The great iPhone serial port hack

While the majority of the iPhone's easter eggs and secrets have over time been discovered, pulled apart and analysed to the umpteenth degree, the smartphone continues to have one, little-known trick up its sleeve: A hidden serial port. The inherent possibilities are endless: Network engineers have talked of even bringing their phone into server rooms, rather than having to use a laptop or remote terminal.

According to Chris Pollock at io Networks: "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".

One company has already tried to jump on that boat but even though its purpose-built accessories were announced in February, they are yet to hit store shelves. The solution: Build it yourself.

Pollock compiled a step-by-step guide to do exactly that, thanks to his own handiwork and the diagrams at pinouts.ru. We reproduced it here with his permission.