my iphone went completely dead

I also had this happen (though while playing YouTube videos). Someone somewhere suggested holding the home button and the power button at the same time for 10 seconds. After 10 seconds, the apple logo appeared and the phone booted. I assume this must be the hard reset mechanism. If you try this, keep holding it! I was about to let go thinking that it wasn't working when finally it worked.

MacBook Pro (15") Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Yup, resetting the iPhone by holding the sleep and home buttons for 10 seconds ought to do the trick. If it does it again, you may have to do a restore via iTunes. That will wipe off everything and start you again from scratch.

If THAT doesnt work, its time to call Apple tech support.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4891954&#4891954

<Edited by Host>

WOW! chenjy9, so harsh! this is a support forum where people come to learn how to do things... sure questions have been asked 100 million times but still way to harsh especially for being a user that's only one day old.

My iphone died on me out of nowhere & I totally freaked out! This is the first problem I've had since purchasing the iphone. I decided to visit the discussion board & saw your response to another iphone dying. I just wanted to say 'THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH' Resetting by holding the home & sleep buttons worked perfectly. Although I still do not understand why this happened. My phone still has a full charge?!?!?!