The Future of our Flip Cams

James Robertson

Flip Mino: An easy-to-use portable digital video camera that could be going wireless after being acquired by Cisco Systems.Cisco recently announced they want to buy out Pure Digital, the maker of the Flip line of portable digital video cameras, for $590 million of stock .

While some of you may not be familiar with the Flip cam, we budding multimedia journalists are very familiar with them.  Because they're about the size of a cell phone, are easy to use (on/off button, record/stop button, play button, delete button, built-in USB port), have great video and audio quality (there is an HD version), have pre-loaded editing software, and are relatively cheap, they are a good investment by news organizations to teach traditional print journalists how to shoot video.

However, this merger could mean a really cool new feature for the Flip camera: wireless capability.  Cisco is known for their networking prowess, so the rumor (reported by several respectable news organizations) is that they are buying Pure Digital in an effort to combine the easy-to-use camera with wireless, opening up huge opportunities for many people, including journalists.

A wireless Flip would be the be-all-end-all for future backpack journalists.  Imagine taking some video with your Flip, then hitting a button and uploading it to your organization's website immediately.  Even better would be wireless streaming capability, so journalists could get a live feed of whatever they're covering, from disasters to pet shows.

This would also open up a whole new generation of so-called "citizen journalists."  Whatever side of that debate you're on, news organizations will have to continue to grapple with how they will use the content from the Average Joe on the street.

Who knows how far off a wireless Flip cam is, but I can tell you I can't wait.