After throwing your laptop, charger, and spare battery into your travel bag as you head out the door, suddenly you don’t feel so mobile anymore. One solution is to rely more on your iPhone for basic business tasks, such as grabbing data from your company’s computer systems, managing a Web site, and even viewing, editing, and storing Word and Excel files.

For road warriors, the iPhone isn’t just about games–it can be a powerful business tool. With Apple’s release of the iPhone 3GS, the handset gains better security and improved real-time e-mail delivery, both appealing features for business users and their companies’ IT departments.

Need to keep track of invoices, manage your eBay storefront, or log your mileage? “Yep, there’s an app for that!” After consulting with mobile business experts, we collected the best business apps that the iPhone has to offer.

Who knows–maybe on your next business trip you’ll be able to leave that hulking ultraportable laptop behind.

[Check out the top 10 essential business apps for iPhone]

Thousands of iPhone and iPod Touch games clog Apple’s App Store, making it increasingly difficult to spot the gems among the junk. PC World to the rescue! We spent hours ferreting out the best brain-twister games, shoot-everything-that-moves games, and adventure games so you won’t get stuck with a stinker.

Playing games on your iPhone does take a toll on battery life, however. To keep your phone in game condition, have a look at this cure for iPhone battery woes.

Note that iPhone app sellers and developers may sell applications for a reduced price from time to time. Though all of the prices in this list are correct as of this article’s posting date, they may change at any time.

[Check out the top 10 essential games for iPhone]

Bored? You won’t be after you download a few of these entertaining gems for the iPhone. In the following slides, you’ll see multimedia apps that let you get the most out of your digital vault of MP3s, videos, and photos. We also have apps that can help with other media, too. Want to manage your Netflix queue on your iPhone, or even place-shift your TV through your iPhone? You can.

The Apple App Store has a dizzying array of media-related apps to choose from. Here are some must-have iPhone apps for multimedia junkies–all guaranteed to keep you well entertained.

[Check out the top 10 essential multimedia apps for iPhone]

Photo: The New York Times

Apple rejected the Google mobile software program Google Voice from the iTunes App Store. News of the banned iPhone app comes from the Website TechCrunch which published an article Monday quoting a Google spokesperson that said the Google Voice mobile application was submitted to Apple six weeks ago and was rejected.

“Apple did not approve the Google Voice application,” the Google spokesperson told TechCrunch. According to the report Apple went one step further and pulled a non-Google iPhone app from iTunes called GV Mobile on the basis of duplicate functionality of the Google Mobile app.

The move stirs the ongoing debate about the openness of the App Store. It also brings into question AT&T’s influence on Apple. AT&T has the most to lose if the Google Voice mobile application was available to AT&T customers with iPhones.

The Google Voice mobile app would have allowed you to send and receive text messages via your Google Voice phone number via your iPhone – circumventing AT&T text messaging charges. [Read article]