I want to run a django app on a hand-held device. It'll need to run Python (obviously) and will write its data to an SQLite database.
Are there any tablets available that will let me do this? Specifically, if I bought an Android tablet, would I have to/be able to install linux instead, or would I be able to run it under Android?
If you want Linux probably Meego is the best choice. There is no hardware for it yet, I believe, but there is hardware for the predecessor Maemo.
Running Django on Android is not possible, AFAIK. If you have a network connection the Django server yould be anywhere and you would just need a smartphone/tablet with a browser. That would be the easiest solution.
Do you want it to run on a tablet or a hand-held device? Are netbooks okay?
There are plenty netbooks that run Ubuntu, on which you should be able to run python. I also remember that the sharp zaurus handheld devices were able to run Zope for example (be it very, very slowly)
In general, smaller, embedded systems (i.e. pandora) run versions of OpenWRT that use ipkg, and I think there are django packages for OpenWRT, so that may be an option as well.