I thought I'd never have to post in this thread (aside from narky replies saying "you probably yanked on the cord too hard") though like the person from Thailand above, after 1 year and 6 months of very careful use, no more charging, no more USB : (

It looks like dry solder joints on one side caused a very tiny amount of movement, enough obviously to compromise the USB traces.

Sigh. Off to find someone with a heat gun...


Update: For anyone interested (in the Philippines) I took a trip to greenhills today, walked up to the first repair place I saw, had it all fixed in about 15 minutes. The guy whipped out an impressive looking magnifying apparatus and, I kid you not, some nail cutters, bits of wire, a sewing needle, and other paraphernalia, starts prodding around and said after several minutes - ahhh, here's the problem - you've got some dry solder joints. (I said "Yes, I know, I told you 36 times already sir")

It cost me 500 peso ($11 USD) I walked out of there like I'd just bought a brand new phone! One happy resident alien.