About 3 years ago Flip toyed with the idea of making a pocket camcorder that featured a built in Wi-Fi connection so you could stream video straight to the web. That camcorder sadly never made it to market before Cisco, Flip's parent company, shut the range down.

Fast forward to 2012 and Sony has just announced a new pocket camcorder, part of its Bloggie range, called the Bloggie Live, which, you guessed it, has built in Wi-Fi so you can stream your videos directly to the web. Pocket-lint was on hand at the show to have a play.

Clearly Sony thinks there is still a market for the Bloggie and, with something like instant streaming, we have to agree. Similar to the UStream app that you can get for your smartphone, the Bloggie Live camera can shoot 1080p HD video and snap 12.8-megapixel stills and then instantly share them to the web using Qik.

On the back of the Bloggie Live camera is a 3-inch capacitive touchscreen which will display comments being made on your video in real time as you are shooting it.

Two copies of whatever you make will be stored; one in HD locally on the camera and one kept on Qik's website. Direct upload of video to things like YouTube and Facebook is possible straight from the camera as well.

The Bloggie Live will arrive with 8GB of internal storage that should give you enough memory to record around 3 hours of HD footage. As with previous Bloggie devices the Live will come with a hidden flip-out USB arm for connection to a computer. It will also pack a built-in rechargeable battery and HDMI output for connecting to a TV to share your movies. 

A quick play on the booth and the whole process is incredibly easy. It really is just a case of making sure you have a Wi-Fi connection and then pressing the record button. Sadly for us that means someone somewhere would have seen us messing around, checking out the different features. If that was you, sorry, it probably wasn't the best TV that you've ever seen. Unless you've been watching Big Brother on Five, that is.

Footage is automatically synced with the company's new PlayMemories Online photo sharing cloud service. 

At £180 this is an expensive dedicated device, especially as your smartphone will be able to do exactly the same via the Qik app for free, but then you'll have to use your phone and that might not be handy, possible, or acceptable.

The Bloggie Live works as described and works well, the question will be whether you have a need for it.

Expect a February release date priced around £180 in the UK.