capture

Snapz Pro X for Mac is a capture utility for Mac OS X. It is available from several download sites, but with a purchase price of $69 if you want to upgrade after using the free trial. Snapz Pro X for Mac installs cleanly and quickly.

More than a simple screenshot utility, Snapz Pro X for Mac lets you capture anything that appears on your screen either a still images or as a movie in QuickTime format. Snapz Pro X for Mac can capture full-screen or a smaller portion, and provides a simple way to make product demos, tutorial videos, … Read more

Google just made it easier to capture and upload videos to YouTube from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Its new YouTube Capture app lets you share a video with as little as two taps (including the tap to launch the app). Here's how it works.

When you first launch the app, it'll ask you to sign into your Google account. You can skip this step and sign into your account later, and instead swipe through a brief, four-slide tutorial.

After the tutorial, you'll be taken to the capture screen, which, when held in landscape mode, features two … Read more

When choosing a free screenshot tool, consider why you're saving screenshots and what you need to do to them. It must quickly and easily capture all or part of your screen. You should be able to obscure, blur, annotate, or highlight parts of the image as you create it. Finally, you should be able to save or export your screenshot just as effortlessly as you created it, including uploading it directly to sites such as Picasa using plug-ins. That describes our new favorite screenshot tool, GreenShot. Recent updates include Windows 8 compatibility.

GreenShot's installation wizard lets you choose … Read more

Webcam utilities come in several flavors. Some emphasize the security angle by monitoring several cameras at once, much like a CCTV system. Others have a different objective: fun. ArcSoft's WebCam Companion 4 definitely falls into the second group. This shareware Webcam manager not only handles your Webcams but also edits and adds cool stuff to your video feeds, such as masks and text. It can capture 3D and HD video and still images, and it makes it easy to share everything on Facebook, Twitter, and other Web sites. But that doesn't mean WebCam Companion doesn't also make … Read more

As the old adage goes, seeing is believing, which is why we've seen such an abundance of screen-capture tools. But what if you want to capture video instead of a static picture? That's where Webcam Video Capture comes in. As its name suggests, it offers users a means to capture video and save it to their computer. Sadly, however, in practice, we found it clunky to use and glitchy to the point that it crashed on us, requiring reinstallation.

Webcam Video Capture's user interface is small and seemingly straightforward at first glance. Buttons labeled New Session, Record, … Read more

DxO Labs and Phase One updated their image-editing programs this week, aiming to improve image quality and editing controls in an attempt to fend off market heavyweights Adobe Systems and Apple.

DxO Optics Pro 8 and Phase One Capture One Pro 7, like Adobe's Lightroom and Apple's Aperture, are designed in particular to handle raw photos from higher-end cameras, photos taken directly from the image sensor for higher quality, greater flexibility, but more hassle.

Among DxO Optics Pro's new features announced during the PhotoPlus Expo show in New York:

• A "Smart Lighting" control designed to … Read more

If you are a tech blogger or engage in another pursuit that requires the regular capturing and sharing of screenshots, Puush (Mac | Windows) could prove useful. It's a free and easy multiplatform app that automatically uploads screenshots as you snap them. It works on both Macs and Windows systems, and there is also a Puush iPhone app. I tried out the free Mac app and iPhone app.

When you launch Puush on a Mac, you'll see a small arrow icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen. Click on the arrow icon and choose Preferences … Read more

As a tech blogger, I take a lot of screenshots, and I use Dropbox to make these screenshots accessible from any of my computers. Typically, the process involves me taking a screenshot and then manually uploading it to Dropbox. With GrabBox, however, I am able to automate the process.

GrabBox is a free Mac app. After installing it, it places an icon in your Mac's menu bar and opens an Initial Setup window. The setup involves one, simple action. It asks you to right-click on a file in your Dropbox Public folder, and it provides a button that will … Read more

Many people would probably say their handwriting has suffered the more they use computers to communicate. But imagine trying to exercise your rusty penmanship on letters that have not 1 or 2 strokes but 5, 10, 15, or more.

The Japanese often complain that sending e-mails and texts erodes their skills in writing the thousands of kanji, or Chinese characters, they learn in school. Some are maddeningly complex and, if rarely used, easy to forget.

But brush-painting kanji calligraphy is also a centuries-old art form. Keio University engineering professor Seiichiro Katsura has a way to help preserve it with his Motion Copy System robot. … Read more