Back up iPhone that can not be unlocked--screen is broken/shattered. Need help!

I left my phone on the roof of my car and drove away on a busy road. It was hit several times and the screen is broken/shattered and glass comes off of it. It receives calls/text messages, and the button on the top to turn on/off still works. The screen is just in such bad shape that it won't register the touch of my finger. I have an appt with Genius bar in a few hours to get a new phone. I want to save all my pictures and apps off this phone if possible (I never backed up on the computer prior to this) but it prompts me to unlock my phone and I can't do it. I can't use another iPhone as a guide, because it won't even recognize my finger touching the screen, but the phone still works. Can I get some ideas on how to back it up? I am not tech savvy and this is a difficult problem!

How about PhoneView (http://www.ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/). Although its not a true backup of your iPhone at least you can get all the important stuff off of it.

Total Bummer about your phone. The genius appointment will cover where you might have your backups, but unless you can connect it to a computer that it has already synced, you will need a functioning keyboard-like input device to unlock the phone and make a backup to a new computer whether you use iTunes or a third party tool like Phone View.

Here are your options:

• repair the digitizer and back up once the device lets you tap in the unlock code
• use a bluetooth keyboard (one that was already paired) to enter the pin
• use VoiceOver (triple tap the home button could enable that) to enter the pin

Both the VoiceOver and bluetooth options need the digitizer to set them up the first time, so if you didn't already do that before the failure, you may have to choose between a fixed phone and attempting your backup. (Just like backups are only good if they are done before the device fails or is lost).

You could also just look in iTunes preferences to see which devices are already backing up to your computer or log into iCloud on another device and see if and when the broken phone last backed up to iCloud.

• iOS: How to back up