I would never send it in to LG. I don't want to risk getting the phone back even more messed up or with scratches on it plus I don't have a spare phone. I sold my spares on ebay last month.
I just don't think it's a serious enough issue for me to want to pay $35 either. It only happens about twice a day and once it does happen all I have to do is hit 'ok' and then it works again instantly. I will just live with it. My intention was to figure out if this was a widespread issue or not and was hoping others would confirm it so they would be forced to fix it in a software update. But I guess I just somehow got a defective phone (although on the Sprint buzz about wireless forum a couple of others reported the same issue). Weird how a defective phone would only have one thing wrong with one certain app and nothing else.
I suppose there's still a small chance that Jelly Bean will fix it.