As I twittered earlier today, my iPhone appears to be intermittently failing. It doesn’t actually lock up, as the time keeps changing, but it has the following symptoms: applications either won’t open, or else open very slowly; it doesn’t make sounds, either when you phone it, or when the alarm goes off – although the alarm message appears on the screen and it does receive the phone calls; the side volume buttons don’t work; and if you go into the sounds section of settings, the volume slider control is disabled (i.e. you can’t set it) and shows volume as set to nil – even though it wasn’t.

I am aware that there is a standard checklist of questions that techie types go through when trying to troubleshoot problems with computers or computer devices:

1) Have you looked at or downloaded anything horrible?

2) Are you sure? We can go down the pub and have a chat over a drink if you’d rather your wife didn’t know about it…

3) Have you installed anything new?

4) Have you dropped it in or on something?

My answers to this are:

1) No.

2) We are talking specifically about my iPhone here, right?

3) Well I did upgrade the OS a few days ago, and a few days before that I installed (but haven’t used) the Facebook app, and a few days before that I installed the Shotgun Free app (a.k.a. the greatest app in the history of the world if you’re a bloke, or a bewilderingly pointless piece of software if you’re a woman).

4) No. Although we have had small children in the house, so who knows, and the dog did eat it a few weeks ago.

Any thoughts from those in the know? I bought it from an O2 shop not an AppleStore – can I still take it to an AppleStore to be looked at? (Unfortunately, I think my ProCare account has run out).