You say your iPhone seems to be on the fritz—that when you make a call you can’t hear a word anyone on the other end of the line speaks? Although I’ve addressed this issue at iPhone Central, given that, in the past week, both a colleague and reader have queried me for a solution to the problem, it’s time to give that solution wider play right here.
The root of the problem is the iPhone’s belief that its headset is plugged in. Because it could swear you’re using the headset, it cuts off sound to the receiver port at the top of the phone. The solution to the problem is to convince the iPhone that it is not tethered to that headset.
The first way to make that argument is to plug the headset or set of headphones into the appropriate port a time or two. This generally clears things up in a jiffy.
If that won’t do the job, you may wish to turn to the swab and Windex™ method as demonstrated by Alan Luckow.
As I warned back in the autumn of 2007, so too will I warn now:
His solution (and the solution he uses) looks safe enough, but Apple’s Warranty Department may feel differently. In short: You’re on your own.