next meeting (this was maybe the third of four that day) and I really needed to get to my desk and start eating and check my e-mail. Well, as I was rushing out of the restroom to get back to my desk, my i730, while in its case, fell off my belt to the floor with a sharp thud. I picked it up right away and thought nothing of it - I’ve dropped my phone about a half dozen times in the past. Well, I got back to my desk and took the phone out of its case and oh no, the touch screen was cracked! It looked like someone threw a rock at it - it still worked, right? Wrong! Parts of the touch screen worked but most of the screen wasn’t responsive - I could touch the screen to open the alarms screen but couldn’t cancel or set any new alarms and contacts would open but I couldn’t dial from it or edit any entries directly on the touch screen. In fact, the pocket pc worked fine but it was the touch screen that didn’t give me normal access anymore. The keyboard still worked but honestly, it’s a poor cumbersome substitute for the touch screen. What to do?

I called Verizon Wireless and confirmed that I have been paying for total equipment protection coverage from Asurion. I’ve been paying $5.99 a month to Asurion and I’m glad I did. I called Asurion and it took me half an hour on the phone with a computer and voice prompts and a customer service person to process my insurance claim. They promised either a refurb or a new i730 with next day delivery. The cost was only a $50 deductible for a phone that would otherwise cost at least about $200 to replace.

Well, having a half functioning phone is no fun (yes, the phone function still worked) and it made it tough now to manage my day; I couldn’t update my appointments or easily access my contacts. And my alarm reminders couldn’t be turned off! This almost turned into a real embarrassing problem on Thursday night at the theater with my girlfriend. We were seated at the theater with 2 minutes to go for the curtain to go up at 7pm on Prelude to a Kiss with John Mahoney when they announced, please shut off your cell phone/pagers. I couldn’t shut down my alarm reminders and there was an alarm set for Thursday night at 8pm! If this thing went off during the play I would be the center of some really nasty looks and shushes! And I was only 5 rows from the stage, orchestra center! Yikes! I used the volume control to lower the volume to its lowest but it wouldn’t go to vibrate or shut off! Well, I kept the phone in my lap and tried keeping the phone’s stereo speakers covered with my hands; I know the volume was lowered to its lowest but even at that level the alarm’s loud binging noise might be heard in a really quiet theater during a performance!

My mind was distracted most of the play’s first act. What would happen when the alarm went off?! I kept looking at the clock on my phone’s busted screen as the play proceeded-it was a good play! 7:15pm-7:30pm-7:45pm-suddenly, at 7:55pm, the first act ended and intermission started! Thank goodness! Well, the phone’s alarm did go off at 8pm but there were so many people milling about and talking in the theater that I couldn’t tell how loud it was. Wow, missed that potentially embarrassing event.

Well, my phone came just in time before I had to leave to meet my girlfriend on Friday night (it was laundry night and I was helping–I’m such a good boyfriend), and it didn’t take long to activate the phone (a refurb in an Asurion branded box), download the Daylight Savings Time patch from Microsoft, and add a few contacts and a few photos of my girlfriend’s dog, Spikie. Spikie is a very cute brown and white Shu Tzu (he’s actually my girlfriend’s sister’s dog and her family’s name is Lee, so at the Vet Spikie’s chart reads, patient: Spike Lee ). I was off to do laundry with my girlfriend and to show her my new/refurb i730 phone.

Well, I wish this was the end of the story; it wasn’t, unfortunately. The next day my girlfriend and I were in Midtown Manhattan at a watch store. At one point while there I took the new/refurb i730 from my coat pocket to check the time and I found it hard resetting itself! Oh no! Hard resetting! And on its own! It wiped everything! The few contacts I had, the Daylight Savings Time patch and Spikie’s photos! I even had to call Verizon Wireless from the watch store to reactivate the phone! What does Charlie Brown say? Uggggh! Asurion sent me a defective refurb!

That Saturday night I decided to call Asurion to complain. My brother said I was crazy to think I could get this problem fixed at 10pm on a Saturday night; well, he was wrong. There was a customer service person there who was apologetic and got me in touch with a tech support person who questioned me on what happened and then decided I would get a brand new i730. Well, the following Tuesday a new i730 was waiting for me at home (in a Verizon Wireless box with a new set of batteries, charger, software) and activation and syncing with my contacts and calendar on my ibook (I use Pocket Mac Pro to sync my i730 with my ibook) went, with just a few glitches, fine. I beamed all of Spikie’s photos and a few more of my girlfriend and I from the old i730 to my new i730. I’ve had the new i730 a few days now without any problems.

The point of this story is that if you’re a smartphone owner, and your wireless carrier offers you equipment protection insurance, buy it! It could be worth it in the long run.