Flip Video

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify. Simplify."      -Thoreau

The essence of the Slow Life is simplicity. Some people have decided that to pursue the Slow Life they have to eschew technology. They crave the simple life before progress made it complicated. For my part I love progress, I love technology but I love it best when it’s simple. Most innovative products can’t resist the temptation to over-complicate and to add every possible feature, most of which the average customer doesn’t want or need.

The Flip video is the epitome of good simple design. It’s a small video camera, not much bigger than a mobile phone, which only has two functions- Record and Play Back. There’s a built in USB port which plugs directly into the computer which automatically downloads the videos, without the need for software. The Flip is so good I’ve bought five of them- one for me, one for each of the hotels and on for the Heroes of She. For the hotels the Flip is a simple and very effective marketing tool. When a guest is saying how much they’ve enjoyed their stay the receptionist can record them without any fuss and then post the video on the website. Seeing people actually speaking spontaneously and sincerely is much more effective than just reading words in cold print. I think we are the first hotel to be doing this but the idea is so simple and effective that I’m sure it will soon be the norm. All power to the Flip- the epitome of Slow Life technology.