Introducing The New and Improved iPhone -- by Hackers

That seems to be what's happened with Apple's recently released update to iTunes; if the update software detected anything strange about an iPhone's file system, it reformatted the iPhone and made the hackers reinstall their home-brewed applications from scratch. Apple wouldn't say last week whether the update was a reaction to the hacks and declined to make any comment about the iPhone's home-brew hacking scene.

Regardless of the risks, new underground applications keep hitting the Web at a steady pace. There's one that lets people take control of their hacked Xboxes in order to, for instance, watch movies stashed on the game console's hard drive. Other programs, like one called iFuntastic -- already in version 2.5 -- make it possible for iPhone users to pick iTunes songs as custom ringtones. Last week, an unauthorized game, called Lights Off, was released for the iPhone's operating system.

"Apple didn't give people the tools they needed to do this in the first place, so they're making their own," said Mike Schramm, who has followed the iPhone hacking community for the Unofficial Apple Weblog ( http://www.tuaw.com).

Hardware manufacturers are usually not happy about such user-created innovations because they can lead to piracy. Why buy a game or a software application if you can download one free?

That's why just about every time somebody figures out how to hack Sony's mobile gaming device, the PlayStation Portable, the company releases a new version of the operating system that you have to install if you want to play the latest games. Each new version of the software blocks off vulnerabilities exploited by hackers in previous versions.

It's impossible to know how many people are hacking into their PSPs or their iPhones, but it looks as if there's an audience out there. Earlier this summer, an old and relatively obscure PSP game called Lumines suddenly shot up the sales charts at Amazon. The sales spike happened just after hackers discovered a way to exploit the game's coding in order to play home-brew software on the device. At eBay, sellers unloading their copies of the game are touting it as the one that lets users hack their PSPs.

Funny thing, though. As much as corporations officially disapprove of this sort of work, the people who are fanatical enough about their technology to pull these tricks off are sometimes the ones who end up getting the cool jobs.

In some forums at the Guitar Hero fan site ScoreHero, fans figured out how to hack into the game's software and insert their own music selections into the popular guitar game. At last count, three of the programmers from that scene have been hired to develop the next version of the game, due out this holiday season.