If you're looking for an easy way to plaster video all over your online and mobile media portals, you can probably stop right here. The Pure Digital Technologies Flip isn't exactly a high-end camcorder, but it has become rather popular among anyone who shoots video for online consumption.

Now the Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro has taken a look at the new $180 Flip Mino, a smaller version of the original model. What makes the mobile Flip interesting is that despite its middling video quality, it's easy to carry, stores about an hour of video, plugs directly into your PC or Mac using its fold-out USB connector, and comes with basic editing software built into the device. It also allows for quick and easy upload to YouTube, AOL video, or any e-mail message. It can also prep (but not directly upload) a video for MySpace.

That's enough to rocket the Flip Mino several steps ahead of today's cell phones. While some phones can record decent video, they usually provide no help whatsoever in transferring the video to a PC, converting it for online use, or uploading it—except to certain proprietary sites that no one uses or that somehow line your carrier's pockets.