Usually when users lock their iPhones, they can’t perform any functions without unlocking the phone first. But Cydgets essentially work by unlocking the lock screen. Freeman’s application, CyDialer, for example, gives users the ability to flip through their favorite contacts and call them from the lock screen.

Most iphone app developers work with Apple to get their products in the iPhone App Store, submitting software for the company’s approval. But a community of maverick developers sidesteps that process to target iPhones that have been modified–or “jailbroken”–so they can download any program even if it is unauthorized.

Apple frowns on developers who create these kinds of apps, but jailbreak supporters say that these developers push the boundaries of innovation. Cydia, the biggest marketplace for jailbroken apps, has offered apps that allowed users to cut and paste text or record video long before Apple introduced them earlier this year.

A Twitter Cydget called Twydget, by another developer lets users send tweets from the lock screen. A Bloomberg Cydget puts news on the lockscreen. Users can download several of them and flip through them by pushing the home button. Some, like CyDialer ($1.74), are available for purchase, but many are free. Freeman says there are already 32 Cydgets available and six more on the way. One much anticipated application that is in the works is one by a Canadian design company called Teehan + Lax that will show all pertinent information such as missed calls, calendar, recent e-mail and even weather all on the lockscreen in an organized, intuitive way.

IPhone users who have modified their phones can also download software that will let them use devices like laptop modems. Some of the most popular applications on Cydia are those that let users change the look of their iPhone home screen with different icon designs or wallpaper. Jay Freeman, the Santa Barbara, Calif., computer-science doctoral student who is behind Cydia, cites a Pinch Media estimate that about 8.5% of iPhones had been modified as of last July. The number is likely larger now.

Now, a new kind of application category is causing a buzz among developers who make apps for jailbroken phones–Cydgets (a play on the word “widgets”), which run on the screen users see when their iPhone is locked. Freeman developed a programming toolkit that lets developer make such programs.