I'm very much interested in building applications for Embedded Devices. I'm in my 3rd year Electrical Engineering and I'm passionate about coding, algorithms, Linux OS, etc. And also by Googling I found out that Linux OS is one of the best OSes for Embedded devices(may be/may not be). I want to work for companies which work on mobile applications. I'm a newbie/naive to this domain & my skills include C/C++ & MySQL. I need help to get started in the domain of Embedded Systems; like how/where to start off, Hardware prerequisites, necessary programming skills, also what kind of Embedded Applications etc. I've heard of ARM, firmware, PIC Micorcontrollers; but I don't know anything & just need proper introduction about them. Thanx.

P.S: I'm currently reading Bjarne Struotsup's lecture in C++ at Texas A&M University, and one chapter in it describes about Embedded Systems Programming.