Smartphones have become almost ubiquitous lately. The TS Newsletter team asked the Cisco TAC what Smartphone apps they recommend to make life easier for hard working network engineers. Some apps are from Cisco, some are incredibly useful when working with Cisco gear, and others are just plain fun.
1. Cisco Webex - Available on iPhone, iPad, and Android, this client lets you attend meetings while on the go. Currently, the app does not work with Webex Training Center sessions due to the extra features, it is for meetings only. It’s especially nice on a large screen like the iPad.
2. Cisco Anyconnect VPN client - Available for iPhone, and works on the iPad. It does not work on Android plans yet but stay tuned, as Cisco has announced an Android tablet for enterprises.
3. Cisco Technical Support - This app helps Cisco customers, partners, and employees stay plugged into the Cisco Support Community (http://supportforums.cisco.com) when on the go. Stuck in a boring meeting? Waiting for a train? Use this handy app to surf the discussions within the communities, answer technical questions, and increase your online community reputation score by helping Cisco customers and partners, and adding to the community knowledge base.
In addition to forum discussions, you can also access RSS feeds, videos, and the community's leaderboards. Collaborate with other community members anytime, anywhere, by downloading this app at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cisco-technical-support/id398104252?mt=8. Available for iPhone today, for iPad very soon, and for Android next.
4. An SSH client - For you CLI diehards, an indispensable tool for remote administration on the go. Paid app iSSH is a top seller and well worth the money. It includes a fully featured VNC client and X11 display server, and both of these can work over SSH. There are also free SSH apps available
5. datacase - Use your phone as a ftp/tftp/http server - handy for transferring files. Connect the iPhone to a wireless network you can access from your Mac and launch DataCase. You should see your iPhone appear in the list of shared computers in the finder toolbar. Once connected, click on the volume you wish to browse, accept the connection, and use as a normal hard drive.
http://www.veiosoft.com/
6. missingcalc - The Calculator of Mac OS X has 3 modes: Basic, Scientific and Programmer. But the Calculator of iPhone/iPod touch does not have Programmer mode. The Missing Calculator app provides the Programmer's calculator. It operates on and displays 64 bits of data. Do you want to know what it exactly does? Launch the Calculator of Mac OS X in programmer's calculator mode and check it out.
http://aingoppa.egloos.com/1788948
7. Cisco App - A portal to mobile-optimized Cisco.com content, including news, new product introductions, support, videos, security alerts, partner locator, podcasts, events, and a tool to set up text messaging (SMS) alerts.
8. Cisco SIO to go- Security blog messages and customizable real time security alerts around threat outbreaks and mitigation strategies,
9. Cisco GIS Global Internet Speed test - Test Mobile Network or Wifi speed and report your results. See what kinds of speeds people geographically nearby are reporting.
10. Cisco Mobile 8.1 - Turn your iPhone into a Skinny Client talking to your Cisco Mobile-enabled Cisco Unified Communications Manager.
11. Wolfram Alpha - Instead of presenting a list of URLs (next hops) related to a subject, Wolfram Alpha presents an organized list of knowledge (answers). Do a Google search of Cisco.com and get links to our home page, certification page, tech support page, and about 515 million other links (in 0.13 seconds). Search Cisco.com on Wolfram and you will get our web hosting info, web stats, web page info, and HTML hierarchy (graphic or tabular) in an easy to read format with the ability to drill down into any topic. Originally targeted at the hard sciences and finance, it has recently started to organize knowledge in sports, music, culture and media, and weather. It’s full of crucial information (like what your name looks like as a Code 128 barcode).
12. A PDF reader that allows you to read even tiny-lettered PDFs, so you can sit back and relax while reading those project details. iRead PDF is pretty good and iBooks integrates well with iTunes but it doesn't behave very well when you want to read PDFs in partial page view or in side-by-side. ForScore is awesome in its PDF reading and annotation features but it's really meant for sheet music.
13. Dropbox - lets you wirelessly sync files onto your iDevice (like PDF files that you open in your reader). Keep in mind that the data is transmitted to a third party and they can read it if they want to, so don't put confidential files on it.
14. Get Console - Terminal emulator with accompanying console cable. Expensive, but looks cool.
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2011/03/01/iphone-ethernet-cable-cisco-router-console/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
15. IP6Config - Displays your assigned IPv6 address on the WiFi LAN interface (and cellular data interface if your carrier provides IPv6) and identifies local Router Advertisements. Requires iOS 4.x and later for IPv6 support.
16. Just for fun:
- Cisco Binary Learning Game - Brush up on your binary skills so you can subnet circles around your nerdy friends.
- iBeer and iCookies. (Props to customers with us long enough to remember the Wednesday night Beer and Cookies during Cisco training classes.)
- Angry Birds can help you make it through those long maintenance windows.
