[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] thetirvine:
Let it now be hacked by the USA! France, those silly, um, baguette-eaters, via Bloggee, has several videos and some forums (in French) showing (but I don't think explaining) a hacked Archos 70B ereader/tablet. Can we get there??

I'd like to see a guide for hacking this 130 euro Android tablet!

About: I AM A N00B. I AM UNWORTHY! You are all wiser and cooler and better at all of this than me. I cannot write code, except some CSS and HTML, blah blah beginner stuff. I was the guy that jailbroke friends' iPhones when we studied in Italy. I like learning how to do things, but can't get extremely in depth, though I respect the process and the art behind it. Currently, my iPhone died so for a phone I have a quad-band Huawei J2SE POS I couldn't modify much, and a netbook with dual-boot Win7/Linux. Now in Germany, I bought a lovely Archos 70B ereader, and while it does the job of ereader, it's ugly and clunky and I want to hack it into running a cleaner, prettier Android ROM (with marketplace) since this seems to be a new device with a lot of potential.

Questions that haven't been answered by looking through these forums, and that I have encountered trying to customize my tablet:

Trying to get marketplace, I finally found an .apk to download, but trying to install, it said (paraphrase) "Only works with Froyo." SOO, Android's various versions (Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, etc) while all the same OS in a way, prevent apps compatible with one version from being installed onto another version. It's like trying to install Win95 stuff on XP, or Win7 stuff on XP. Correct?

Issue: Finding Eclair-compatible .apk files. Where are they? Or, can Eclair apps be installed on other builds of Android, & vice versa?

Trying to upgrade the hardware to Froyo, well, I can't find anything. If a machine has the minimum hardware specs, why is installing any version an issue? Why can't I just search certain websites for an installer package and then use it, like a Windows or Linux .ISO, etc?

Issue: Upgrading from one Android OS/version to another (Eclair to Froyo, Froyo to Gingerbread, Eclair to Gingerbread)

Trying to upgrade firmware on device, I've found that Archos' website has no downloads for 70B ereader...HMMM. Issue, much? My firmware on the device is 1.0.1. There is no "Update Firmware" option or anything, and the firmware display is grayed out, so you can't touch it for further details or anything.

Issue: How do I update/backup/recover firmware for this device (or any, I guess)

While I have found guides to using Nandroid to backup a system in case of issues, they all seem to require that you have Marketplace so you can get Nandroid...and since this Archos version of Android doesn't have Marketplace...I've tried AppBrain Appmarket but the webpage isn't helpful: it says dl nandroid from marketplace or navigate there on my device's browser, but my device's browser won't download the APK when I visit the site. How does one get nandroid and a solid backup without marketplace? (.apk anywhere??)

Permanent rooting on this device; currently I use Z4Root and do temporary rooting, since 1) that's what guides said worked and 2) I don't know if permanently rooting my device will somehow destroy my data or be unrecoverable without further restore options.

Issue: Permanent root vs. temporary root (and why use one or the other)

Installing a custom ROM. In short, because I just am not clear, can someone clarify for me? Is this like basically wiping the HDD to all 0's, down to the first sector, and installing an entire new OS (called a "ROM") onto the HDD? I know a flash HDD is different than a circular spinning drive with Windows and an MBR, etc, but I'm curious if a custom ROM erases EVERYTHING, including a flash drive equivalent to all recovery/installer partitions. Or is there a tiny partition left and, if the factory reset button is pushed, that reinstalls/recovers everything? If that is not the case, then don't I need stock Archos ROM to reinstall/recover, if I wanted to go back to that?

Issue: Does a custom ROM completely wipe a HDD all to 0's, and if so, how does recovery work if using a device-specific build for Android (like Archos')

Maybe nobody cares about this tablet, and sure it's slow, but having a sub-$200 Android tablet would rock, and figuring out how to root and ROM and customize a device would be great.

Also, I want to say that most important is knowing if/how/why I can return to my stock Archos version of Android if dissatisfied; second most importantly is how to improve this (and any) device with a crappy tweaked Android OS into a pretty and fast (with marketplace) Android OS.

THANKS