What the hell happened to Flip video cameras?

If you're a child of the 2000s, you've probably seen a flip video camera at least once in your life. Before cell phone video was a thing, these bad boys ruled the amateur video scene with their ease of use and novel design that literally included a flip-over USB port on the side. But what happened to these once ubiquitous cameras?

I had an uncle who walked around with one of these cameras and recorded pretty much everything. Even at my wedding in 2012, long after video recording on cell phones had surpassed Flip cameras by a long way, he stood there holding his 2007 Flip on a selfie stick and recorded everything.

Another person who has a soft spot for Pure Digital's Flip line of cameras is “Krazy” Ken of Computer Clan on YouTube. He actually managed to find a working first generation Flip 160 camera (the cameras were so named because of their recording times, 130 for 30 minutes or 160 for 60 minutes). Admittedly, the first generation Flips were rebrands of Pure Digital's point-and-shoot cameras with some minor changes, but I digress.

Ken goes over the cameras' video and audio quality, which, while not up to today's standards, was perfectly acceptable when they were released.

The trump card was the built-in USB port. In an era when I was fiddling around with cables and mini DV tapes or early camcorders with hard drives, these cameras simply plugged directly into the computer. If you watch the video above, the camera's operation was essentially limited to one button and a four-way controller. It was dead simple in an era when video recording was anything but easy, and consumers jumped on it, making it one of the most popular cameras of its time.

So why are they no longer available? It's easy to blame the phones, but that's really not the case. Ken explores the myriad reasons why the company stopped making the cameras. Find out what they are in the video above.

In the meantime, I'm going to treat Flip to a drink. If you're a fan, feel free to do the same in the comments below.