I don’t write about gadgets too often—I buy too many of them and it would turn this blog into a gadget blog. But I just got a nifty little item after Phil Gomes showed me his at the New Communications Forum. I saw it and just had to have it, and I didn’t even know everything it could do until I had my own in my hot little hands and was able to play with it.

It’s called the Point & Shoot Video Camcorder from a company called Pure Digital Technologies. It’s about the size of a deck of cards and it is probably the simplest way to shoot video for use on a blog or website. It runs on two double-A batteries. You turn it on and, like the name suggests, you point and shoot. Zoom functionality is a breeze. When you’re done, you can watch what you recorded on a screen that is adequate to the task, and you can delete anything you don’t want to save with a delete button. Video is saved as AVI files to a hard drive. The unit comes in 30- and 60-minute versions, although I couldn’t find the 60-minute model anywhere. One of the camera’s coolest features is the switchblade USB connector. No cables necessary, just pop out the USB and slam it into an available USB port. The next coolest feature is that no software is required. The software is in the camera and launches on your computer when you connect the USB.

The video quality is great and the audio is just fine for basic use. I shot the following video from my backyard today just as a sample, converted it to Flash, then used Click.TV to make it available here:

And the best part? $129 at Target and Best Buy.

No, I’ not working for this company. Nothing to do with them at all. I’m just jazzed about it. You can count on more video on this blog now, since I can carry the camera with me in my briefcase. Thanks, Phil!