The iPhone/iPod As an IT Tool

It's not Christmas, but I've already got my present :) Some days ago, my current employee, gave me an iPod Touch 2G. It was not a simple present, but also a tool to work with a new iPhone application that we're developing.

As many of you, I'm working in a small company. My main job is as developer, but I'm also doing some IT and technical support work, so I was curious to see how could the iPod help me with these tasks.

As I said, I have an iPod, but everything explained here is also applicable to the iPhone. In fact the iPhone is even more useful since you don't need to look for a WIFI connection ;)

Let's start:

A Communication Tool

Here we will see how can we use the iPhone as a communication tool:

• Mail: Configure your e-mail accounts (check here for the documentation to setup your email accounts)
• Skype: Even if you have an iPod, you can use Skype to stay in contact with your friends and colleagues. If you also want to talk, you'll need to buy a headphone+microphone kit.
• Social Networks: Almost all the social networks have an iPhone widget. In my case I installed Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (Twitterrific). But you can also find widgets for Xing, MySpaces, ...

An Administrator Tool

Let's see what do we need to have control over our computers and network:

• Network Ping Lite: It's a simple application that gives you the power of ping, traceroute and telnet commands
• Mocha VNC: With this tool we can control any computer with a VNC Server installed.
• iSSH: Another great application. With this one I've all the power of an SSH console, but I can also do remote X connections
• VPN: Integrated in you iPhone is a cool VPN client, so you are never outside your network.
• iNet Pro: With this one you can ping, scan ports, scan network, ...

Other Useful Tools

That's the miscellaneous section where I list other tools that I feel are really useful

• DropBox: Does it even need a presentation?
• GoodReader: A really good PDF reader
• AppBox Pro: It's a useful package with different applications.

I'm still investigating what other cool things I can do, but what's your preferred iPhone application?