The Mino is a member of the Flip Video family of products put out by the folks at Pure Digital Technologies. At 4" x 2" x 0.6", and weighing in at only 3.3 oz, the Mino is about 40% smaller than its predecessor. It comes with 2GB of flash memory, which holds up to 60 minutes of video, a 1.5" no-glare built in display and a flip out USB arm that allows you to charge the built in lithium ion battery and connect at USB 2.0 speeds. It also has touch-sensitive buttons on the back for instant recording, playback, fast forward, rewind, pause and delete. The Mino is available in either a black or white model or you can customize the case design on their website (link above).
The resolution is 640 x 480 with a frame rate of 30 fps. I used it to record in both bright light and low light environments and was able to view it in both full screen mode on my Mac as well as on my TV using the supplied cable, with pretty good results. It does have a 2x digital zoom, however, the quality of the video definitely suffers when it is in use. The Mino gives you a level of quality I would place somewhere in between the movies you can take with your point and shoot camera and a high quality HD camcorder.
The Mino comes with its own on board software designed to work with both Mac and PC machines. The great thing about the software being loaded on the device is that you can use it with any nearby system that has the minimum system requirements and user rights. The built in software lets you create custom movies, email videos and video greeting cards, capture still photos from your videos, order DVDs online and instantly upload to MySpace, YouTube, and AOL video. Additionally, if you don't want to use the built in software the Mino is fully compatible with iPhoto and iMovie. In fact iPhoto launches automatically when the device is plugged in just like it would with any digital camera.
All in all I really liked the product. It's a great value for the price. The device itself was very easy to use as was the software. It's small enough to fit in your shirt pocket and go with you anywhere. The battery life is great and it recharges quickly. It's incredibly easy to share the videos with your friends and family. The Mino also has a tripod mount and available accessories including an AC power adaptor, tripod, action mount and pouch. You can pick the Mino up at over 10,000 locations nationwide including Amazon, Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Sears, Kmart and
TheFlip.com.
