The cat is barely out of the bag with Microsoft’s Origami Project, better known as UMPCs (ultra mobile PCs) throughout the rest of the industry, but the device designed to fill the gap between PDAs and tablet PCs is already receiving a serious upgrade. It seems that they’re working on fitting the device with Media Center Extender software.

What this means is that you’ll be able to wirelessly access all of your juicy movie, TV and musical content stored on your Media Center PC on the seven-inch touchscreen UMPC. Anything your Media Center PC can do, your Origami tablet will do.

On some level, you can think of this as making the UMPC into a glorified ($700+) touchscreen remote, but on a completely different level, it can become a primary viewing device, playing out all your favourite videos wherever you feel like planting your rear end. No word on an exact date, or how much this upgrade will cost us, but they’re saying this is a sure thing and could help make UMPCs “as indispensable and ubiquitous as mobile phones are today.”