IMHO steer clear of CE devices. Palm is the way to go with some pretty outstanding pieces of software for almost any situation - video - MP3 - word processing - voice recording - remote controls - dictionary - Bible - email - photos - database - spreadsheet...you name it
I have had several Palm/Sony (even Psion) PDA's over recent years and the Sony Clie (T665C series in my case) is outstanding. Sony do a lot of things badly (like Vaio etc) but their optics and screens are very good, especially if it is Japanese made. The Japs rule the world with quality, no doubt about it.
Max