Rating:

In a hurry?  Recommendation    Product Preview/Demo

QUICK REVIEW
TechSmith stripped its screen capture tool, SnagIT, and its video recording application, Camtasia Studio, to the bones to develop a new, simple, and lightweight version of the technologies. Since this is an evolving project, TechSmith welcomes your comments.

Jing, a free downloadable software tool, lets you grab a picture of your screen or record video of onscreen action or share it instantly over the web, IM, and email.

Despite its limitations, I recommend the Jing application because of its simplicity and usefulness in online conversations.

FULL REVIEW
Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, blogs, chats, forums... we're spinning in a hyper-connected, hyper-socializing orbit of our own creation. You can weigh in what you believe to be the consequences of social media outlets in your personal and professional lives, but one thing is clear: social media have changed the rules of communication.

We connect. And while not all the research is in, compelling evidence suggests that techno-savvy adults are nimble learners, balanced multi-taskers, and hungry for tools that offer fast and creative ways to share ideas.

Given the skyrocketing popularity of online media options, Techsmith's experimental Jing Project poses a simple question: What if you could add visuals to your online conversations? Instead of tapping out text, show people what you're talking about or share what you're working on. Jing, a free, downloadable software tool lets you grab a picture of your screen, record video of onscreen action, and share it instantly over the web, IM, and email.

TechSmith stripped its screen capture tool, SnagIT, and its video recording application, Camtasia Studio, to the bones to develop a new, simple, and lightweight version of the technologies. Since this is an evolving project, TechSmith welcomes your comments.

Give them your wish list of features, rail about what you don't like, suggest workarounds and tips, and let them know what you do like. You're not required to offer feedback, but your idea might manifest in a future Jing iteration.

Although Jing is free, there's the option to purchase Jing Pro for $14.95 a year. The pro version includes the MPEG-4 video format (both versions offer SWF), better video compression, video uploads directly to YouTube, unbranded videos, and the ability to record from a webcam.

Jing imposes a five-minute limit on videos and surprisingly, so does Jing Pro. Although Jing makes sharing screen visuals fast and easy, its real power lies with your creativity. Consider some of the things you can do with Jing:

• Collaborate on a project. Share design prototypes with dispersed colleagues.
• Provide directions using Google maps.
• Demonstrate some simple editing techniques of a digital image.
• Create short software tutorials.
• Grab an image of a computer error message and send it off to tech support.
• Capture a blog post and send it to friends.

SETTING UP JING
Jing is available for Windows and Macs. After downloading the program, double-click the app to install for Windows or double-click the .DMG file to mount the image if you're a Mac user.

Before you can complete the installation, you're required to either log in or set up a Screencast.com account, which is TechSmith's secure, hosting service. You'll receive 2 GB of storage space and 2GB of bandwidth per month for free. Screencast.com offers some other benefits as well:

• Lossless image quality. Screencast.com does not compress or resize your images and videos.
• Secure private folders to store captures. You decide if you want folders to be public.
• Ability to create playlists or MediaRolls.
• When you upload a "Jing" to Screencast, a link to the content is saved to your clipboard so you can paste it instantly.
• See how often your content has been viewed.

You're not limited to Screencast.com for uploads. You can configure Jing to upload images to your website via FTP, create a button to add links to Twitter tweets, post content to Flickr, and, of course, to YouTube if using the Pro version.

After you create your Screencast account or log into it, the Jing installs in less than 20 seconds. A yellow, semi-transparent half-sun sits at the top of your screen (right corner on a Mac). Hover the cursor over the sun and three "rays" appear. Click the plus sign to take captures, the computer images to access your capture history, and the gears to open Jing preferences.

Recommendation
See Part 3.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

JING, PART 1 Rating