Re: [gentoo-embedded] Android phones

[Mike Dunn]

> IMHO - the best (current) device you can use for a hackable handheld
> is the Nokia N900 - I wish I had one myself.
>

If you're just looking for a hacker project and not concerned about 
using a smartphone from the latest generation, you may also want to 
consider a Palm Treo 650 or Treo 680.  Support for the 680 just went 
into the mainline Linux kernel, and others have ported to the 650 as 
well.  You can pick them up pretty cheap on ebay.  I've been playing 
around with both phones using a gentoo embedded environment, focusing 
mostly on reverse engineering the hardware with an eye towards 
developing drivers for the hardware components not yet supported by the 
kernel.  I'm able to boot the kernel on both devices.  The usb client 
hardware on the phone is supported, so I'm also able to ssh into the 
phone from my desktop via usbnet.  At least one person has documented 
success at making calls on the 650 (not sure about the 680 - I haven't 
gotten around to it for either phone).  See http://www.hackndev.com as a 
starting point.  One of the principal guys on that site developed a 
Linux boot loader (cocoboot) for the Palm OS, and all their reverse 
engineering efforts are documented on the wiki hosted on the site.