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2.21

Capture, record the screen with Jing 2.1: First Look

Its emphasis on getting screen captures and screencasts shot and shared makes the freemium application Jing extremely quick and easy to use for Mac and Windows users. I use its big brother, the professional capture app Snagit, at work (we take a lot of screenshots in these parts,) but I've often installed Jing on laptops and on other peoples' computers when I need something light and free.

The one irony for Windows users is that if you don't have the .NET framework installed, it adds a few more minutes of set-up time and a heftier footprint. The benefit … Read more

Simple but not oversimplified

What began as a freeware project to easily share basic screen captures and screen recordings has grown into a solid application and capture distribution system with a premium component. Jing's attractive application takes a sound, simple approach to capturing; begin by dragging the crosshairs to define your capture field and then take a still or start a recording. When you're done, save it to your computer or upload it to Screencast.com (operated by Jing's publisher), an FTP site, Flickr, or YouTube (for a premium). If you've got Snagit or Camtasia Studio, TechSmith's premium programs … Read more

Jing 2.1 adds Web cam, capturing heft

The freemium screen capture and screen recording application Jing received an update on Tuesday that adds new video functionality to paying users, and a few other enhancements for all Mac and Windows users.

Two hotkeys now help Jing's capture crosshairs snap to common aspect ratios. Press Ctrl to maintain a 4:3 aspect ratio and Shift for 16:9 widescreen proportions. While locked into a ratio, dragging out the crosshair shows you boundaries for common screen measurements within that ratio that you can easily snap to, like 320?240 or 640?480. This is a nice addition in keeping … Read more

Quick desktop notes

Ever had to write yourself a quick message? NotesHolder is a program designed to let you scribble down thoughts and quickly return to the business at hand. With a sleek design and simple commands, this could replace those little yellow paper stickies littering your desk.

This program embeds itself in your desktop's tray for easy access. Its interface is very simple and should be a breeze for all note writers. This rectangular display has a box at the top prompting users to double click and enter their note. This brings up a new box that can easily be filled … Read more

Detailed stock data

Stock Chart Wizard is aptly named--with this tool you can create, tweak, analyze, and export a range of graphical stock charts. Stock Chart Wizard lets you build watch lists of your favorite stocks, and see the ups and downs of your stocks over time by downloading two years' worth of freely available historical data into your charts. Another real plus with Stock Chart Wizard is the capability to export charts into Excel and other formats for presentations.

Stock Chart Wizard's interface is all business. Here you will find no amusing skins, cheerful paperclips asking to help, or holiday-themed graphics. … Read more

Quick Registry cleaning

Although you can only remove the first five errors this quick Registry cleaner finds, you can still get a good sense of how it works.

RegBoost has a well-designed, modern interface organized in tabs. The Overview tab gives users a quick summary of the system and the option to complete a full scan. It takes a visit to the Registry Scan tab for a more detailed idea of what areas of the computer should be scanned. Here, users can pick and choose which sections to focus on. In our tests, we picked a full-system scan, which took around 5 minutes. … Read more

Stay in-the-know while browsing the Web

Shazou is a free Firefox add-on that maps and displays server information for the Web site you are currently visiting. Though its findings weren't always reliable, we still found it useful to have around.

The add-on places a tiny shortcut icon on your status bar. As you're browsing the Web, one click is all it takes to pull up the Web site's server location and domain owner, along with a MapQuest map of the location. The server location information includes the server name, IP address, organization, country, and city. The domain owner information includes the name and … Read more

Overly simplified tool

While this program goes a long way in removing the intimidating elements from system maintenance, it simplifies the matter to the point that it hides important details. As a result, an uninformed novice could actually harm their system instead of enhancing its performance.

Smart PC Suite launches a colorfully designed palette of icons, each of which represents a tool for performing system maintenance and enhancement. Actually, the icons and color scheme look like something designed for a child's game site instead of for serious business like maintaining a PC system. The provided tools include the usual suspects for this … Read more