Apple today announced that more than 100,000 developers have downloaded the beta version of the company's iPhone software development kit - which includes version 2.0 of the iPhone's firmware - in the first four days since its launch last week.

It's pretty obvious that the iPhone SDK is a really big deal. No longer will developers need to rely on jailbreaks and other hacks just to get their apps running on the iPhone, provided they comply with some guidelines on what Apple deems appropriate iTunes Store applications. But of course, there's always those who'll want more control over their iPhone and the apps they can run in it.

In light of this, hackers have successfully unlocked version 2.0 of the iPhone's firmware, three months ahead of its official launch to the public and less than a week since its grand unveiling. What this means is, you can not only install official third-party applications on the iPhone but also those applications which fall outside of Apple's guidelines such as emulators, scripted languages, background applications, and VOIP over cellular. It seems that no matter how Apple attempts to lock down the iPhone, the hacking community is going to crack it back open. So why bother?