Pure rolls out tiny Flip Mino vidcam

Pure Digital on Wednesday is launching its anticipated Flip Mino, its newest entry into its unusually popular simple camcorders. The Mino shrinks the design of the original Flip camera by 40 percent to where it's smaller than a typical cellphone while adding features that aren't present on the originals: the updated software bundled with the Mino lets it upload directly to MySpace as well as providing existing hooks for AOL and YouTube. Pure keeps the concept simple by preserving the 2X digital zoom lens that limits the camera but concentrates on the shot itself.

A built-in 2GB of flash memory lets it record for a full hour at TV-grade (640x480) video, while the smaller camera still has both an identical 1.5-inch LCD and TV-out for watching videos directly from the camera itself.

Much like the larger cameras, the Mino runs on a lithium-ion battery and can be powered either from a computer's USB port or through a separate AC adapter; videos are encoded in an easily editable MPEG-4 format that is immediately usable by creative apps both in Mac OS X and Windows. The camera ships in black and white models and will be available on Thursday through several online stores for $180.

Filed under: gadgets, digital imaging
Other story tags: YouTube, MySpace, AOL, Flip, Pure Digital