I keep hearing stories of developers having an endless summer on the back of their iphone fart apps and such.
do you have any stories of a development style thats let you set your own schedule more.
I tend to contract for 8 months and work on startups from home for 4 months over summer. This seems to just take me out of a cubicle.
This question probably belongs on http://www.stackoverflow.com. That said - this will be entirely dependant on who you work for, not any particular 'style' they subscribe to. Work will have to be finished, regardless of the schedule!
Andy Brice has several great articles about running a software company on the road, such as "The joys and challenges of running a nomadic software company".
If you work for a regular employer or a technology startup then you should expect to put your time in - you will most likely need to work a typical 9-5 workday and probably more if it is a startup.
As a consultant you could probably work remotely and essentially on your own time. It doesn't really matter what schedule you keep so long as you put the required number of hours in or reach the required deliverables. This "style" has to do with your own style and you are essentially running a consulting business when you negotiate this work with your clients. But, you are in control. That being said, it is more risky that a typical job.
Something else you can do is just start selling your own software either on your website or the App Store and try to live on that. Obviously, this is even more risky but it COULD give you the nomadic lifestyle you are looking for. Although in practice you will still probably spend most of your time coding - even if it is in the desert.
Basically, the lifestyle you want is possible if you are willing to set something up yourself and take a lot of risks.