Dropped My iPhone in the Toilet

Here are the tools you need to get your iPhone working again:

5 to 10 days of patience
Knowledge of restart options

OK. First, don't panic. I once put a cell phone through the washing machine, and two weeks after replacing it, my son turned it on and started using it as a toy. It was fully functional. These are not high-power devices! They do not short out horribly, or at least, they have a few resistors somewhere for protection. (Your warranty is void for water damage however.)

SIX STEPS TO BRINGING IT BACK TO LIFE:

1. Click it off with the top button. If it does not respond, don't worry. Eventually the battery will run out, which is good. Throughout this process, minimize you button pushing. DO NOT OPEN THE DEVICE. There is no need, and it will do more harm than good.

2. Dry it out. Use a heating pad (the plug-in kind for humans or pets) set on medium or medium high. Most electronics are rated to 200F or so. Keep it on the heating pad for at least four days. Don't use an oven -- too much heat flux, too much variability.

3. Keep drying it out. This is where my materials science engineering background comes in handy! Turns out, fine electronics have many tiny crevasses. Water has pretty strong surface tension. When the water gets in, tiny droplets get "stuck" in the nooks. You pretty much have to wait for random atomic movement to get them out. The heat helps boost the activity of the water molecules, but it still takes time. Dry for another 4 days.

4. Recharge the battery. Do it with the wall plug. Don't go to iTunes yet (computer recharge) as it will try to start talking to it and its a waste of time at the moment. Wait a day.

5. Turn it on. If you are very lucky, it will work normally as if nothing happened. If it acts a little flaky (mine would freeze up after phone calls), then it's time for step six:

6. Restore with iTunes. Hopefully, it "sees" your phone. If not, try drying it out some more, perhaps passively next to your computer. Or try (b) below. If it connects ok, just go ahead and click the "restore" button.

IF IT'S NOT RESPONDING:

(a) To restart and iPhone, press the top on/off button and the lower, round, home button at the same time, for 3 seconds or so.

(b) To get iTunes to "see" phone:

plug in to iTunes
restart phone by holding on/off and home at same time
when the screen goes black, let go of on/off button. keep pressing home and after a few minutes iTunes will find it.