DoubleFine do the "Amnesia Fortnight". Yes it's game development - but it gives quite an insight to how it all pulls together, from concept to "final" product. You do get live streams of some of the coding too (as multiple projects are all developing at once).

I got an Asus Transformer for this. I like to read magazines and look at manuals/text books - so being able to read diagrams, flowcharts and code in colour with different fonts is easier for me. I also like to read comics - so colour is essential. Then there are all the other bonuses of a tablet - portable movie player etc. Hope this helps.