November 23 - 4:05pm EST   Conventional wisdom would have had Pure Digital's Flip camcorders wash out because of their limited features, but it's precisely this which has led them to seemingly overthrow the budget camcorder market. Their dead-simple controls and narrow focus have made them ideal for a generation growing up on YouTube and video blogging. The Flip Mino HD promises to do the same for high-definition video and with even simpler editing. But does it live up to this promise? We find out in our full review. [full story]

November 12 - 12:00am EST   Pure Digital today launched its response to a recent wave of ultra-simple HD camcorders from newer rivals with the launch of the Flip Mino HD. The camera matches the 720p widescreen, fixed zoom capture of most of its opponents but opts for a built-in 4GB of flash memory rather than the SD cards of others. This gives it an hour of storage for HD out of the box in the Mino HD's native MPEG-4 format, which also makes most videos relatively portable both to web video and to video editing tools, including iMovie. Pure estimates about two hours of battery life with the extra demand from the improved footage. [full story]

September 3 - 9:00am EDT   Sanyo this morning upgraded its Xacti camcorders with the North American version of the E2. This second generation of the company's hardened camera improves the recording performance and will capture 640x480 H.264 video at up to 60 frames per second and snaps up to eight-megapixel still shots, including at up to five continuous frames per second. It also brings live face detection and a specialized underwater mode that adjusts the colors to avoid some of the tinting that occurs in pool or shallow dives. [full story]

August 20 - 8:00am EDT   Casio today began its prelude to the Photokina show with three new Exilim cameras for the US and elsewhere, two of which introduce a new automatic image tuning feature. The Zoom series tops out with the 10.1-megapixel EX-Z300 and the 9.1-megapixel EX-Z250, both of which include a new Makeup feature: the optional setting can dynamically improve the look of faces in portrait shots by either eliminating blemishes or reducing the impact of long shadows. They can also automatically correct overly dark faces or stitch together three shots to simulate a long exposure time. [full story]

July 9 - 8:40am EDT   Samsung on Wednesday updated its MX series camcorders with a refresh targeted at the web and portable players. The SC-MX20 effectively replaces the earlier MX10 and adds a Web & Mobile mode that records H.264 video in a 640x480 format that can easily be transferred to video websites such as YouTube; it also lets users record home video that doesn't require transcoding to work with iPhones, iPods, and other H.264-aware devices. [full story]

June 16 - 8:25am EDT   JVC this morning unveiled three new HD Everio cameras that all offer something new to camcorders. The HD30 and HD40 (shown) are the first camcorders to capture HD in either AVCHD (H.264) or MPEG-2 format and give users the choice of format based on their editing environment; users can either record in the more efficient AVC format or else pick the larger but more widespread MPEG-2 format for easier editing on some computers. [full story]

June 10 - 7:40pm EDT   Apple's recently unveiled Quicktime 7.5 update preceded updates released on Tuesday – iMovie 7.1.2 and iDVD 7.0.2 – two applications with heavy reliance on the company's multimedia platform. The update information pages say little about what specifically addressed, with both merely stating: "This update addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues." Apple is supplying the updates through its support page, as well as through Software Update. [full story]