YouTube started out as a way to share video files, simply, on the Net.

Google saw the massive money-making ­potential of YouTube and promptly paid millions for it. Now if you have videos to share the chances are very good that you’ll be uploading them to YouTube.

Now that the YouTube ­platform has become so ­popular, hardware ­manufacturers have ­scrambled to make products that everyone can use to get themselves on it. The Toshiba Camileo HD is the entry-level version of Toshiba’s YouTube enablers. Essentially the Camileo is a palm-sized camcorder that ­allows you to record video, take still shots, detect ­motion, listen to music and view pictures, all at a ­reasonable price tag.

Gadgeteers will really like the Camileo; they’ll even like the name. Like other larger camcorders the Camileo has a flip-open screen so you can see what you’re filming, ­although the screen is a bit, well, not so good really. On the control side of things it seems to have a pretty ­simply 5-way navigation ­button, but it also has a funny toggle button, both of which do the same thing, some of the time, but not all of the time. It’s all a bit ­confusing really and no ­matter how much we used the thing we just couldn’t get used to it.

When you take stills there is a flash, a proper one, not some LED light. The 5.2 megapixel camera does an average job of recording things, despite the fact that it is essentially a fixed focus camera. But that’s not the point. You don’t need, nay, want a huge lens on this thing. You want something small, yet adequate, to carry around with you. You want to film things now and upload them to YouTube and ­Facebook. The Camileo lets you do just that and a bit more, in fact.

Get it for R1899 (incl VAT) from Computer Corporation on 08616-08616.