Few gadgets have captured the imagination of both geeks and ordinary folk alike as Apple's iPhone has. Despite the significant segments of both populations who greeted the iPhone with a resounding "meh", millions have shelled out for the handheld super-smartphone. And if you're an IT pro, you may be staring at your shiny black plastic-and-metal $200 up-front expenditure and thinking, "Now what?"

Fortunately, the answer to this question is not the shoulder-shrugging and closet-consigning that might have met previous fads like the Pet Rock. The reason -- well, one of the reasons, anyway -- that IT pros would be partial to the iPhone in the first place is that it's a real Unix-based computer under the hood. The long history of iPhone jailbreaking goes to show how eager people are to get at that functionality, even risking warranty voiding and phone-bricking. But the advent of the iPhone App Store has now given geeks a more licit means to turn their phone into not just a geeky toy but an IT tool -- and one that your IT managers might not ban from the premises (and might even pay for!)

So, while the masses enjoy finding restaurants and playing off-brand versions of classic board games, IT geeks will want a something a little meatier, and a little more job-related, to fill their iPhone-ing time. This article will cover some of the apps that can improve your professional and hobbyist IT life. They're all available from the App Store -- no tales of jailbreaking woe or triumph here!

Going old school with the command line

If there is one traditional first reaction of a geek to a new computing device of some sort, it's "Can I get a command line on it?" True command-line hacking on the iPhone itself might not be available, but there are a number of terminal emulators out there that bring the experience of clicking keys on a black-and-green-screened VT100 to the palm of your hand.

But a terminal emulator does more than just offer nostalgia; it also provides a handy way to control remote machines from afar -- in this case, anywhere you have cell phone connectivity. Admittedly, for the IT pro a tool that makes it possible for you to be Mr. or Ms. Fix-It while watching TV or relaxing on the beach could be a mixed bag -- but perhaps five minutes of interrupted vacation time is a good use of time if it can avert a larger disaster down the road? Better still is the chance to subtly monitor or update your servers under the conference table while the sales VP is droning on about something or other in the weekly staff meeting, yet again.

There are actually three capable and well-regarded terminal emulators available for the iPhone: TouchTerm, pTerm, and iSSH, all for less than $5. All have roughly equal feature sets and various pros and cons, summed up nicely here.

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