Is it possible to change cell phone firmware at will?

Question

I'd like to get a cell phone to play around a bit with firmware programming. That's a totally new field for me.

Is it possible to change the original phone's firmware for a custom one? Any pointers on how to do that?

Also, which cell phone model would you recommend?

I'm not totally interested (at the moment) in keeping call functionality, just in using the cell phone a as portable computing device (though humble it may be). I suppose that Android and OpenMoko is the way to go, but I'd like to know alternatives.

Answer 1

One option is the Nokia N900, running the open source Maemo platform. Sources are available for most parts of the device software, though there are some parts where you only have binary blobs.

For example, you can compile and flash a kernel of your own.

Answer 2

Nokia N900 is running Maemo, which is more open than Android, I suggest at least checking it out.