More details... (Score 1)

Let I follow-up my own post :-)

The microcontrollers quoted by the miscallenous posters are a good solution for electronic/robotic projects, so I'll try this first.

However if a robot gets complex, for instance if a video camera is added, more power is needed. And also, it is cool to have one own "wearable device"/PDA/whatever.

I initially thought that I'd only have to buy a better microcontroller, or processor, but the mass-market hardware looks much cheaper than the sum of the retail prices of the individual components :-(.

So hackable devices look like the next step. Plus imagine adding 128 MB DRAM , 64 MB flash, or a GPS device, or a 20 Gb hard-disk to your small pocket device...