I've managed to obtain a 2nd hand E680 phone, which is based on the same Motorola EZX platform as the A780. The E680 are only sold in Asia, so the device I now have is actually a Chinese model.
Next on the plan for A780/E680 hacking is playing with the JTAG port, and trying to flash a non-OEM non-branded non-chinese firmware into the E680.
Once JTAG is running, I will be trying to port the drivers to a 2.6.14-ish kernel and compile and install that more recent kernel.