One welcome sign is an effort by companies trying to improve Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Windows Mobile operating system, which has a reputation for confusing navigation and hasn’t had a major update recently. Kinoma Inc., for example, recently released an application called Kinoma Play that runs on Windows Mobile devices and gives users a markedly better way of handling photos, videos, music and Web browsing.

The HTC Touch Diamond, due out this month from Sprint, tries to hide Windows Mobile software.

This week, I tried yet another software program that is designed to run on top of Windows Mobile software. But this time, the software is at the heart of a device designed by the same company: HTC Inc. I tested the HTC Touch Diamond, due out from Sprint (S) sometime this month for $250 (after a $100 mail-in rebate) with a two-year contract.

Taiwan-based HTC started out in 1998 as a maker and designer of mobile devices for other companies. A year ago, HTC launched the first device under its own name in the U.S., and now, Sprint, AT&T (T) and T-Mobile (DT) sell HTC-branded devices. The Diamond incorporates HTC software, as well as software from Sprint, MobiTV, TeleNav and others. But it isn’t a stretch to imagine HTC trying to create a fully end-to-end model (hardware and all software) in the future.

The Diamond has a touch screen, but it’s smaller than Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone — 2.8 versus 3.5 inches. This screen lacks the iPhone’s multitouch functionality, and its smaller size robs space used for touch gestures like flicking or scrolling with a finger. Yet like the iPhone, it relies solely on an on-screen keyboard for all text entries. Even with the Diamond’s stylus, the keyboard felt small and cramped. Using just your fingertips was next to impossible.

After using the Diamond for a week, I can say that despite its handsome TouchFLO 3D software and animated icons like photos that flip from one to the next with a flick of finger, this device failed to disguise the frustrating interface of Windows Mobile often enough for my taste.

It reminded me of the brown paper bag book covers my Dad helped me make for schoolbooks when I was a kid: They looked great on the outside, felt sturdy and clean and created a blank canvas for homemade doodles that were often more interesting to me than the books they covered. But my book covers couldn’t change what was underneath; pages of frustrating algebra were just a flip away.

HTC’s sleek software tries to hide Windows Mobile, but menus from the Microsoft operating system are constantly popping up. HTC’s email program, for example, is represented by an animated envelope icon that, when selected, cleverly flips twice before sliding an email message half-way out and giving you a three-line peek at what’s inside. If only reading and responding to email were half as entertaining. Selecting the animated envelope opens the old, cumbersome Windows Mobile email program.

Also, the touch capabilities of the Diamond’s screen didn’t work as well as they should. Finger flicks that should have scrolled through lists instead seemed to select individual items in a list, as if they were sticky.

The Diamond isn’t all bad, of course. Plenty of people will like its smaller size because the iPhone and RIM’s (RIM) BlackBerrys seem too large and brick-like to hold up to an ear for phone calls. Next to my BlackBerry Curve, the Diamond was of comparable thickness but measured smaller in width and length.

Despite its size, the Diamond is packed with features. It has a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus that doubles as a camcorder, and comes with four gigabytes of internal memory and a removable battery. I taped short videos — something the iPhone can’t do — and found the sound and video footage to be adequate.

HTC touts the Diamond’s browser, which is based on the Opera browsing engine but is designed for HTC. It opens Web pages in views that fit the screen and text is automatically resized as users zoom in or out, though this resizing was sometimes slow.

Unlike the iPhone, Web sites that are opened on the Diamond’s browser don’t resemble the actual site as you would see it on your computer. I opened CNN.com (TWX) and WSJ.com (NWS), two sites that are packed with text and graphics on a regular browser. On the Diamond, they quickly were rendered in list format with mostly text-only. I easily touched the screen to follow links to full stories.

Like the iPhone, the Diamond has an accelerometer, though it’s called the “G-Sensor.” When it worked, this feature flipped the screen to match the horizontal or vertical direction in which the device was being held. Photos flipped instantly, but the Diamond’s G-Sensor took almost three full seconds to respond as I flipped from vertical to horizontal while using the browser. And some Web sites didn’t respond to the G-Sensor flips at all.

A special YouTube application developed by HTC was easy to find on the device and worked quickly. My videos were organized into categories for All, History, Bookmarks and Search, though this last category required using the finger-fumbling keyboard. In one step, I emailed a link from a YouTube video to a friend using the device, with a still shot from the video included in the message.

Overall navigation on the Diamond isn’t as intuitive as on the iPhone or iPod Touch, nor was it as easy as on a touch-screen Windows Mobile device running the Kinoma Play application. The iPhone and iPod Touch use quick double-taps on touch screens to zoom in or out, and multitouch capabilities resize images with pinching gestures; Kinoma Play uses a long touch to zoom in. The Diamond used double tapping on some screens, but not enough for me to grow comfortably reliant on it. A small, circular pad beneath the device’s touch screen provided a more dependable method for zooming in or out of screens: tracing the perimeter of this circle clockwise with a finger zoomed in; counterclockwise zoomed out.

The HTC’s software animation is put to good use on its Weather screen. Here, animated illustrations of each day’s weather appear on the screen: suns spin, clouds move in, rain appears to fall. Even moons appear on the device at night to accurately reflect the weather in a city at a specific time.

It is exciting to think about other mobile-phone companies giving better software a real try, especially those that attempt to improve Windows Mobile. But HTC’s Touch Diamond doesn’t hide the outdated operating system well enough or often enough for a user to want to buy a whole new mobile device.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

• Email us at mossbergsolution@wsj.com. Find this and other columns and videos online free at the All Things Digital Web site: http://walt.allthingsd.com

This week I took a look at some options for people who want to get rid of old electronics, one way or another. The good news is that there are a handful of Web sites that make it easy to do this — and some of them may even pay you for your old products. The bad news is that you’ll likely receive only a fraction of what you originally paid, especially if you waited a while to get rid of it.

Some sites, like Gazelle.com and VenJuvo.com, offer cash for your items and/or will recycle products. Another site, TechForward.com, lets people pay a fee to “lock in” a value for how much the site promises to pay for the product in the future. MyBoneYard.com accepts only laptops, desktop PCs, cellphones and flat-panel monitors, and gives Visa (V) gift cards rather than cash.

I was surprised to receive significantly different value offers from Gazelle and VenJuvo when trying to sell the exact same products on each site. In one instance, VenJuvo offered me $30 more than Gazelle for a digital camera; another time, I got $15 more from Gazelle for an old Apple (AAPL) iPod. It’s worth the extra step to shop around at more than one of these sites before getting rid of something.

Both ask a few questions about the item, including its condition and whether or not it still has the accessories that originally came with it. Gazelle determines a product’s value using retail — think Amazon (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) — and wholesale channels; VenJuvo uses similar criteria and also looks at competitors’ prices.

If you worry about someone stealing your digital data, you’ll likely not feel comfortable dropping something in the mail that’s chock full of personal information, especially if it no longer powers on to allow the owner to wipe this information.

Both Gazelle and VenJuvo accept at least some types of digital cameras, laptops, MP3 players, GPS devices, camcorders and gaming consoles. Gazelle also accepts cellphones. But they don’t take everything. Gazelle doesn’t take LCD TVs and VenJuvo doesn’t accept satellite radios and portable hard drives or any smartphones or cellphones other than the iPhone; neither accepts desktop PCs.

I took the closest look at newly released Gazelle, owned by Second Rotation Inc., and walked through the simple start-to-finish process of selling a gadget and receiving money from the site. After pulling up the site, people can find their product and its value by choosing from a list of nine categories or by typing some part of the product’s name into a search box.

I sold Gazelle a first-generation iPod Mini with four gigabytes of memory for which my boss paid $249 in 2004. I answered a few questions about the product: Yes, it still powered on; no, I didn’t have the original AC adapter, manuals or software installation CD, and it was in “excellent” condition, according to my assessment. Gazelle placed its value at $25.

At this step, I opted to add the iPod to my box and check out, but users can also add other items to a box, including electronics for recycling. Gazelle’s policy is that it pays 100% of shipping costs for any box shipped to the company, so long as there’s at least one item in the box worth $1. Eighty percent of transactions qualify for a free box; the rest can be sent with printed-out prepaid shipping labels, but you must find packaging.

Gazelle lets users receive payments via a mailed, paper check or using PayPal; money is received either way within five business days. People can also donate their money to one of 23 causes, including the American Red Cross and World Vision. I opted for PayPal, and the $25 amount was deposited shortly after Gazelle received the iPod.

I sent the old iPod to Gazelle in a brightly colored, empty box that arrives at a customer’s door a few days after he or she sells the device to Gazelle. I secured the old iPod in the box using balled up paper, and sealed it with packing tape. A prepaid shipping label was already stuck to it, and I needed only drop it off at UPS.

If Gazelle receives a product and decides that it isn’t worth what you said it was — either more or less — and you’d rather not sell, the company will ship the product back, free of charge. But while Gazelle’s site guarantees users that they’ll receive their money, and that personal data are safe with the company, no money-back guarantee is offered.

Gazelle hopes to calm nerves by posting detailed instructions on the site about how to wipe a device of all private information. But the company hasn’t yet done this, and numerous users will remain skeptical even with such instructions.

I also poked around on VenJuvo Inc.’s Web site of the same name, www.VenJuvo.com, which is derived from two Greek words meaning “support, assist and delight sellers,” according to the company. This site, too, buys products back from people, though it pays via check, PayPal or Kmart (SHLD) gift card. Users fill out similarly simple questionnaires on each product to help assess value. Unlike Gazelle’s style of mailing boxes to users, VenJuvo gives users only prepaid shipping labels to print out and stick on a box that the customer must supply.

One notable difference between the sites is Gazelle’s broader range of products. In the case of digital cameras, for example, Gazelle accepts 80 brands while VenJuvo takes only Canon (CAJ), Sony (SNE), Olympus and Kodak (EK). Unlike with Gazelle, if you send VenJuvo a product that isn’t worth what you said it was, the company won’t return the product free-of-charge; instead, it will charge you for shipping.

If users choose to receive a gift card, they get a 10% added value. While VenJuvo doesn’t let people donate a product’s value to a cause, it will add this feature next week and will include different causes (like Ronald McDonald House and Big Brothers Big Sisters) than those found on Gazelle.

Unlike Gazelle, VenJuvo will always take items for recycling and will pay for the shipping, regardless of whether you traded something in for a value.

A useful resource for general electronics recycling is the Consumer Electronics Association Web site, www.MyGreenElectronics.org, which locates nearby electronics-recycling centers according to ZIP Code. And almost every computer manufacturer has a recycling program in place; some will even recycle computers that aren’t their own brand.

One way or another, it’s time to clean out the old junk drawer. Just be sure to do some comparison shopping if you want money for your old products.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

But to the style-conscious set, the Flip looked like a clunky Fisher-Price toy — especially when compared with a sleek, new iPod or more-sophisticated digital cameras — and was too thick to comfortably slip into a pocket. Last fall, Pure Digital introduced an enhanced version: the Flip Video Ultra, but its biggest aesthetic difference was new orange, pink and green colors.

Today, the company will begin sales of its $180 Flip Video Mino (pronounced “minnow”), the hippest offering yet from Pure Digital. This 60-minute Flip includes many firsts for the company: rechargeable batteries; touch-sensitive buttons rather than old-school, push-down buttons; and a thinner build that measures 40% smaller, overall. The Flip Mino is also the first one in the family to enable publishing to MySpace (NWS); prior software limited Web-site sharing to YouTube (GOOG) and AOL (TWX) Video.

I’ve been using a glossy, black Flip Mino (it also comes in white) for the past two weeks and it looks much cooler than older models. Its newly positioned USB adapter pops up from the top of the camera like something from a Swiss Army Knife. The Mino offers features such as the ability to lock the delete button, so no one accidentally deletes your videos, and mute all camera sounds, so as to record silently during quiet moments like wedding ceremonies or speeches.

I brought it along with me almost everywhere I went because of its small size and light weight, even fitting it into a thin clutch purse with a cellphone and BlackBerry (RIMM). I used the Mino in various situations ranging from bright, scenic outdoor settings to indoors while eating dinner in a candle-lit restaurant. Overall, I was pleased with the sound and picture quality of the Mino, and I found its built-in software, which automatically starts when the camera plugs into your Mac (AAPL) or Windows (MSFT) PC, to be a pleasure to use.

Today, Pure Digital Technologies introduced its $180 Flip Video Mino, a thinner, more stylish version of its point-and-shoot camcorder.

It took just a few minutes to trim excess footage from my videos before saving them to my computer or sharing them with friends and family. Another way to share videos from the Flip Mino is via Pure Digital’s server, which sends emails with embedded video links, saving upload and download time on both ends. Though I didn’t publish any of my videos on a public Web site, AOL, MySpace and YouTube were just one step away.

The Flip Mino’s touch buttons, while stylish, were difficult to use at first. I missed the tactile feel of physical buttons as I tried to hold this small video camera and press the zoom buttons using just one hand. The new, touch-sensitive buttons weren’t as satisfying and stable to use, and I pressed them accidentally more than a few times. For instance, the Zoom Out button is directly below Record, making it easy to mistakenly touch it. After about a week of using the Mino, I grew more accustomed to using these new touch buttons, but it shouldn’t take so long to make the adjustment.

Just looking at the Flip Mino’s fresh new exterior makes it hard not to think about the things that this redesigned camcorder is still lacking, like a larger viewing screen (the Mino screen is 1.5 inches, no larger than that of the Flip Ultra), high definition video and wireless sharing capability. These features would likely raise the price and/or tax the battery, and many users of the Flip flock to it for its low price and simplicity. Still, Pure Digital says that it will offer HD video and a larger screen on a product within a year, and is looking into features that might include wireless transferring.

I grew fond of the Mino’s rechargeable battery. Whenever I plugged this gadget into my computer to transfer videos, my Mino charged up via USB without me having to think about it. A full charge lasts four hours and recharging a dead battery takes about three hours.

Pure Digital says that the sound quality and lighting are improved in this model. Like previous models, this Flip records in 640×480 pixels at 30 frames per second.

The Mino didn’t have a problem with lighting in most situations; indeed it did a nice job of capturing images of my family sitting around a table in a restaurant with little more than candlelight to brighten the picture. It doesn’t use a flash or a built-in light, but instead uses automatic sensors to adjust to various levels of light.

This svelte camcorder seemed to handle noise more evenly than I remembered in prior Flip models. It didn’t make my voice sound unbearably louder than everyone else’s, even though I was closest to the camera’s microphone, yet it managed to detect voices across the room. I did have some trouble on a windy day: While recording a quick video of a golf course in San Diego, wind audibly muffled my voice during a few moments in the video.

Along with the delete-lock and sounds-off settings, this Mino has a few other tricks up its sleeve. Each of the touch-sensitive buttons is designed to glow only when usable, so as to better help people who might not know which buttons to press while using this camcorder. For example, only the zoom buttons glow while recording since the other buttons (volume, play/pause and delete) can’t function in this setting.

Shortcuts built into each button provide more functions: Holding the play/pause button down will set the playback mode to play all videos on the Mino; holding the seek ahead or seek back buttons while watching a video will fast-forward by seconds within that video; pressing the record button as the camera starts up opens up the settings menu.

In conjunction with the Flip Mino’s introduction Wednesday, prices of the former Flip Ultra model will drop to $150 for the 60-minute model. The Flip Ultra 30-minute model will be phased out, as will the Flip Classic, which will cost $130 for a 60-minute unit.

Though the Flip Mino’s touch-sensitive buttons look great, they aren’t as functional as they needed to be. But if you really want a sleek, hip-looking gadget, you’ll learn to adjust to these new buttons. No matter which Flip you choose, Pure Digital’s software changes the way people capture and share videos, and that’s a great thing.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

• Email mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Today, parents can use sleek, light video cameras that capture and record high-definition footage directly onto tiny memory cards, which hold much more than an old VHS tape. Yet many people hesitate to buy new camcorders, scared off by steep prices and intimidating technology.

This week, I tested a simple video camera that fits into the palm of your hand and lets you record footage almost as easily as you share or save it: the Flip Video Ultra from Pure Digital Technologies Inc. (www.theflip.com). This rectangular-shaped video camera comes in two models that capture 30 or 60 minutes each and cost $150 and $180, respectively. Both models are available starting today from stores like Amazon.com and Best Buy.

The Flip Video Ultra’s front has a camera lens and microphone; the back, a 1.5-inch viewing screen, four directional arrows, delete and play buttons. A USB plug pops out from its side so you can connect it directly to a computer’s USB port without cables.

Special software that opens when the camera attaches to a computer walks users through sharing or saving clips in a few straightforward steps. And if that’s still too complicated, the device can be dropped off at affiliated stores (like CVS) where footage is extracted and turned into a DVD.

This tiny video camera made it a pleasure to record startlingly good footage for a camera of its size both indoors and outside. It’s designed to be held comfortably in front of you, which didn’t make me feel removed from the event I was recording like many other video cameras. Not without flaws, the Flip’s 2x digital zoom isn’t ideal for shooting from afar, and on more than one occasion its software froze up on Windows PCs and Apple Macs. But once I got going, I started shooting videos in a new way, unobtrusively using it and then fitting the Flip into small purses. Saving and emailing footage was a breeze after a few initial hiccups.

Flip Video Ultra from Pure Digital Technologies

This gadget, however, is not only non-HD, its footage isn’t as high resolution as that of a standard camcorder. Its quality is great for email and Web posting, but won’t fill up a big TV or satisfy serious amateurs. This is the Flip’s tradeoff for size, price and simplicity.

The Flip Video Ultra is an improvement on the Flip Video, which Pure Digital introduced in May. Though it costs $30 more, the newer version features higher-quality sound and video (footage is half as compressed as that on the old Flip), a transflective screen with a better resolution and improved video-processing technology. The new Flip also integrates direct uploads to YouTube in its software program.

I took the new Flip along with me on a business trip to California and carried it around Washington, D.C., shooting in different environments: inside a dark auditorium at a press event; outside at dusk overlooking the San Francisco skyline from a rooftop barbeque; in my house at nighttime; and during a visit to Google headquarters with my boss, Walt Mossberg. The Flip worked well in each situation.

This video camera measures roughly four inches high by two inches wide and an inch deep, and the 60-minute version comes in black, white, pink and orange; 30-minute models only come in black and white. Though the Flip Video Ultra doesn’t have a flash, it’s designed to perform well under circumstances with low light because Pure Digital assumes most users will be recording indoors. It captures in 640×480 resolution at 30 frames per second.

I used the 60-minute Flip. In capture mode, an on-screen message tells how many minutes remain on the camera. In playback mode, captured clips are labeled with duration and numerical order, such as “Video 21 of 24.” Hitting the Delete button twice while a clip is on screen erases it.

In a couple instances when I wanted to shoot something farther away, I was a little dismayed by the video camera’s weak zoom. But in most situations I was recording things that were nearby, so this issue wasn’t a big deal. Parents who are heading to dance recitals with this Flip will need seats in the front.

The exciting part of capturing video is sharing it with others, and Pure Digital’s built-in software does a superb job of this. I plugged my Flip into four computers running Microsoft’s Windows XP and Vista and Apple’s Mac OS X operating systems and opened the camera’s software to see thumbnail images of my clips. Each clip can be played or selected for saving or sharing. Only on Windows XP did the software automatically open when I attached the camera; opening it on the other platforms required extra steps.

The Save Videos option asked me to choose whether I wanted to save clips to my computer or if I wanted to save them in a smaller format for emailing to someone else. Saving these videos took a little time, but nothing that was too much of a hassle.

Sharing videos took a little longer. Three choices within the Share Videos menu offered to walk me through the steps for sharing videos via emails with links, in an electronic greeting card with embedded video or online using YouTube or other Web sites.

The first time I plugged the Flip into each computer I went through a few extra set-up steps to get the software started. I encountered a few instances during which sending videos to friends via email took a little longer than I expected. Once, on my iMac, it took more than 30 minutes to send a video that was two minutes and 36 seconds. But this was the exception; most of my videos that were roughly that long or shorter took only about five to 10 minutes to be sent.

Editing footage in Pure Digital’s software works for average users who might do some simple editing, like shorten a video or cut out a certain part. Easy-to-use slide bars adjust start and end times for videos, and edited versions of clips can be saved in addition to the originals. The company says that if clips are converted to standard Windows or Mac formats they should be editable in any standard video- editing software.

Muvee software is also built into Pure Digital’s software to let Windows users choose a bunch of clips, select music and a theme for the movie and watch as an automatically organized montage of clips plays.

Pure Digital plans to continuously issue software updates; the next is coming at the end of the month. But as is, this tiny video camera delivers a remarkably good picture on a device that anyone can use. With this product, Pure Digital Technologies again shows the value of simplicity, this time with the bonus of better technology.

Email mossbergsolution@wsj.com

When someone whips out a video camera at a school play or family reunion, two thoughts probably run through your head. One: I really should get a video camera for moments just like this. Two: Who am I kidding? I have no clue how to use a video camera or what to do with the digital video files.

For all their popularity, video cameras are a pain to use, especially on the spur of the moment. Most require a supply of tapes, and the discipline to have expensive, charged batteries at the ready. For casual users, video cameras are also intimidating, filled with buttons and controls whose purpose isn’t always obvious.

Not only that, but it’s a challenge figuring out how to transfer your videos to a computer, for editing and sharing with others. And the price tags on most camcorders, ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars, don’t help.

But what if somebody invented a dead-simple, point-and-shoot video camera — the video equivalent of a point-and-shoot digital still camera? What if it had only a few simple buttons; didn’t require tapes; used standard AA batteries; and cost under $150? And what if it had the built-in ability to easily transfer your videos to a computer, and an easy way to convert them into a DVD?

Well, a small company has invented just such a video camera, and we’ve been testing it. It’s a radical new design, unlike any other video camera we’ve tested, and has the potential to expand the video-camera market to people who, until now, have been reluctant to use one, or to use one very often. Not only that, but this simple, low-priced new design is due to spread by the end of this year, because it has been licensed to several big-name camera makers, who plan their own versions.

The Point & Shoot Video Camcorder by Pure Digital Technologies; $129.99

Over the past few weeks, we’ve enjoyed trying out the new $130 Pure Digital Point & Shoot Video Camcorder by Pure Digital Technologies Inc. This device, which came out Monday and is being sold at Target stores, aims to be stunningly simple to use and works with a built-in software program that makes it easy for you to email condensed footage or save videos to your computer.

Our verdict: The Point & Shoot lived up to its billing. It was a no-brainer to use and produce video clips that, while not as good as those from a high-end camcorder, were good enough to preserve family memories. This camera has some limitations, but they were more than canceled out by its simplicity and its readiness for spur-of-the-moment shooting. Both we, and our families, were very satisfied with the results.

The camera’s internal memory, which replaces old-fashioned tape, can hold 30 minutes of footage, whether continuous or broken up into smaller segments. And its software for viewing and sharing videos on a computer is embedded right in the camera, along with a USB connector. So no cables, or installation CDs, are needed.

You can also take the camcorder to stores like Rite Aid or CVS, where for about $10 they’ll copy the footage off of the camcorder and make a DVD, complete with menus, that’s playable on most DVD players and computers.

We put the Point & Shoot through its paces at two religious occasions — family celebrations of Easter and Passover — and at a near-religious occasion: the Boston Red Sox 2006 home opener at historic Fenway Park. We also used it to record highlights from a surprise 30th anniversary party.

The biggest competitor for the Point & Shoot may not be costly, complex camcorders, but cheaper digital still cameras that also can shoot video. But, on these cameras, the video files suck up a lot of storage space and battery capacity that might otherwise be devoted to photos. And though these files can be copied onto a computer rather easily, most people don’t know how to do anything more with the footage. Pure Digital’s software walks users through emailing and saving video, eliminating the guesswork.

The Point & Shoot Video Camcorder is white and measures the same size as a disposable drugstore camera, but is designed to be held vertically. Its back side includes Play, Delete, Power, and Record buttons, as well as a 1.4-inch color viewing screen and four directional buttons (arrows pointing up, down, left and right). In our tests, we used the small screen to play back footage instantly after recording, which was a real treat for everyone who watched the videos.

Up to 98 clips can be captured in the Point & Shoot’s 30-minute recording period. After turning the camera on with the Power button, we only had to press the red Record button to start taping. In the top left corner of the screen, numbers flashed showing how much time had elapsed. The up and down arrows work as zoom buttons for the camera’s slight 2x digital zoom, and pressing record again stopped filming, ending a segment.

Two AA batteries come included in the camcorder, and the company estimates these will last for about 140-160 minutes.

The Point & Shoot might produce shaky footage for users who have an unsteady hand, as it doesn’t have an optical viewfinder or eyepiece. Another downside that we noticed is the microphone. Though it’s positioned on the front side of the camcorder, it sometimes struggled to pick up softer sounds. But it did work.

The lens is very basic, and limited. For instance, at Fenway Park, from our position halfway up in the stands, videos of players on the field were fuzzy. But Pure Digital has licensed the guts of the camera to some prominent electronics brands, including RCA, which plan a range of models with better lenses, greater memory and other features.

After taking videos on various trips, we returned to the office and plugged our Point & Shoot Video Camcorders into Windows and Mac computers. A small, hidden USB plug pops out from the side of the camcorder, eliminating the need for cables. On our Dell Windows PC, Pure Digital’s software automatically appeared when we attached the camcorder.

The first screen that we saw was labeled Browse All Videos, and it showed four tiny snapshots of the beginning scenes of the first four videos on our camcorder. You can also sort videos by date before viewing them. Below each video, the date and duration of the clip were listed, as well as options for watching the clip in a small format right on that screen, or in a larger format on a different screen.

To the left, four options were listed: Save Videos, Email Videos, Delete Videos and Make Movie. The software was as straightforward as the camera itself; we only had to select a video and choose the correct command on the left before executing it. After we saved six clips of Katie’s family celebrating Easter together in Boston, they were automatically copied to a folder on our desktop labeled “Point & Shoot Videos,” and were organized within this folder according to the date they were saved. The Make Movie option instructed us to select clips, and then press Make Movie — combining those clips into one continuous video.

When we selected a video clip and chose Email Videos, the Pure Digital software program gave us two options: create a smaller video file and attach it to an email in our default program, or create a smaller video file to store in our Point & Shoot Videos folder for emailing later with any email program. Most people wouldn’t know the first thing about making a video file smaller, so this program truly is helpful.

This process is clumsier on a Mac, because you have to install the software first — it doesn’t run automatically from the camera. Also, saving the files on the Mac for use in other software required converting them to another format or running a special program. The company pledges to fix these Mac issues later in the year.

We also took one of our camcorders to a CVS drugstore near our office, and an hour and $13 later, we got it back with a DVD of its footage. Since Pure Digital also makes other products, including a one-time-use digital camera and a one-time-use camcorder, we had to make sure the CVS employee knew we wanted our camera back with the DVD.

The DVD played on a cheap DVD player attached to a TV at the office, as well as on both Windows and Mac computers, without a problem. The DVD comes with the Pure Digital software on it so if it’s given to someone else, he or she would be able to email or save the video files.

An included cable can connect your camcorder to any nearby television, playing back footage right away on a larger screen.

Surely, you could spend a lot more money for a camcorder with better features, such as improved zoom and focusing capabilities. But when it comes right down to it, the Pure Digital Point & Shoot Video Camcorder’s quality is remarkable for how small and simple the device is. If you’re looking for a basic video camcorder that you can throw in a purse or briefcase for any occasion, this device is perfect. The camcorder and its built-in software program make sense to normal users.

• Email: MossbergSolution@wsj.com

But what about shooting videos? Camcorders are even more expensive and bulkier to lug around than still cameras. And the videos they take are difficult to import into computers for emailing, editing or recording to DVDs. You can make short videos with smaller, cheaper digital still cameras, but they are often limited to a few minutes in length, either because of functional limitations or lack of room on memory cards.

What if you could just pick up a cheap, disposable video camera when the movie-making urge hit you? And what if your local drugstore could quickly turn the videos you took with this camera into a DVD that could play back on any set-top DVD player and be popped into a computer so you could save or email your videos?

The $29.99 CVS One-Time-Use Video Camcorder from Pure Digital Technologies records 20 minutes of video and is processed onto a DVD for $12.99.

Well, starting today, you’ll be able to do that. A small San Francisco company, Pure Digital Technologies, has invented just such a pocket-size, one-time-use camcorder, complete with an LCD screen. And a huge drugstore chain, CVS, based in Woonsocket, R.I., will be selling them and processing the recorded videos into DVDs.

This week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I tested this $29.99 CVS One-Time-Use Video Camcorder. The camcorder, which resembles a larger, fatter iPod, is meant to be used only once before you return it to a CVS for DVD-conversion processing, which takes an hour and costs $12.99. It can capture 20 minutes of video, perfect for a birthday party, sports event or visit to a tourist attraction.

Because we tested the camera before its public release, we couldn’t try out the processing end of the deal. Our videos were processed directly by Pure Digital and shipped back to us overnight. So we focused on the camera itself — how easy it was to use and how good the videos were.

Our verdict: This first one-time-use camcorder is extremely convenient, rugged and easy to use. The DVDs it creates also worked well on DVD players and on Windows and Macintosh computers, and it was a cinch to share them via email.

But the quality of the videos the camera creates was nothing to write home about. Outdoor scenes were acceptable, but the indoor shots we took, in variable lighting, were sometimes grainy, especially when viewed on a TV screen. And the sound quality was often poor. We wouldn’t want to record any once-in-a-lifetime moments on this product.

The One-Time-Use Video Camcorder lacks a few things that even low-end camcorders usually have. It has no optical viewfinder, so this camcorder depends solely on its 1.4-inch color screen for capturing and reviewing footage. There’s no light to brighten dark, indoor shoots. And the only zoom you’ll find on this camera consists of your arm, moving the camera closer to the subject.

The 20-minute limit might also be a problem for some amateur videographers, though that’s often plenty of time to shoot all of the scenes of Old Faithful, a ball game, or a party that anyone will want to see.

But this camcorder is truly simple to use. It’s designed to be held vertically, and has just four simple buttons below its bright viewing screen: Record, Playback, Delete and On/Off. After turning the camera on, we simply pressed Record to start filming, then pressed it again to stop. An on-screen message told us how much time we had left and how many video clips we had already captured.

Katie and I had a lot of fun wandering our office and downtown Washington, D.C. — each of us armed with a camcorder. We got plenty of strange looks from passersby. Some were creeped out, but most were just shocked to learn that our small gadget was a camcorder, especially when we told them that it was disposable. We used our camcorders outdoors and indoors — in offices, hotel lobbies, parks, street corners, coffee shops, bars and restaurants.

The camcorder’s viewing screen is colorful and clear. Audio is captured through a microphone on the device’s front side and played back on a small speaker underneath the viewing screen on the back side. You can delete only your last recording, so if you make six videos, you won’t be able to go back to the fifth to delete it should you run out of room. This might be a pain if you record nonsense on your first few videos and then want to use the camcorder for something worthwhile later.

Once processed, these videos are returned to you on one DVD. This DVD can be inserted into your Mac or Windows computer or your television’s DVD player for viewing.

If you play the disc on a DVD player (a TV-set player or a computer with a built-in DVD player), the videos play in a high-resolution format called MPEG 2. A main menu displays thumbnail images of each video clip, and we easily selected the videos that we wanted to watch and played them.

Overall, the image quality looked pretty grainy, especially compared with a regular DVD. Some images, especially those shot indoors, were too dark and shadowy. And the sound quality of our subjects’ voices was often rather poor, though our own voices were easily heard because we were speaking so close to the camera.

If you slip the disc into a Windows computer, a collection of the videos appears on screen, much like on a regular DVD player; you can also opt to view the footage by date. With a Mac, you must first install the program from the disc before viewing videos. Otherwise, the software is identical on both types of computers.

You can watch these video clips in small or large format. Three options are offered to the left of the images screen: “Email Videos,” “Save Videos” and “Make Movie.” When we emailed videos to each other and friends, we could choose to email one video, one video in a greeting card format or multiple videos. This process was stunningly simple, and it took only a few minutes to send each email, depending on the size of the video.

The recipients of these emails don’t get the whole, space-hogging video. Instead, they get a link to a copy of your video that has been uploaded to a Pure Digital server on the Internet. They can play the video or download it.

We also selected “Save Videos,” a category that offers to save the clips for emailing (in WMV format) or for viewing and editing (in a lower-quality format called MPEG 1). Even if these techie format names mean nothing to you, navigating is still easy because of brief explanations throughout the program.

The “Make Movie” section was slightly deceiving — it just allowed us to string multiple videos together to play in sequence. You can’t save this collection as a single file, just view it. And the DVD has no editing software. You’ll have to obtain your own.

Still, for people who can’t afford a real camcorder or don’t want the hassle of carrying one around, the CVS One-Time-Use Video Camcorder makes sense. It’s well designed and does the job. Just don’t count on great results indoors.

With reporting by Katherine Boehret

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com