Pure Digital Flips Video to YouTube

Pure Digital‘s camcorder offerings aren’t going to win over any video enthusiasts excited over, say, Sony’s latest AVCHD high-definition video cameras. After all, this is the company best known for marketing one-time-use digital cameras and camcorders. But for all they lack in quality and video shooting features, for many consumers they make up for it in simplicity, price, and the ability not to have a heart attack when a toddler, say, puts your camcorder in a pitcher of lemonade for safekeeping. And that’s why consumers may have seen Pure Digital’s offerings in retailers like CVS and Toys’R’Us rather than electronics retailers.

With that market in mind, Pure Digital has announced its new tiny, AA-powered Flip Video camcorder, and this time around they want to tap into the user-generated video revolution by adding a much-wished feature: the ability to upload video directly to video sharing site YouTube.

"With Flip Video, Pure Digital has created a brand new category of camcorder that puts the power to instantly capture, edit, and share video in the pocket of everyday consumers," said Jonathan Kaplan, chair and CEO of Pure Digital Technologies, in a statement. "Flip Video has the potential to forever change the way people use this increasingly popular medium."

Pure Digital isn’t offering detailed specifications on the Flip Video camcorder, but at its suggested price points—$119.99 for a 30-minute modela and $149.99 for a 60-minute model—it’s easy to guess these cameras are not competing with even low-end consumer digital video cameras. The Flip Video does sport a 1.5-inch LCD screen which can play back video, and offered one-touch recording with a 2× digital zoom. Users can play back recorded video on any television, and use built-in software to make simple video edits, send videos via email, or upload their videos directly to YouTube and other video sharing sites like Google Video and Grouper. Users will also have the "convenient" option of taking the camcorder to one of over 9,400 Pure Digital certified retail locations for one-hour DVD processing: that’s right, you bring in the camcorder, and an hour later you get back a DVD with your video. Pure Digital hasn’t released any details, but previous camcorders captured video at 640 by 480 (VGA) resolution in DivX format, and the lack of anti-shake technology can make video show with these units a bit of a stomach turner. But for some users who aren’t serious about video and just want something simple, they may have a place. And YouTube, of course, welcomes them with open arms:

"Flip Video is a new breed of camcorder that recognizes and leverages the tremendous demand for video sharing." said Kelly Liang, of YouTube’s Business Development group, in a release. "Not only does Flip Video make it easy to capture video, it also makes it simple to instantly share it with friends, family or the world via YouTube."

The Flip Video camcorder is available now at retailers like Costco, Best Buy, Taret, Toys’R’Us, along with Amazon.com, Red Envelope, and others.

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