"HOT! Tony Nixons Pocket Programmer. The Pocket Programmer is a stand alone serial programmer that can program most of the PICmicro®MCU range of microprocessors. (12C6xx, 16Cxxx, 16Fxxx, 18Cxxx) It works from a single 18VDC supply or with 2 X 9 volt batteries. Combine this with 64K of on board EEPROM which can store upto 32 HEX files and you have a truely portable programmer / patcher"
By the way, I think the standalone PIC programmer is convenient to bring outside, but when you need to check or to debug/correct your program on site, it makes problems.
With laptop, you can use the PC programmer everywhere, and compact enough. I am looking for any program they write for pocket PC, it must be the best.