capture

We love screen-capture utilities, perhaps because they can be both incredibly useful and a lot of fun. DuckCapture promised to be one of the better ones we've tried, and we were especially excited about checking out its autoscroll feature. Unfortunately, DuckCapture wasn't all we had hoped. It works well for the most part; but for us, it had one fatal flaw.

The program has a straightforward interface, with icons that users can click to select the region, window, full screen, or scrolling page that they want to capture. The scrolling feature is especially cool; click on a long … Read more

Capture .NET Free sounds like it might involve white-coated men carrying butterfly nets, but in fact it's a screen capture utility you'd be crazy not to try. That's just the beginning for this useful little toolkit, though. It also packs a calendar, analog clock, lunar phase display, and expandable ruler in its compact interface. There's a useful backup expert, too, as well as a file shredder, password and quick-launch tools, Post-it Notes, font manager, and still more, all in a portable freeware application that's only 716KB in size.

Capture .NET Free's interface is about … Read more

I don't know about you, but I'm rather partial to a nice smell. Somehow, some people just offer a better odor than others, and one reacts to them more positively because of that.

I am heartened, therefore, to get a sniff of research performed at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

According to National Geographic, the Academy was very interested to see just how animal-like we really are. The academy wondered whether we really are sophisticated in our choice of sex partners, or whether we are, indeed, just like the others on Orwell's farm.

Naturally, if they had … Read more

Debut Video Recording Software Professional Version from NCH Software turns your computer into a flexible, capable video capture and recording device. It can record video from a wide range of sources, including VHS VCRs, and save it in many formats; it can also capture screenshots and save them as JPEG stills. It will even capture and record video playing on your PC's screen. When all else fails but you've just got to save that clip, Debut can save the day.

Debut detected our video capture and playback devices, but it will automatically configure itself as a screen capture … Read more

This is an update of a deal from last year. Also, I'm on vacation this week, so deal posts will be few and far between.

Could you use a good tool for sharing and organizing your photos? How about a utility that optimizes Windows? And maybe something that helps with home design?

Software developer Ashampoo is giving away all that and more. Specifically, you can get five Ashampoo programs (Windows) absolutely free. Just enter coupon code ASH-3BGO, click "Get downloads now," and then download whichever program(s) you want.

Your choices are as follows:

There's a ton of great content on YouTube and other video Web sites, but if you're not connected to the Internet, it's inaccessible. Sothink Web Video Downloader for Firefox is a browser extension that makes it easy to download a wide variety of different types of videos so that you can view them no matter where you are.

The add-on installs easily and appears as an icon to the left of Firefox's address bar. The icon is grayed out when Sothink Web Video Downloader doesn't detect a downloadable video, but it becomes colored and animated … Read more

Arguably one of the best screen capture programs for Windows is now available on the Mac. TechSmith's Snagit has a long history with Windows fans as a highly flexible and feature-rich tool for quickly grabbing visual info on your screen. The software's main strength is that it offers a number of tools for adding graphics--like arrows, boxes, and thought and speech balloons--to call out specific areas on the screen. When you're finished with a capture, you can quickly add the project to a presentation, just about any document, or send the screen capture through e-mail. One of … Read more

A good screen capture tool is pretty much an essential Windows accessory, and Microsoft's built-in Snipping Tool does a pretty good job, though it's a bit basic and also awkward to use at times. Capture View from GXDevelopment is indeed a good screen capture tool that can also capture directory contents, menus, pop-ups, and even running applications whether they're shown, hidden, or minimized. It has some useful extras, such as a timer delay feature and a suite of frequently used image-editing tools like cropping, resizing, and watermarking tools and grayscale conversion. To top it off, it's … Read more

Savescreenie is a free, user-friendly front-end to access an undocumented feature in Mac OS: namely, the ability to save screen captures (typically grabbed with Command+Shift+4 or Command+Shift+3) in a variety of formats, instead of just the default PNG format (or PDF, if you're using Mac OS 10.5).

When you open Savescreenie, you're given a list of 10 formats to choose from (PDF, PNG, JPG, JP2, TIFF, TGA, BMP, PSD, PCT, and GIF), or you can reset the format to the default for the Mac OS you're using. The app also includes links … Read more