According to the UK tech site Pocket-Lint, Cisco has confirmed that the 2010 version of the Flip camcorder will have built-in Wi-Fi. The model will be able to upload videos from the Flip to the Internet from public and private hotspots and will feature "a large screen that slides to reveal the record and menu buttons underneath," according to a Cisco spokesperson quoted by Pocket-Lint.

I'm not sure how useful Wi-Fi will really be for a product like the Flip, which has staked out its claim on being easy to use. But as a way of off-loading video when the internal memory fills up, it could be useful. We'll have to wait and see.

(Photo courtesy Pure Digital)

One of the few upsides to losing your computer is the prospect of buying a new computer, and the extra boost in processing power that brings. Digital video can grind down a computer. HD video can positively gum up the works.

A company called Quartics announced today that it is offering notebook manufacturers a chip technology that will improve the presentation of HD video on their machines. They dub it "Beyond HD." Now, this is a back-end technology that Quartics is shopping around to computer manufacturers (the first to commercialize it is Acer). It's not something you're likely to read much about. Nor do we have any idea whether it really works as advertised. But still, it's a sign that HD video has hit the mainstream and has computer manufacturers racing to keep up.

(Photo courtesy Gateway)

You know the old saying, the shoemaker's children go barefoot? Well, for a long time now I've been a vocal proponent of being scrupulous, compulsive even, about backing up your digital memories - particularly your digital videos and photos. You never know when disaster will strike.

Well yesterday, disaster struck. My trusty PC died. Croaked. Shuffled off this mortal coil. Keeled over. Inside her liveless innards are a pair of hard drive with gigabytes worth of videos and photos. Now, I have been practicing what I preach - most of my digital memories are safely stored on an external hard drive and on DVDs. But three weeks ago that external hard drive hit capacity and I have yet to buy a new one. As you might imagine, I take a fair amount of photos and videos and can accumulated a decent collection in a short time span. And did I back those up? No.

So let this be a lesson to you - always back up your camcorder video!

Zach Honig has a nice piece on some less-than-above-board marketing practices by camcorder manufacturers when it comes to hocking HD camcorders. To wit, the use of the term "Full HD" when a camcorder does not technically deliver "Full HD" resolution.

To qualify as "Full HD" a camcorder needs to record at 1080p (or 1080 lines of progressive scan resolution). Many, indeed most, high definition camcorders on the market record at 1080i (or 1080 lines of interlaced resolution) yet they will sometimes masquerade as "Full HD."  The practical effect of this is that you might be hoodwinked into buying a camcorder that you think can deliver 1080p resolution when it, in fact, can't.

The upside is that most consumers will find it very difficult to discern the difference between 1080p and 1080i video, particularly from a higher-end HD camcorder. (There are, of course, hard-core videophiles who would strenously object to that assertion.) And, as mentioned, almost all HD camcorders are 1080i models.

The surest way to unpack any "Full HD" marketing claim is to go into the specifications and see whether it delivers 1080p (then it is Full HD) or 1080i, in which case it does not. And, as always, caveat emptor.