Apple ’s newiPod touchisa radical equipment , much like itsiPhone full cousin . It offers in one lissome parcel a host of cool features , everything from connection browsing over Wi - Fi to VPN access and a host of endeavour - useful apps . Sure , you may hear to music , but there ’s also a hard-nosed side , the side that makes it a perfect creature for business . ( I know what a flock of you are think : In your dreams . Just stick with me a minute . )

Having drop some time with Apple ’s latest iPod , whichhit the market in Septemberand starts at $ 299 , I guess there ’s a lot of on - the - job economic consumption you could get from this little guy — so much so that you might even be able to expense it at work . Not only does it arrive out of the boxwood with useful software , but apps that can be added to it with a little tweaking make it feature - meet enough to keep almost any route warrior felicitous .

Not positive ? allow me dampen these down by program , and feel free to file this list off for any future iPod cutaneous senses leverage order justification . That means , when you sit down with the CFO to explain why you want , er , need one , you ’ll have a ready - made checklist handy .

The Web

First and first of all , the iPod pinch has a darn good almost - full - sport Web internet browser — not just a peregrine internet browser , but a substantial internet browser . Safari on the iPod Touch is much near than anything else out there . The scrolling , panning and zooming around that ’s possible put it in a serviceability league with far large devices like pill PCs .

While it does n’t do Java or Flash ( yet ) , it will still deal 90 percent of the business Web apps out there . And you’re able to give up eight or more different Web window at a meter . That ’s great for multitasking productivity .

Mobility

It sound obvious , but it ’s deserving double : The iPod touch can go with you everywhere — in the conference way , at a client ’s office , in the car , tucked by in your shirt pocket , even in the lav . It weighs just over 4 ounces and is 4.3 column inch longsighted , 2.4 inches broad and less than one - third of an in thick . And it still gas the right 3.5 - in silver screen I ’ve ever view .

VPN

As more office apps move to the WWW , the graze functions make this gadget more valuable . It ’s not just for public connection apps , either . For company with a VPN , Apple has admit some of the most widely used VPN package out there — Cisco notwithstanding — to allow you to link to Windows and Mac VPN servers . Once link up , you ’ll have entree to all of your internal vane applications . Talk about an ultraportable billet !

inter-group communication

A few years back , companies bought contact Word for their employees . As the digital age progressed , those striking got rolled into laptop computer and smart phones .

The iPod offer yet another extension of that evolution , reserve users to browse through touch on a tumid but mobile covert . With jot - screenland ease , just water tap , picture , tap again and your contact info is staring you in the fount . It is also easier to add striking from a stage business card to the iPod feeling than to a distinctive speech sound because of the iPod ’s QWERTY keyboard , turgid screen and large tapping area .

Clock and Calculator

The world clock is extremely utile when travel across meter zones , crucial for the jet - setting international exec . The same is true for the built - in alarm clock .

And while it ’s as simple as they come , the Calculator app work just as you ’d have a bun in the oven , whether calculating mileage reimbursement monetary value or figuring out the tip on that two - martini clientele lunch . Everyone necessitate one once in for a while — the calculator , not the martini .

Photos , videos and medicine

The iPod includes a great photograph witness for finding and quickly exhibit image files for clients . It also offers relatively eminent - resolution playback of TV , whether commercial , instructional , aesthetic or just plain fun .

And the euphony software is slap-up for listening to audiobooks and language tapes — being a late Paris transplantation , I can evidence to this — and honestly , there ’s a lot of instruct that can take place during the inevitable downtime between business coming together or flight .

Calendar

While Apple pass iPod users a major snow by disabling the write functionality in its calendar app — you’ll need an iPhone for that — the scale - back computer software on the iPod Touch is still a useful shaft for taking your screen background timetable on the road — even if you ca n’t blue-pencil or synchronize it on the fly .

cut the iPod

That limited functionality brings me to my next stop : This gadget could be so much better if Apple just have us play with it a little bit . And while the company has announce design to propose asoftware developing kitfor the iPhone and iPod touch next year , there ’s nothing out yet , at least not formally . I resolve it would be fun to see how much more stage business functionality I could get out of the iPod touch after applying a few much - boast hack .

Note : If you have to tell apart the CFO you plan to cut up your iPod , you ’re not probable to get an O.K. . And besides , why risk invalidating your warrantee ? So do n’t try this at rest home . All I ’m indicate out is how much possible the machine has , and how much more value it will bid , once new apps are created . And they will be create .

stimulate a hacked iPhone , I lifted a raft of the applications I already own straight from that gimmick and change them to the iPod Touch . Some predilection files and bundles needed to be move as well . Once installer.app was on my iPod , hacking it took only a few bit . Here ’s a taster of what I added , which should give you an thought of how muscular this gadget could turn to be .

The first thing I added was the Notes app from my iPhone . This is a mere , yet extremely graceful syllabus that permit you to take notes using the keyboard on the iPod . It will also synchronize with the Notes in Leopard . Apple should have included it in the iPod Touch as a default software program .

Next , I added the Maps app . While it is of little use in the car without AT&T ’s bound connection — which is what the iPhone uses when a Wi - Fi connective is n’t uncommitted — Maps is great for plot out stumble beforehand and sour just as well as it does on the iPhone . Think of it as Google Earth in your scoop .

The most important affair for me is having an offline mail client . What good than Apple ’s roving Mail app for the iPhone ? It works fantastically well on the iPod with four concurrent IMAP clients . My only bitch is that you ca n’t set the frequency for checking the atomic number 99 - chain mail host to less than five minutes . However , because you could write offline and sync when you bump off a wireless approach point , it is a natural fit . Why Apple choose not to include it is beyond me , unless it wants to upsell exploiter to the iPhone .

The Weather app — another iPhone fav of mine — is great for rapidly checking forecasts in your favorite finish . It also lay away this information for offline economic consumption , making it another ripe burst .

Apple ’s iPhone applications are n’t the only ones that forge well with the iPod Touch ; hacked third - party apps do work pretty well , too .

The first one I tried was VNSea.app , a VNC outback background client . The facility was painless , it connected to my Mac OS X and Windows host cursorily , and the remote functionality form well .

The only downside is the patently small screen , which does n’t have the ability to pan out . That means you only control the upper 320 - by-480 - pixel portion of your projection screen . I find that if I put my crucial apps up top , I was in pretty good shape . It also make a great Wi - Fi remote control for your Mac mini media center .

Next , I added the Apollo IM client . Although I prefer the port of another fluid app , MobileChat , Apollo lets me join to my corporate MSN internet as well . So for my purposes , it have the nod . This is a staring example of an covering the iPod Touch needs . If Apple wo n’t add it , then it should at least lease others do so .

Another biggie for me is RSS fertilise . Google Reader on mobile Safari is great , but again , it ’s not very helpful when offline . Thankfully , the drudge community has stepped in with RSS.app . It works exactly as an offline RSS lecturer should . Add in the feed you want , and it canvas them at even intervals . Whenever you have a little downtime on the route , use it to catch up on your best-loved news .

Perhaps the most glary fix in the iPhone / iPod software card is the lack of GPS . That ’s where Navizon ’s Soft GPS program comes in handy . It cook a corking companion to the mobile Maps app , and while not always accurate to the accurate street or neighborhood , it makes a great start point . On the iPod touch , easy GPS uses data about your Wi - Fi IP reference , leave a heap of room for mistake . ( The iPhone edition uses cellular radio column triangulation and is much more accurate . )

Also missing from the iPod — and from the iPhone , for that matter — are offline reference library and e - leger reader . I installed weDict.app and Books.app . The weDict app give up you to install a number of offline encyclopedias , and there are more than 20 available online .

Books.app is an e - Holy Scripture reader . Apple is lose a huge marketplace by not put these case of applications on its mobile devices . The iPod touch cover , like the one on the iPhone , is amazingly brilliant , and the fonts are smooth and soft to interpret . Text - centric apps are a natural .

So where does this leave the unfearing business traveller about to make his case to the finance kinfolk at the office ? It ’s a pretty childlike subject matter : Apple has make a fantastic machine with some amazing software that form it a competitive musical composition of business computer hardware right now — and opens the threshold for even more advances down the route .

Sure , it looks as though the merchandising gurus at Apple decided to differentiate and delineate the iPhone and iPod as , severally , “ iPro ” and “ iToy ” devices . Be that as it may , the iPod touch offer a numeral of useful tools for business users already . import that out to the CFO and he might just agree . Heck , the CFO might of a sudden see the demand for an iPod signature , too .

[ Seth Weintraub is a global IT direction consultant specializing in the technology needs of creative organizations , include The Paris Times , Omnicom and WPP Group . He has congeal up and managed thwartwise - platform networks on four continent and is an expert in Active Directory / Open Directory microcomputer and Macintosh desegregation . ]