Today, with the launch of Jing 2.1, both Jing and Jing Pro users are getting a bevy of new features which makes the little app we can't live without just that much better.

Although I'm proudly running the $14.95 version of Jing Pro (well worth the money), all Jing users will receive some of today's upgrades.

First on the list is a minor tweak to Jing's aspect ratio feature which will now let you hold down either the Ctrl or Shift key to select the appropriate aspect ratio for standard or widescreen images and videos, respectively.

If you often do more advanced editing using other TechSmith tools like Snagit or Camtasia Studio, you'll be pleased to find that you can now shoot your saved captures and recordings directly to these programs straight from Jing.

Also new today, when uploading to Screencast.com, you'll now be able to specify which folder - great for keeping all your recordings organized. To use this option, you simply create buttons for each of the folders you want to make available from Jing. (Jing supports up to 8 buttons). You can then choose enable commenting on those Screencast.com videos via Jing, providing a more social element to the sharing service.

However, the best feature to arrive in this latest version is one available only to the Pro users - and possibly one that will tempt a few standard users to upgrade their copy. In the new Jing 2.1, Pro users finally have access to their webcam from within the program. No longer limited to screen recordings alone, you can now use Jing to record your very own self, perfect for doing video intros or other webcam recordings.

If you're already running Jing, you can check for the update by going to Settings and then clicking on Help (the question mark button). Then click "Check for Update." New users can download the latest version of Jing from here.

Hulu Desktop

The crown jewel of these new apps, though, is clearly the Hulu Desktop application, which works exceptionally well and is extremely well designed. A lot of similar applications have relied on Adobe AIR and were often nothing more than just the web app packed into a stand-alone browser. But Hulu actually developed native apps for both Windows and Mac, and the result is noticeably better than what the Hulu team could have achieved by using AIR.

For the most part, users can navigate the app with just the arrow keys and the space or enter button (or a Windows Media Center or Apple remote). Hulu's video quality has always been quite good, and the desktop app basically replicates the same basic experience as watching a video from the site in full-screen mode, but with a number of additional functions such as being able to quickly bring up more information about a video that is currently playing.

Overall, using the Hulu Desktop makes for a very nice experience, even though we sometimes felt that it took too many clicks to find and start a video.

Hulu and Boxee

Of course, it is hard to talk about Hulu and desktop apps without mentioning the company's conflict with Boxee, another popular desktop app that allows users to stream videos from a large number of sites. Hulu blocked Boxee's access to its videos in February, though by now, Boxee has found a work-around to still display the site's content in its application.

Cutting the Cable

Given that more and more households are now cutting their cable connections in favor of connecting their computers directly to their TVs and playing videos from Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and other sources, the release of this application is timely. Though, in the end, we would assume that most users who decide to go without cable would prefer apps like Boxee or MythTV because they would give them access to all their media files instead of having to switch between different apps.

BumpTop has given us 200 free pro versions to give away to our readers. You can find details about how to claim yours at the end of this post.

We could describe BumpTop in every singly detail, but the best way to experience it is really to see it in action:

Among some of BumpTop's most interesting features are its innovative, free-form method of selecting items on the desktop, the ability to flip through piles of files (with your mouse-wheel, or through an actual flipping motion if you have a touch-screen), and its highly intuitive pie menu system, which you invoke to sort files on the desktop or to create new piles, for example. To search for a file on the desktop, by the way, you just have to start typing.

Twitter and Facebook on Your Desktop

Since its last couple of releases, BumpTop has added a number of new features, including drag and drop support for Twitter and Facebook. Now, you only need to drop a picture onto the big Twitter or Facebook icons on your desktop, and they will be uploaded to Twitpic and/or your Facebook photo account. You can also now subscribe to any Media RSS feed (from Flickr, for example), and the photos on your background will regularly update with new pictures from this feed. After you zoom in to a picture, you can use a simple swiping motion with your mouse or finger to move to the next picture.

Reinventing the Desktop

BumpTop, at its core, is trying to reinvent the desktop as we know it. While we have our choice of desktop environments today (Windows, OSX, KDE, GNOME, etc.), the core experience between them doesn't really vary too much. The basic principles, like organizing files in folders, for example, might look different, but the basic functionality is always the same.

With BumpTop, however, users can recreate their own physical desktops, which aren't usually organized in neat folders. Indeed, most computer desktops, are also cluttered with random files that were just saved on the desktop without any regard for organization.

That's where the power of BumpTop comes in. While organizing files in folders might sounds good, http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=288392.288596">studies from Microsoft going back as far as 1998 has shown that we are usually far better at recalling information from our spatial memory than at recalling information from texts.

Agarawala acknowledged that BumpTop might not be for everyone. He did, however, also stress that BumpTop does not use any gratuitous 3D effects for the sake of it. And indeed, the 3D part of BumpTop is relatively subdued and only really comes into play  when you zoom in to the pictures on the wall or when you create (and destroy) piles of files on your desktop.

Coming Soon: APIs, Connected Desktops, and, at some point, a Mac Version

Agarawala and his team also have big plans for BumpTop's future. Not only are they planning to open up an API which will allow developers to create widgets on top of BumpTop, but BumpTop also plans to connect multiple desktops with each other over the Internet in the future, which would allow coworkers to easily move documents from one desktop to another.

The BumpTop team also plans to release a Mac version in the future, but given the size of the team, the company is currently focusing on the Windows platform first.

Verdict

There can also be no doubt that there is some novelty factor to the application, though unlike many other similar projects, BumpTop doesn't feel gimmicky and actually provides a number of very useful features. It is easy to get sidetracked by the cool visuals, but underneath all of this, BumpTop actually provides some very compelling functionality.

In our interview last week, Agarawala freely acknowledged that BumpTop might not work for everyone. While it is easy to suspend your disbelief as you are working in the BumpTop environment, any application that you start outside of the app will quickly bring you back to reality (though the BumpTop team does have some ideas for how to solve this problem as well). If you are interested in trying out a new desktop, however, then BumpTop is definitely worth a try.

Get Your Free Pro Version

BumpTop comes in two versions: a free version, which only includes support for two post It notes, and which doesn't feature pile flipping, multi-touch support, and another cool feature that automatically makes frequently used files. BumpTop Pro version, which will sell for $29, includes all of these features, as well as the ability to 'toss' files to USB keys and CDs.

If you are one of the first 200 readers to follow this link and leave your email address, BumpTop will send you a license key for the Pro version.

With Queued, you can quickly access and modify your Netflix queue from your desktop, search for movies to add to your queue, rate movies, and you can even use the app to launch and view Instant Watch movies.

Since Adobe AIR lets the app run in the background, you can leave it running until you need it and when you return, there's no need to launch a browser and sign into Netflix - it's all right there for you. The app also alerts you when Netflix ships one of your movies so you know what's coming. And with AIR's offline capabilities, Queued lets you interact with it even when you have no internet connection. When the connection returns, your data will be automatically synced back to Netflix.

The Technical Details

On the Dojo side, the app uses a single HTML file for the main window, dAIR for Dojo/AIR integration, dijit for layout, unobtrusive behavior implementation using dojo.behavior, dojox.dtl for most widget templating, drag and drop for queue re-ordering, various animations for polish, and Dojo's build system.

On the AIR side, the app implements some of Adobe AIR's newest features including a local database, encrypted local storage, view source capability, automatic updates, and offline capability.

Go Get It!

The source code is available on Google code and the app itself is available for download from SitePen's web site, as they were the creators of the software.

Recently, FriendDeck developer Paul Kinlan released an Adobe AIR application of his FriendFeed tracking tool. Although still rough around the edges, this app has potential to become a viable alternative interface to FriendFeed for the service's heaviest users.

One of the best features of the new AIR application is how it syncs with the online version of FriendDeck. That means whatever changes you make within FriendDeck on the web show up in the desktop application and vice versa.(Side note: how we wish TweetDeck did this!)

But let's be clear. The Adobe AIR version of FriendDeck still needs a lot of work. The slider bars are hard to see, the columns can't be moved around, "un-like" didn't work in the first version we tested, pictures don't show along with posts, and performing searches requires the use of specific query syntax, like "friends:username." That last bit practically requires you to use a cheat sheet when building your columns. (For search query syntax, see the list provided here.)

Yet despite these problems - all of which are being addressed according to the developer - I still can't get enough of FriendDeck. Why? It's simple: FriendDeck gives me an eagle-eye view of the topics I care about on FriendFeed. Using the app, I can see a lot more information with a glance than when I use the FriendFeed web site itself.

Use FriendDeck to Follow Your Lists, Rooms, and Searches 

There are a couple of ways you can use FriendDeck. For me, a compulsion to organize things into groups has led to the creation of over 30 lists for tracking specific topical areas outside of my "home" feed. I don't check each list daily, but it's nice to have them there. I doubt that anyone else has embarked on such madness, but even if you have only a few lists, like "Favorites" or "Personal", you can add them to the FriendDeck application by typing in "list:list_name" (where, obviously, "list_name" is the name of your list).

Similarly, if you're less inclined to use lists and more inclined to track items by keyword, you can instead just type in the word or words you want to track in the search box. For rooms, you would just type "room:room_name."

Use FriendDeck as a More Advanced Feed Reader

Another great way to use FriendDeck has to do with one of the biggest secrets surrounding FriendFeed itself: you don't have to participate to use the service. Although community members will tell you this goes against what FriendFeed is all about, it's true. If you're the kind of person who could care less about "liking" items or leaving comments on the latest internet meme, you can alternately use FriendFeed as an aggregator on topics you want to track, no participation required. Instead, FriendFeed can simply become the framework you use to build the feed reader of the future: an aggregator which lets you follow much more than RSS feeds alone.

For example, take any subject about which you're passionate. You could build a private FriendFeed room that you fill with blogs, news sites, Twitter searches, Google searches, well-known Twitter users who post on this subject, and more. Within one interface, you can track it all. This is a million times better than just following blogs in an RSS reader or just tracking Twitter posts using Twitter's search engine because you're not limited to RSS alone.

You can share these rooms with others either by making them public or by inviting select users - like your colleagues - to join. Alternately, you can keep them completely private and only for your personal use.

You can then add these personalized rooms into FriendDeck by typing in "room:room_name" and soon you'll have one single application that tracks everything you care about on the internet - from blogs posts to tweets and so much more. And it's all in one window.

Too Complicated?

In explaining how FriendDeck works, it occurs to us that it may sound a bit complicated for the average user. That may be true, but then again, FriendFeed itself is an application that requires a lot of explanation, too. It's also quite possible that FriendFeed and FriendDeck will never cross over into "regular user" territory. That's OK, though. For anyone who has learned how to use FriendFeed - really use FriendFeed - applications like FriendDeck will hold appeal, despite their complications.

It's still far too early to call FriendDeck a complete success or failure, but it's not too early to use it. If you're geeky enough to learn its quirks, you may find the FriendFeed desktop application you've been waiting for. If not, then feel free to return to your browser.