[angusgr]

How easy is this thing to hack?

Easy-ish. It's a Wondermedia WM8505-based tablet, so there are a bunch of other relatives (same Android port, AFAIK) like the Eken M001.

Here are some resources:

* Teardown/serial console: http://projectgus.com/2010/06/eken-m001-teardown-serial-cons... (disclaimer: that's my blog.)

* Debian port (forum is offline atm, though): http://www.slatedroid.com/eken-m001-debian/

* Open source kernel from scratch (work in progress): http://groups.google.com/group/vt8500-wm8505-linux-kernel http://gitorious.org/linux-on-via-vt8500

* Kernel released by Wondermedia (dog's breakfast): http://github.com/projectgus/kernel_wm8505 (That last one is a link to my github copy of their tarball release, with a couple of tweaks.)

similar setup with a BeagleBoard

It's worth pointing out that similar ain't really similar. The CPU technology is two generations older (ARM9), connectivity is more limited, open source availability is more limited, and hardware quality is significantly worse.

It is a good bit cheaper, though. :D

[sedachv]

Thanks for the links! Reading threads like this (http://groups.google.com/group/vt8500-wm8505-linux-kernel/br...) definitely makes the BeagleBoard look like a good value in comparison.

[angusgr]

Yeah, if you get a kick out of reverse engineering then it's a plus.

If you don't, then you're better off with something like the BeagleBoard where the TI OMAP3 technical docs, BSP + libraries are all published and have well-supported open source around them.

EDIT: It's worth pointing out that the linked thread is about reverse-engineering the RGB565 graphics mode (for Android) and some of the other esoteric graphics chipset features. Graphics in X11 work fine at the moment, both with Wondermedia's kernel release and with Alexey's open source one. Support for most "normal" WM8505 functions is present in one way or another.