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Snagit 2.0 arrives with expanded feature set (updated)
TechSmith's powerful Snagit app for capturing and annotating screenshots or websites has been around for a little over a year, having first been reviewed on TUAW in November 2010. Today Snagit (US$49.95) has been updated to version 2.0, expanding the capabilities of the app to a higher level. Screen capture apps like Snagit are extremely popular with bloggers, since they give us the opportunity to capture entire screens or details of apps for review purposes. For example, if I need to grab screenshots of Wirecast screens for a review, I'll click on the Snagit button that floats constantly in the upper right of my Mac screen. That action (or just moving my cursor over the button) opens up a tiny window populated with buttons for capturing video or still imagery, along with toggles for including the cursor in my screen capture or snagging the images to the clipboard. With a click on a big red button, a set of crosshairs appears on the screen -- moving the cursor around highlights different areas to capture, and clicking on the screen either captures a still image or begins the recording process for video. The new features in version 2.0 provide a lot of power. For those who are working to capture screen video for post-processing in Camtasia to create screencasts, Snagit not only captures video of what's happening on the screen but can grab a video narration still image from a webcam. Video now outputs to Camtasia, TechSmith's Screencast.com service, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and FTP. Users just need to set up accounts in advance for one-click uploads to those sites and services. For image captures (not video), your masterpiece can now be sent to Facebook, Twitter and Evernote. %Gallery-148543% The powerful image editor in Snagit now adds a number of new stamps. My favorites are the OS X and iOS interface stamps, made up of common interface elements that you can select, stamp, move, and resize. There are new color filters for grayscale, sepia, and inverting images, as well as a way to change the canvas color. Another screenshot app that is popular with bloggers is Ambrosia Software's Snapz Pro X ($69.95), but at the present time it doesn't include editing and annotation tools for images, nor does it have the breadth of social networking links of Snagit. Note that if you're looking for a tool that will let you add effects, callouts, and more to captured video, you'll probably want to skip Snagit and go with TechSmith's Camtasia. A review of the latest version of Camtasia can be found here. The update is free available to existing owners of Snagit for $24.95.
Daily Mac App: Camtasia 2
TechSmith's Camtasia for Mac received an update this week to version 2.0, and the improvements made an already good screencasting app even better. To start with, TechSmith listened to feedback and redesigned the user interface for the editor. It's easier to use now, with less searching for the tools that you need to apply to your screencasts. There's a new blur effect so you can hide private information on a screen, and the app is now anywhere from 40 to 60 percent faster in terms of production time. I was personally happy to see that you can now export HD-quality files with a Flash wrapper and fallback to HTML5, so even browsers that aren't running Flash can view screencasts produced with Camtasia 2. Another new favorite for professional screencasters is the ability of the app to let you reuse callouts. It's possible to copy and paste those annotations, which gives multiple projects a more consistent look and feel. If you've ever needed just a few more seconds to explain something during a screencast, there's now an extend frame function that lengthens individual frames of a video so you can add to your narration without worry. App developers are going to love the new device framing feature. You record video of your app in action using Camtasia 2, and can then add an iPhone, iPad, or MacBook Pro frame around the video. You can see an example of this feature in the sample video below. If you're currently running Camtasia for Mac 1.x, the upgrade price is US$49.50. New users can try the app for free for 30 days, and a new full license for Camtasia 2.0 is $99.00 for electronic delivery from TechSmith. The app is also available on the Mac App Store for $99.99.
TUAW's Daily iPad App: ScreenChomp (and Camtasia giveaway)
When most people think about developer TechSmith, they think of the company's big products like Camtasia and SnagIt. Now the company has come out with a fun little app for kids of all ages that brings video screen capture to the iPad. ScreenChomp is a free whiteboard app that captures everything that's drawn on the screen to a video that can then be shared with others. Not only does ScreenChomp work with the whiteboard, but it imports photos from your iPad Photo Library as well. The result? Well, it's really easy to draw a big pirate mustache and dark goatee on just about anyone, record a soundtrack, and have a blast. There's more to ScreenChomp than just fun and games. TechSmith sees this as a tool for teachers to explain concepts and record their drawings and explanations for posterity. The sharing capability is tied to a specific iPad -- there's no account to sign up for, you just tap a button to have the screen capture sent to ScreenChomp.com. ScreenChomp also allows sharing with Facebook accounts, and the URL for your opus on the ScreenChomp website is easily sent to friends or students. For students, they can draw and narrate their own movies for free. The app is extremely simple to use and cutely animated with the ScreenChomp mascot seen in the icon at the top of the post. There's only one downside for parents who show their kids ScreenChomp -- I don't think you'll ever get your iPad back from your child. Giveaway TechSmith has also provided TUAW with two licenses for Camtasia for Mac valued at US$99 each. To have a possibility of winning one of these licenses, keep an eye on the @TUAW Twitter account later this afternoon. We'll post the two product keys at a random time. Once you see one, grab it, download Camtasia for Mac (email required) from the TechSmith website, and then paste in the product key. If you happen to be the first person to use that product key, you're a winner.
Camtasia hits Mac App Store; TechSmith sees sales jump
For capturing screencasts, one of the more widely-used tools is Camtasia from TechSmith. After many years as a Windows-only application, the company brought Camtasia to the Mac world in 2009, and it's been well-received by Mac users ever since. TechSmith recently added Camtasia to the Mac App Store to test the waters, which they found welcoming. The app was listed for a while as a "staff favorite," and the company is reporting that sales of Camtasia have risen over 20 percent since the app appeared in the Mac App Store. TechSmith kept the price at US$99.99, and it's still available directly from the company's website, so the increased sales appear to be coming solely from improved visibility. In addition, TechSmith reports that the Mac App Store seems to be making Camtasia more visible to an entirely new audience. According to a TechSmith spokesman, Mac App Store sales are coming from all over the globe, not just the more traditional US market. We'd love to hear from other Mac developers who have taken the plunge and added their apps to the Mac App Store after selling them through traditional channels for several years. Have you also seen your sales take off? Let us know in the comments.
Snagit on Mac: First look at this powerful screen capture tool
Back in December of 2009, I reported on the public beta of Snagit on Mac, a screenshot tool for Mac from TechSmith, the folks who bring you the Camtasia screen recorder. Well, the beta is over, and after 100,000+ testers gave the app a good scrubbing, it's now available for sale for US$49.95. Snagit isn't a new product -- it's been around on the Windows platform since 1991 -- but Snagit on Mac is new. One purchase of the application on either platform gives you a non-concurrent use license for both Windows and Mac. I had tried out Snagit on Mac during early beta and frankly wasn't impressed, but I'm pleased to say that the release version is replacing my current screenshot solution. Tech bloggers and authors do a tremendous number of screenshots, so switching to a new tool isn't something that is done lightly. Follow along with me as I give you a first look at Snagit on Mac. %Gallery-107072%
First Look: Snagit for Mac Public Beta
Switchers were elated earlier this year when TechSmith, developers of the fabulous Camtasia screen recorder application for Windows, finally shipped their flagship app for the Mac. Those switchers were probably also wishing that TechSmith would create a Mac version of their screen capture application, Snagit. Well, their wishes have been granted! TechSmith has announced the public beta version of Snagit for Mac, and a first look at the application shows that it's a worthy screenshot snapper for the platform. The company has made the beta available for feedback on operation and features, so this is a perfect time to download the program and give it a try. After installing the application and launching it, all that is visible is a small "tab" that pops out from the side of the Mac screen when you hover over it. The tab has a drop-down for choosing the capture mode and a red button for taking the screen shot. There are two capture modes -- all-in-one capture and window capture. Window capture mode displays all open windows Exposé-style, and you click on one of the windows to select it for capture. Once captured, it appears in a screen where you can annotate the screenshot in a number of ways, or add effects. At this time, there are no effects and the app shows that the feature is coming soon.
Camtasia for Mac looks like a screencasting powerhouse
It hasn't exactly been a secret that I (and several others at TUAW) have been big fans of ScreenFlow since its release. Up until yesterday, I didn't really think it had much serious competition in the professional screencasting field. That seems to have changed with the release of Camtasia for Mac. At the same $99US price tag as ScreenFlow, Camtasia is offering a very similar interface with some impressive capabilities. Camtasia has long been considered a heavyweight in the PC world, and its Mac debut has been anxiously awaited. While it hasn't exactly reached feature-parity with the PC version, it's been quite a pleasure to try out. Some of the features it's lacking in comparison to its PC counterpart include region recording, narration-only recording and ScreenDraw. However, its capabilities in the area of direct media manipulation are quite well-developed. For a complete feature comparison, check the TechSmith website or grab the comparison PDF. A quick run-through with a review copy convinced me that this is some serious competition for ScreenFlow. One of the coolest features I played with was the SmartFocus action, which can be applied to an entire clip or just a region in the editor. It automatically determines what the point of focus at any given time should be, and zooms that area. Additionally, you can highlight the foreground window, add text and shape callouts, and work with imported media. The only problem I noticed immediately was with changing colors of library elements (arrows, etc.). I haven't figured that out in my brief trial, and haven't had a chance to ask yet. I'm hoping that's not a missing feature, as it seems relatively important to me. A complete array of QuickTime formats can be exported, and presets for YouTube, Screencast.com and iTunes are included. There's a default export which gave me a 10.5MB QuickTime file for a 47-second clip, at a 960x600 resolution. The "Advanced Export" option provides the opportunity to tweak settings and export to all the standard formats. There's some mismatch between the PC and Mac export capabilities, though, making cross-platform projects difficult (file format comparison). Camtasia for Mac requires that all of your video cards be Quartz Extreme-enabled. If you run any USB->DVI hardware, be sure to disconnect it before you launch the application. Also, TechSmith warns against running Perian with Camtasia. I tried it and didn't have any problems -- but it was for a short record/export experiment and I'm guessing they have good reason for pointing out the potential conflict. I would probably heed that advice when working on a more important project. Camtasia for Mac is currently available at the Camtasia website as a free trial, and can be purchased for $99US, or a 5-pack for $495US.
Cinemassively: Getting started with voice chat in Second Life
Torley Linden is a tutorial-making machine! Her how-to's are great for the starting resident of Second Life, but might also teach the older enthusiast a thing or two. If you need instruction on a specific subject, there's actually a video tutorial wiki page.Yesterday, Torley did a whole series of them on voice chat. The video above is on getting started, but she also has videos on who's speaking, etiquette, improving your hearing, private calls, speech gestures, and disabling it for yourself and your land. These clips are in easy to digest lengths of just under one minute to almost four, depending on the complexity of the problem!
Cinemassively: How to make a gift box
If you're as prim-challenged as me, but want to give your SL friends something for Christmas, then this is the tutorial for you. Torley Linden has made an extremely informative video on how to make gift boxes in Second Life, add contents, send them, and how to receive them. If you have some time, I'd strongly suggest checking out her other tutorials, involving how to set permissions, fill out your profile, get texture info, and much, much more!If you're interested in making instructional movies yourself, the tool that Torley used is called Camtasia Studio 5. You can identify the style by their zoom ring, which focuses in automatically where the action is going on in the video.
Want to see a Mac version of Captivate? Let Adobe know.
We've mentioned a few screen capture and screencasting apps here recently, but interest in finding new and shiny tools for the job still seems high. There are a couple of possibilities on the porting and development front that might excite the screencast community:First, Jing Project developer TechSmith - long a dominant vendor for Windows screencasting tools - has indicated that further Mac development is in the cards: the Mac plans page says "...we are actively pursuing a Mac version of Camtasia Studio" and evaluating a release of SnagIt for the Mac. I've used Camtasia on the Windows side and I like it, which makes me optimistic for the Mac version's future. You can sign up for email updates at the TechSmith Mac page, or follow the feature request link if there's something you can't live without.On the other side of the fence is Adobe's Captivate 3, a high-end screencasting and presentation tool for Windows that's aimed at instructional designers and training applications. While it's pricey, casual users can leverage it to create podcasts or 'casual learning' environments quickly and easily. There isn't an official roadmap for Captivate development on the Mac yet, but Adobe representatives were clear in a recent conference call on the product: if you want to see Captivate come to the Mac, let Adobe know via the company's feature request form.
Jing makes screen captures slick and easy
It's always something: just as I start to write up a Mac 101 on screen grabbing, along comes something cool, free and pretty: Jing for Mac. Built by the screen capture savants at TechSmith (developers of Windows tools Camtasia and SnagIt), Jing combines a lightweight, one-click image or motion capture tool with a free 200 MB hosting account at Screencast.com. The result is a fine way to quickly get 'casual' captures online and shared with a minimum of fuss. The motion captures are saved as .swf Flash video, which is either a bonus or a drawback depending on your perspective.The current-but-one version (labeled a 'project,' not a beta) gave me a smidge of trouble on a dual-monitor setup, but the current 1.2.4 version seems to be working better, and it also cleared up a conflict with Growl. I'll do a few captures here and get a gallery together to see how they look. Jing isn't going to replace power tools like Snapz Pro, ImageWell or Skitch, but it's pretty good at what it does. Also, as Laurie pointed out, the Jing installer comes with a handy 'autoinstall' AppleScript that copies the application and then unmounts the disk image -- particularly useful for those friends and family (you know who they are) that seem to get confused and end up running applications from a mounted .dmg instead of installing them properly.Thanks Laurie & Dave
