Flip it out

There was a minor blip on the web a couple of weeks back but you may not have noticed it. David Pogue — Mac reviewer extraordinaire for The New York Times — reviewed a small video camera called the Flip. It's funny, the camera has been around for a while already, but it seems that since its release in May last year everybody missed it in some sort of HD-induced rage. The easiest way to think of the Flip is as a digital camera that only takes those dinky web-style movies and doesn't take still photos at all. And so you ask the question, why wouldn't I just use a point-and-shoot digital camera instead? Well, because unlike a point-and-shoot camera, you don't need a manual. All you do to use the Flip is turn it on, start filming (by hitting the red button), and then, you guessed it, hit the red button when you're done. If you don't like that bit of footage you just captured hit the Trash button to delete it. And that's all there is to it. Literally. No mucking around with resolutions, white balance, focus, fade-ins or anything else that makes $1K-plus video cameras so complex.