A jailbroken iPhone hacked into last decade works wonders with server racks, allowing technicians to carry around something pocket-sized instead of a laptop to troubleshoot and do maintenance. IT worker Chris Pollock explains: “the real benefit in all of this is that there are so many console packages for iPhone in Cydia now that you can have a fully functional computer, as useful as a linux box, but without carrying around a laptop.” It’s almost enough to make me nostalgic for serial ports… wait, no. Not at all. Still, an impressive and clever hack. [ComputerWorld via Boing Boing]
Dean
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 11:46 AMWhy not just use something like an AirCable Bluetooth to Serial dongle rather than tether your hand held device with a physical cable?
GiantGuineaPig
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 12:41 PM“the real benefit in all of this is that there are so many console packages for iPhone in Cydia now that you can have a fully functional computer, as useful as a linux box, but without carrying around a laptop.”
Wouldn’t an Android phone do this, with an already existing usb port?
And by server racks, you mean several bits of infrastructure that live in server racks like switches?
a Netbook would be so much more useful and practical, albeit not exactly pocket size.
Lastly that picture looks like it’s in someone’s house with some stuff screwed into a table, it’s not even a rack!
Bryn Z Busai
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 3:39 PMYes… That is an IKEA Lack Table…
Lackrack is perfect for a dirt cheap and portable Rack.
mpk
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 7:01 PMGreat idea guy’s. Was wondering if this could be done. Would like to see something like this go mainstream as I don’t want to jailbreak my phone. I’m sure apple would love something like this.
And Yes it could be done on a Android Phone. But they did it on a iphone So get over it fool.
if it’s so easy do it yourself. and post it on here so we can all comment on how it’s already been done on a iphone.