A closely held tech firm with some impressive financial backing is hoping to piggyback on the success of YouTube and other online video sites with a new, inexpensive camcorder geared to older consumers who may not be as tech-savvy as their kids.

Pure Digital, which makes disposable cameras sold in drugstores, is launching a new pocket-sized camcorder called Flip Video. The product, which will be available at Target, Costco, Best Buy and on Amazon.com, comes with a USB arm to connect to a personal computer or Mac.

Pure Digital is selling two versions of Flip Video, one that can hold about 30 minutes of video and another that stores an hour. The 30-minute version will cost about $119 while the 60-minute version will sell for around $149. Both devices run on standard AA batteries.

lastminute.com and developers CoolGorilla announced the launch of six new talking phrase books for your mobile phone. The phrase books offer an exciting new way to communicate on your holiday and are available to download now from Coolgorilla.

The phrase books are available in six foreign languages: French, Spanish, German, Greek, Italian and Portuguese. Each one contains between 250-300 sound files covering all elements of your foreign experience including Eating, Travel and even Flirting.

You can search quickly and simply for a phrase in English and by pressing “select,” your mobile phone will speak the phrase in the foreign language with a real “native,” accent, providing an additional text translation on your screen.

Banning baseball caps during tests was obvious–students were writing the answers under the brim. Then, schools started banning cell phones, realizing students could text message the answers to each other.

Now, schools across the country are targeting digital media players as a potential cheating device. Devices including iPods and Zunes can be hidden under clothing, with just an earbud and a wire snaking behind an ear and into a shirt collar to give them away, school officials say.

With features such as text capturing, Agendus toolbar, contact networking, driving directions, address lookup, weather forecast, voice recording, sketching and much more, you’ll love the many new choices you’ll get with Agendus for Windows.

This update introduces full compatibility with Windows Vista as well as Outlook 2007, in addition to a number of usability and stability improvements.

Agendus for Windows Mobile has been optimized to handle the dynamics of your everyday life, and provide a level of proactive personal assistance that so far has only been available from a “real-life” assistant, not a Windows Mobile-based phone or PDA.

This update brings in a number of improvements in both editions, most noticeably the ability to be set as default PIM, enhanced icons support, and numerous one handed navigation optimizations.

A high school senior was arrested after writing that “it would be funny” to dream about opening fire in a building and having sex with the dead victims, authorities said. Allen Lee, 18, faces two disorderly conduct charges over the creative-writing assignment, which he was given in English class at the northern Illinois school.

Students were told to “write whatever comes to your mind. Do not judge or censor what you are writing,” according to a copy of the assignment. Officials described the essay as disturbing and inappropriate. Lee said he was just following the directions.

When most people think of big high-tech hubs, what comes to mind is Silicon Valley. In-the-know IT workers might also add Northern Virginia, Denver or Austin to that list. But rarely is much said about Florida, which, according to the AEA’s “Cyberstates 2007” report, is the fourth-largest and second-fastest-growing technology hub.

Florida’s high-tech industry added a net 10,900 jobs between 2004 and 2005, a growth in technology-related employment surpassed only by California, which added 14,400 high-tech jobs in the same period.

Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of the One Laptop Per Child non-profit group, revealed big news about his laptop for the poor children of the world. His biggest revelations: The laptop will run Windows, and the group is seriously considering selling it in the United States.

The machine, which OLPC aims ultimately to price at $100, is called the XO.

But now Intel’s longtime animosity to the project has taken on new intensity, and that has consequences. Negroponte asserts that in the last couple of weeks, as the final deadline of May 30 approaches for countries to make firm commitments for XOs, Intel has been methodically going to the expected launch countries and offering unusually attractive terms for its own much-less-sexy Classmate PC.

The Classmate is essentially a standard but simplified desktop that like the XO is decorated in green plastic, but less fetchingly. Negroponte claims Intel is pricing it at $180, significantly below its cost of production, and for lots of only 10,000. In an email, Intel spokesman Bill Calder responds that the Classmate’s price is generally higher and he’s not sure what Negroponte is referring to.

Wouldn’t it be great if someone combined an MP3 player and sunglasses into one device? Someone did, and it’s called the Oakley Thump Pro. Read on to find out what Senior Editor James Booth thinks of Oakley’s flagship tech gadget.

Read this Computing Unplugged article.

Cingular Communications/AT&T is announcing a pair of new HSDPA-capable laptop data cards that work globally, and will work with any laptop computer having either an ExpressCard slot or a USB port. The ExpressCard version started shipping on April 25, while the USB card starts shipping in about a week.

Both cards are part of AT&T’s LaptopConnect portfolio. The Option GT Max 3.6 Express card is designed for ExpressCard slots, found in newer laptop computers. The Sierra Wireless AirCard 875U works with USB-equipped computers, which is basically all of them. Both of the data cards use AT&T’s 3G BroadbandConnect service. According to the company, they are “slim and stylish.”