ThoughtFix has put up another great video. This time he's showing us some pretty sweet car mounting kits from Pro Clips. He's got quite an assortment of ultra mobile devices set up on his dashboard. He's got an Apple iTouch, three different Nokia internet tablets, and two different mobile phones all mounted together. Obviously you wouldn't want all six of those devices at the same time, but having a variety of options available makes a big difference. Sweet ride ThoughFix!

This video shows you how to install your wireless USB modem on a UMPC running windows XP. The UMPC in the video is a Samsung Q1B and the modem is a Huawei E220 HSDPA USB modem. Setup is a snap with this sweet little device. You just plug in the modem, click next a few times and you're golden. Seriously, it's that easy. The USB modem has a flash disk with all of the drivers you'll need and it all works straight out of the box, no trips to the internet for drivers. This is how getting online should be: no visits from the cable guy, no phone lines run, no cables dropped, no router configuration, no PPPoE settings, no fuss. This is an awesome companion for your UMPC. Get out there and get online.

John Gatt is at it again, this time around he's enlisted a hapless noob to play against in Warcraft 3. They've got WC3 running on both an OQO model 02 and a Samsung Q1B. I would think that the mouse based interface of most RTSs would lend itself well to the stylus, but it sounds like right clicking on the Q1B was a bit tough. The OQO on the other hand has both left and right click buttons and so John was able to mercilessly slaughter his opponent a number of times. Perhaps there are some configuration changes that can be made in Warcraft 3 to make using the stylus a little bit easier. How do WC3 players on the mac play? I think changing the key controls to mimic the single mouse button environment of the Mac would make the Q1B more intuitive than the OQO with it's dedicated scrolling buttons sitting underneath your left thumb.

I don't know how he does it, but JKK has found this new video of the Wibrain B1 UMPC. Unfortunately the video is in Korean, but I've put in a request to get the video translated so we can find out what they're saying about this interesting little device. The most interesting bit about this video is the case that comes with the B1, it appears to have little pockets that will sit up along the top of the device when the case is closed. You can catch a glimpse of them at the 0:24 second mark in the video. Another cool part of the case is that it appears to have a bracket that fits the B1 so that the case stays firmly attached to the device.

This got me thinking, if I were designing a case for my UMPC what features would I want? First, it'd have to be a leather case. If the UMPC doesn't have a slot for a stylus then the case should have one. I think pockets on the case are a great idea, perfect to slip a USB memory stick in there. Another consideration would be to make sure that the case is big enough to hold my UMPC when it's equipped with an extended battery. What do you look for in a case?

My coworker, Claire, has created this introduction to her new series, UMDs for Dumplings. She'll be asking all kinds of questions to us at VIA and will hopefully get some great answers from us. Claire was in the Subway video that we recently published and I'm looking forward to seeing her in more videos on UML.