HP announced the new line of IPAQs that should be hitting store shelves in 3 to 4 weeks. I have been wanting a PDA for quite awhile, but have been holding off on the purchase until HP released some new ones and I had a few extra dollars. I am considering the HP IPAQ hx4705, which is probably way overkill for what I need, but you only live once :)
I was initially looking at the HP IPAQ h6315 Pocket PC with the mobile phone, but you have to use T-Mobile as the service provider and T-Mobile blows in the Sarasota area. Verizon is the best cellular service provider in Sarasota hands down.
I really want to try my hand at Windows Mobile Development because it remains a total mystery to me. I had a potential customer for a mobile development project awhile back that was willing to hire me with no experience because I came highly recommended. Unfortunately, the project never came to fruition and hence I was never able to justify the purchase of a PDA at that time.
I suspect one wouldn't want to bet their career on Windows Mobile Development as I bet the number of projects available for mobile development as compared to browser web development is next to nothing. However, running my own application on a PDA just seems pretty cool to me.
The best place to start learning about all of this is probably the Mobile and Embedded Application Development Center at Microsoft. Read here. In about 4 weeks you can bet I will be talking about my new PDA :)