Now this is a great use for a UMPC! Casey Chesnut decided to justify his UMPC purchase by creating a remote control application geared for the touch-sensitive screens of a UMPC. After watching this video of his proof-of-concept umpcFrame app, two thoughts come to mind. First, Casey has easily justified his $1,200 UMPC expense. Second: Casey needs some parental controls on the television shows he watches.

So what does umpcFrame do? Well, you can view pics stored on your Media Center for starters. We could already do that by using the UMPC as a media extender, but Casey had to cut his teeth on the app with some base function. You can also get still shots of what’s on six different television channels which kicks my TV’s PIP functionality in the behind. Press any of the six shots and your TV will immediately switch to that show, making the UMPC a 6-in-1 remote channel surfer. It gets even better with a very useful web search function: enter your search word in one spot and search in up to 24 engines with the touch of a finger. There’s much more functionality, but you can catch it in the video. I may need to watch again and double-check Casey’s TV watching habits.

Thanks for the tip Ian!