Seems like the iPhone has acquired quite a following. It has even attracted the intense focus of more than 300 hackers who have gathered last weekend in San Francisco.

The iPhone was released last June 29 and since then has become so popular that a recent survey found it more popular than cars. A device that combines the iPod music player with a mobile phone that allows internet surfing, the iPhone is naturally the source of a lot of people's interests, even those who want to maximize its potential even if they go through unconventional means. Like a weekend camp designed for hacking.

In an effort to get what Apple won't give them, 300 (plus) brave hackers set out to find the limits and capabilities of the iPhone. Organized by Chris Messina, the iPhoneDevCamp was held in a borrowed office complete with its own message board projected on a big screen. The event was not sponsored by Apple and efforts by Adobe to make participants sign nondisclosure agreements were met with a quick boot.

Hackers at the camp have produced a number of unusual and interesting results. One found a way to make iPhones yell out like Chewbacca when dropped. Another figured out how to flip through the top 10 photos on Flickr with the touch of a finger. A useful program also went out to make the iPhone function as a baby monitor. One program that got some hype allowed customized home pages with iPhone icons. "For example, a user can put an icon for the cable station CNN on their home page if they want to go to the site every time they turn the iPhone on."

By the end of the camp, 45 new programs for the iPhone were demonstrated, not including those that the more secretive programmers have chosen to develop by themselves. Perhaps we may yet see more things spark in the future from the endeavors of the 300. We should also see more from the developers of the iPhone themselves and third party developers now that the public has shown so much interest in it.