capture

Energy Dept. funds CO2 recycling, 'solar fuels'

The Department of Energy announced two technology clean-energy research projects to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the same day that the Senate dropped efforts to include carbon limits in an energy bill this summer.

As part of a $106 million stimulus funding program, the Energy Department on Thursday named six companies which will be testing methods for using the CO2 from industrial processes as input for products, such as cement, fertilizer, or plastics.

The Energy Department also said that it will create a "solar fuels innovation hub," a research center focused exclusively on converting sunlight into liquid fuels. This … Read more

Creative captures

We've seen quite a few screen capture utilities, and although most of them are pretty similar, occasionally these programs have features that set them apart from the competition. CaptureScreen is one such program; although it's not quite as easy to use as some other applications we've seen, it does offer features that we don't think we've come across in similar programs.

CaptureScreen's interface is plain, consisting of a resizable, transparent rectangle. For basic screenshots, users simply drag the rectangle over the portion of the screen they wish to capture, right-click on it, and select … Read more

Despicable Me, NCAA football, space deathmatch, and more: New iPhone games of the week

I know it's summertime, but there's only so much fresh air and sunshine a person can take. Sometimes you just want to hole up in an air-conditioned room and play games till your brain rots. Then, back outside for fresh air and sunshine.

With that in mind, let's take a look at four new games sure to rot your brain--er, keep you entertained--during these lovely summer months:

Despicable Me: Minion Mania: I always find it a little strange when a movie tie-in arrives before the movie ("Despicable Me" opens July 9), but when it's … Read more

Is HD video in iPhone 4 a Flip Video killer?

For the last few years Flip Video has sold millions of its pocket camcorders, but it's days of dominating the market may be numbered as Apple has introduced HD video capture to the iPhone 4, essentially turning every new iPhone into a Flip camcorder.

Here at CNET we've been waiting for this day to arrive and only thought it would be a matter of time before Apple brought HD video to the iPhone after it added standard-definition video capture to the iPhone 3GS last year. Like the Flip Video Mino HD and Ultra HD, the iPhone will capture … Read more

Snagit 10 screen capture app shoots your Windows PC (hands-on)

GIVEAWAY ALERT: TechSmith is giving away free copies of Snagit 10 together with Camtasia Studio 7 to the first 50 CNET readers to retweet this story along with the #snagitcamtasia hash tag.

When you've got an itinerary to file away, a photo to annotate, or a perplexing error message you can't decipher, what do you do? If you're us, you might reach for your keyboard's Print Screen button to pop open one of dozens of screen capture apps you can install to take a snapshot of your current display for later editing or reference.

Software-maker TechSmith … Read more

Quick tip: Speed up camera recognition on your Mac

For some  users, Image Capture is slow to recognize memory cards and cameras connected to their Mac. However, there is a quick and easy solution.… Read more

Capture master

Windows comes with its own screen-capture feature, but there's not much to it, and anyone who uses screen captures more than occasionally will quickly realize that they need a more robust tool for this task. Fortunately, there's SmartCapture. This simple program lets users customize their screen-capture experience, both before and after the capture is taken.

SmartCapture isn't the most intuitive program at first glance, but it didn't take us long to figure it out. The program's interface is plain, with its major features arranged in menus and buttons. SmartCapture allows users to create different "… Read more

Making movies of your PC screen

Not long ago, my uncle enlisted my help on a project he was conducting through the hospital where he works.

His task: to create a tutorial that would be used in an ongoing training course for other physicians. My uncle is a neonatalogist, chemist, and hobbyist beer brewer, but no video producer. Furthermore, there was little budget for his leg of the undertaking. He needed simple software to capture mouse movements on the computer screen--in the end, the freeware TipCam saw him through.

TipCam isn't the only screencast software out there, and it certainly isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. … Read more

Screencast gold

When it comes to producing professional-looking movies and demos from your computer screen, TechSmith's Camtasia Studio continues to strike the right balance between a powerful toolset and ease of use. Version 7.1 adds even more features without making the app any more complex to use.

The feature-packed screencast app--which includes HD production settings--does have a learning curve, but the user-friendly interface and front-and-center icons for most-used tools go a long way toward lowering the intimidation factor a notch. Plus, TechSmith povides a useful online help center that includes several video tutorials that do a nice job walking users … Read more