Along with Don’s coverage of the Wii Pay to Play model, the gaming system has also been building steam on the web recently with the announcement and distribution of the Twilight Hack. This marks the first time that the tools to hack the Wii have been made readily available and this opens the door to a wide range of user-generated programs for the Wii, which can now run unsigned code. In non-geek language, this means that it is now possible to write your own programs for the Wii, using nothing more than a plain old Wii, a loophole found in the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess game and an SD memory card with an SD media reader.

Some of the early homemade programs allow gamers to use their Wii as an MP3 player and also to run the Linux OS. While I couldn’t hack a mainframe to save my life, I will be keeping a close eye on this development – first to see what kinds of great applications ensue, but also to watch for Nintendo’s official reaction.

In other hacking news, the Fort Knox of the hacking community, Apple Computers, appears that it will bow to consumer pressure to allow for independent iPhone programming capability with the imminent release of it’s Software Developer Kit. With others hot on it’s tail including the Nokia N95 and the developing Google phone, this could be just the jump the iPhone needs. Let’s see if Nintendo embraces the same if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em wisdom, albeit hopefully much more quickly than Apple, who has really been a dinosaur in the world of embracing user ingenuity.