arhangelsk

Cisco's Flip Video line of camcorders have continued to evolve, with their latest iterations just released in September. On Thursday, the company announced still more improvements, this time to its software.

The FlipShare software, pre-loaded on all Flip Video camcorders, is getting a holiday upgrade. The latest version of the software, which will be pre-loaded on all Flip Video camcorders sold beginning December 15th, will have greeting card templates. Record a video and you can then embed it into one of "dozens of holiday inspired" greeting card templates.

Above, in fact, is a screenshot from a greeting card by the band OK GO.

Continuing FlipShare's friendship with Facebook (the software earlier added direct share with the social networking site), users can use the new Flip Video greeting card application on Facebook to load any video into a holiday greeting card to share with their Facebook friends (faux or not).

Here's how Cisco described the new features:

The FlipShare greeting card option features more than forty all-new designs ranging from Christmas and Hanukkah to Birthday, Anniversary and Thank You. Once a user selects their favorite design, they simply type in their own personal message to go along with their Flip video. The video greeting card can then be sent at no cost by email to a single recipient or to a group. Flip Video plans on adding more new card designs throughout the year.

In addition the latest addition of the pre-loaded FlipShare software now offers improved private sharing options and the ability to quickly import contacts from their online email accounts such as AOL™, Google™, Hotmail™ and Yahoo™. The private sharing feature enables consumers to easily and privately share their videos with friends and family--plus share comments on their favorites. It’s like having a private video community page for people who want to share only with their friends and family.

In addition to the FlipShare software enhancements, Flip Video has launched a special Video Greeting Card app for Facebook that invites everyone to create and send video greeting cards. The greeting card can feature a Flip video or any other video footage from a smart phone or other video device that is posted on a person’s Facebook page. Users can go to www.facebook.com/flipvideo to use this fun new app.

Those who already have FlipShare installed on their home PCs will be alerted to download a new version. The software is compatible with either PC or Mac. Cisco is advertising the Flip camcorders are the perfect holiday gift. Despite inroads made by video recording on smartphones and iPod nanos, we still love our Flip, and these greeting cards certainly push it more toward the "perfect gift" category.