Monthly Archives: May 2010

Jing

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Playing support technician for your friends and family members is not always fun, especially when you can’t see their screen. You find yourself describing tiny little buttons in really obscure places that you’re almost positive they won’t find. It’s in these types of situations that I bust out Jing.

Jing is free software that lets you record the action on your screen (up to five minutes) and share it instantly. Works on both Mac and PC.

Here are some of the more specific selling points:

  1. Narration. Need to talk out loud as you record? No problem. As long as you’ve got a microphone, you can narrate the video in real time.
  2. Custom Recording Size. Jing lets you specify the area you’d like to record. It could be just the program you’re using, a specific part of that program, or even full screen.
  3. Five Minutes. Some people might see this as a limitation, but I see it as motivation to keep my comments and directions concise and to the point. When you know you’ve only got five minutes, it often forces you to script out what you’re going to say.
  4. Screencast.com. When you sign up with Jing, you automatically get 2GB of online storage with Screencast.com (same company). When you’re finished with your Jing video, you can easily upload it to your Screencast account and share it instantly.
  5. Publishing. Once your video is on Screencast, you can share it via URL or even embed it into a webpage. If you’ve got server space elsewhere, you can also publish to FTP. But if you’d rather keep things local, the option is available to save it locally to your hard drive as a .swf file.
  6. Twitter. Jing also has the option to share your video via Twitter. From the Jing dashboard, you’re able to use your 140 characters and send out a URL to your video.

  7. Lightweight. It’s a small install, and runs inconspicuously in the corner. When you need it, it’s there; when you’re done, it disappears.

Check it out at JingProject.com.

Smart Twitter

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I’ve always been a fan of linking things together and consolidating as much as possible. For example, ever since I got a phone that could handle playing MP3s, my Zune player has found considerably less use. Efficiency is the name of the game, people.

Which is exactly why I’ve started using Smart Twitter on Facebook. Because I do most of my social media-ing on Twitter, I went on a quest to find out how I could make my tweets become my Facebook updates, my LinkedIn updates, and my Google Buzz updates. LinkedIn and Google Buzz were easy; it was Facebook that gave me issues.

I’m an anti-application Facebook user. I think they’re pointless and annoying. So when I learned that an easy way to get Twitter updates to Facebook was through an application, I was immediately skeptical. I started searching out applications, thinking it would be an easy find. Instead, I was confronted with several Twitter-related applications, most of which were misleading. Some of them created new tabs on your Facebook profile page for your tweets, others did other things, but it didn’t seem as though any of them actually would update my Facebook status using my tweets.

Then I found Smart Twitter, the application that would finally do it for me. I installed it and waited for the magic, which apparently doesn’t happen right away with a Facebook app. After a while, I got bored and went to do something else. But when I came back — there it was! My latest tweet had become my Facebook update, with hardly any effort on my part.

Now whenever I tweet, those 140 characters get sent out to three other places online, giving me the power to effectively control my social media sites and produce dynamic content on all of them simultaneously and regularly. All in a day’s work, and pretty efficient, I’d say.

The HTC Incredible

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Alright, I gave in. The new HTC Incredible came out on the Verizon network, and I bought it.

I took some convincing, however. My first look at an Android phone was the HTC Hero on the Sprint network. Because my dad deals directly with iPhone and Android apps at his job, his company gave him several phones to play and become familiar with, including the Hero. After test driving it for a few days, I wasn’t very impressed. It was sluggish, the buttons at the bottom of the phone were distracting and annoying, and the phone was heavy and clunky. When I heard that HTC had come out with a new phone, I wasn’t expecting much better.

But then I headed to the Verizon store and played with it. The weight didn’t bother me, the physical buttons at the bottom were gone, and the thing was faster than any phone I’d ever seen. Plus, it touted an 8 MP camera, a crystal-clear screen with fabulous resolution (480×800 WVGA OLED), Speech to Text functionality, GPS, and WiFi.

I was sold.

I’ve had the phone for a week now, and have absolutely nothing to complain about. The battery life is just fine, the WiFi works well, the touch sensitivity is fabulous, and the Android Market is replete with fabulous apps. The only thing I question is the trackpad at the bottom of the phone. The only time I’ve ever used it was to take a picture. I’m sure that on future HTC phones, the trackpad will be done away with.

The HTC Incredible has restored my faith in HTC and the Android OS. It’s quick, efficient, and fairly intuitive. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a phone replacement (with Verizon, of course).