No, that is not true. In order to test on real hardware you need to be enrolled in the developer program and pay (a minimum) $99/year for the privilege.
http://developer.apple.com/programs/iphone/test.html#compare
£50 for a full development environment, compilers, support libraries/frameworks, iPhone simulator, debugging, profiling tools, etc... great technical support, and the opportunity to publish your work at the end of it. Honestly, we never had anything as cool as that in the amiga days.
-Edit- see my blog for details
