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Business Week discusses the design process behind the Flip video camera, which has become an unexpected hit. Engineers started with the most basic design they could imagine, and added little else. Users who want a cheap, simple camcorder and who don’t want cables or complicated documentation are buying Flips. It’s the best selling camcorder on Amazon.com.

David Pogue of the New York Times discussed the Flip a few weeks ago, also.

• There’s no power adapter or rechargeable battery. Regular AA batteries are used.
• Want to expand the onboard memory? You can’t. There’s no memory card slot. Flips are sold with either 30 minutes and 60 minutes of storage.
• Downloading the video is easy: an on-board USB jack plugs directly into computers, and built-in editing software pops up to help the user.

Howard Owens has posted a brief review with two videos he shot with a Flip.