More on iPod/iPhone for school

Just a quick post today - when updating my iPod software the other day I got offered a free tool for enterprise deployment of the iPhone and iPod Touch. Now the iPhone has often been criticised as an alternative to a "proper" business smartphone or PDA, but even Paul Ockendedn in PC Pro magazine has now changed his mind and declared it "Fit for business". The reasons it got knocked initially have been slowly removed. First there were the applications (admittedly third party) which gave access to MS Office documents; next came OS3, which gave us copy and paste and Search (amongst other things); now there is decent integration with Exchange and the ability to manage profiles centrally (ensure passwords are used, manage apps, wipe data...). More information is available here. It seems to me that £149 for the new 8GB Touch is cheaper than a PDA with similar capabilies and offers much more besides.