Yes and no, depending on who you ask and how you view the iPhone.

If you ask an end-user who's lusting after one, he or she will of course say, "Yes! I'm ready!"  The coolness factor is through the roof, and no longer do they need multiple devices to accomplish the same tasks. Visual voice mail and Google Maps alone can be productivity boosters.

If you ask the IT folks who would have to support it -- and compare the iPhone with smart phones like the Treo -- they're likely to say no. First, the "multiple devices" it so conveniently replaces are personal entertainment devices -- iPods. Why should IT's budget bear the brunt of that?

More importantly, supporting iPhones for now means hit-or-miss synching with Exchange, and no over-the-air push updating. That alone is a deal-killer for many companies. No editable Office docs, that's another downside.
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As an IT guy, when Apple released its new Intel-based Macs I got pretty excited. I own three different models today - a Macbook, Mac Pro, and iMac. They've all performed quite well, beyond my expectations really.
 
Here's the "gotcha." Software NOT written specifically for these new Intel Macs runs sluggishly. I've seen it for myself using Nikon's Capture NX program. Capture NX is an image processor. Think Photoshop, but without trickery. You can adjust levels, saturation, and things like that...but not paste your head on Sylvester Stallone's body. It's critical for me because it "understands" my digital photos better than any third-party program could hope to. But it's brutally slow on Intel Macs, taking up to 30 seconds for even basic commands or edits.
 
I've heard scant rumors that Nikon is working on an Intel-version. Nothing official. To my way of thinking, the more often Nikon hears from customers, the faster we'll get it.
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When it comes to important trade show or corporate presentations, the next most important thing besides content and the "human" performance is the technical delivery.

Have you ever seen somebody start to nervously sweat as frames drop on his video presentation, or slide transitions bring up the dreaded hourglass in her 50th PowerPoint slide (embedded with Windows movies)? It's not pretty.

I think this is probably more of an issue today than it's ever been. I've been noticing lately that clients want much more than your typical photo slideshow or progression of bulleted list. Maybe they've always wanted more, but until recent times the technology (at affordable costs) wasn't there yet. Presentations ranging from background "eye candy" to product overviews are often replete with voiceovers and soundtracks, motion graphics, and embedded video.
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In my job, it’s really easy to accumulate clutter and junk.

In fact, pound-for-pound I think my job function accounts for more dumpster mass than any other at Godfrey. An entire corner of my server room is typically stacked with boxes and packaging contents from the miscellaneous hardware acquired to keep an agency of our size going. A Maxtor USB drive box here, a few Acer notebook boxes there. It adds up.  Hey, I can’t toss it all right away – what if that new DVD burner I purchased for the AV Studio craps out and I need to return it to CDW? I’ll be glad I saved the original packaging!

Then there’s the stack of semi-retired Dell Dimensions which are too slow to put into play, but just fast enough to keep around as spares. And the shelf full of older monitors in our storage area, which honestly are easier to keep around than to recycle properly.
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As promised in my last post, here are a few examples of how I use IM:

I often provide “intermediary” tech support to a particular client – I help my client work with his hardware vendor on installations. So it’s very handy to be able to IM the client’s vendor, join my client contact into the chat, and hammer out lots of technical details..together.  It beats making a conference call and having to take notes because, well, the IM transcript is saved and the conversations ARE the notes.

Instant Messenging is also great for reaching a group of people, quickly. I start an IM to one of our programmers, and add the other three to the chat session, asking “Any objections if I restart the development server now? Just applied ANOTHER Microsoft patch…” If I don’t get a response from all four, no restart. It's an easy way to quickly make sure a group of people is available and on-board with potentially disruptive
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I'm not sure when exactly it happened, but Instant Messenging has now become a "legit" business communication tool in our company.

When Instant Messenging (IM) or “online chat” first hit the scene in a big way, I admit we didn’t really understand its use or value.  So we didn’t implement it – in fact, we basically added IM programs to our list of prohibited software. To give you a sense of the time period we’re talking about, the original Napster was also on that list. In light of the security situation at the time (very weak operating systems and perimeter security), it was likely a happy accident that we decided to put that technology on hold. Besides, people were still learning the ins-and-outs of using email as a business communication tool.

Fast forward a few years (which on the Internet is like dog years), and now at least two dozen of us at Godfrey use one variety of IM or another as communication
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