Dr Drang:
I took the phone down to the kitchen, found a flat toothpick, and started digging. The amount of lint and junk that came out of the slot was unbelievable. The plug was tilted because of one little chip of something that was caught on that side, but below that was a compressed mat of fuzz that’s been accumulating since I got the phone a year ago.
I, like Dr Drang, recently realized that the USB cables that I have been plugging into my iPhone weren’t sitting properly in the dock connector. Instead of a toothpick, I used the pointy-end of a safety pin to pull the crud out. One sizable piece of green lint later and the cable was sitting properly again.
Perhaps this is one more reason for Apple to kill the dock connector.