For more control over the screenshot, you can also invoke Talon from Aviary's web site, where you can manipulate the image quality, set the screen resolution, and decide if you want to capture the entire page or just the part that would be above the fold. In the next version, users will also be able to set which browser and OS to take the screenshot from (which should be great for web designers who want to test their creations).

Some Issues

One problem with the Firefox plugin, however, is that it doesn't capture Flash content, and that, of course, is a deal-breaker in many cases. Using the 'aviary.com' prefix to capture Flash content works, but you can't select a specific moment in a video to show in your screenshot, for example. For this, you still need desktop based tools like Jing or Skitch, which a lot of us here at RWW use. Though they can't capture a complete web page that goes beyond the fold, you can use another desktop tool like Little Snapper, which makes it pretty easy to capture complete web pages at once.

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.

GoView's advantage over its competitors is the sheer simplicity of the service: you press record and that's what it does. After you stop the recording, you are taken to GoView's website, where you can add a title and description to your video. You can also password protect your video and see a preview.

However, unlike other tools like ScreenToaster, or Techsmith's Jing and Camtasia Studio, GoView feels somewhat limited. As far as we can see, you can't even set a keyboard shortcut to start your recordings, and you can't specify a specific area of your screen for your recordings - your only option is to record the whole screen.

GoView does, however, allow you to cut out sections of your recordings later on and let you add titles to your video later on. Sadly, it doesn't allow you to overdub your voice-over recordings after your original recording.

However, just like most other screencasting tools, GoView also gives you the option to download a video file with your presentation, which means that you could edit it in your favorite video editor after the fact.

GoView is free and has Citrix's brand name and infrastructure behind it, but products like Screentoaster or Jing also give you free hosting for your videos and more powerful recording features. In its current iteration, GoView's web service was also often very slow, but that might be due to the high demand just after today's launch. Overall, GoView is a useful product, but it doesn't do anything that others don't do already.

Finally: ScreenToaster Records Audio

One of the major drawbacks of the first version was ScreenToaster's inability to simultaneously record video and audio. To add your soundtrack, you had to go back later and record your voice-over separately. The new version of ScreenToaster has done away with this limitation, while also adding the ability to embed your webcam into your videos.

In addition, the new version now lets you slow down and accelerate your videos, which is great for speed painting videos, for example. You do, however, have to decide on the speed of your video when you start the recording and you can't change it later on.

Next: YouTube Uploads, Flash and AVI Downloads

The developers promise that you will be able to export your videos directly to YouTube very soon (you need to pay for the Pro version of Jing to do this). Once this has been enabled, you will also be able to download your screencasts as Flash and AVI videos. It is not clear if these will be premium features, or if they will be available to all users.

Verdict

With this new version, ScreenToaster is clearly taking on Jing, which just released its paid 'Pro' version last week. Jing, however, is a bit more flexible and offers more than just screencasting.

ScreenToaster, of course, can't rival professional tools like Camtasia or ScreenFlow, but if you are looking for an easy to use screencasting tool to record a quick demo or tutorial, ScreenToaster is definitely a contender for being one of the best and easiest to use tools available.

High Quality Video and Direct YouTube Uploads

For just about $15 a year, the Pro version is quite a bargain. Thanks to using the H.264/MPEG-4-AVC video codec, Jing now not only makes it easy to capture high-quality video (including online videos), but also to take those videos to other editors like iMovie, or to video sites like Vimeo or Viddler. The free version of Jing records videos in the SWF format, and TechSmith's Camtasia Studio is one of the few programs that can actually edit those Jing-produced videos.

The Pro version also lets you upload videos directly to YouTube. As with the free version of Jing, you can also use TechSmith's own Screencast.com to host your videos.

In this new version, Jing fixed the one issue that had always annoyed us when we tried to embed videos captured with the software: resizing the height and width of embedded videos now finally works.

New Help Center

Besides updating its desktop software, Jing also released a new 'Help Center,' with lots of tutorials and tips for getting the most out of Jing.

Screenshots and Screencasting

We mostly use Jing to take screenshots every day, and with this update and a subscription to the Pro version, Jing has also become an even more flexible and useful screencasting tool than ever before.

Though you, elite readers, might consider getting excited about apps that are a year or two old to be painfully behind the times, the fact is that there is huge demand for training in use and application of web apps old and new.

Yuuguu

You can show people how to go through multi-step processes by sharing your desktop in a tab of their browser with Yuuguu. It's free, no downloads required, get sharing in seconds. Old versions of the software can be a bit buggy but the newest version has worked great for me.

There's absolutely nothing like getting to watch someone else work on their own desktop - it's a magical learning experience for people. I use it while talking to people on the phone, after IMing them the login and PIN to see my screen. I haven't tried recording the sessions yet, but that could be really useful too.

ViewMyPC will release a version of its screensharing app that lets viewers watch from inside their browsers as well, later this month.

Multi-platform IM Client

Multi-platform IM services let you IM with anyone almost anywhere, without worrying what IM network they are on. Just sign up for an account on AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk, give your client the login info for each account and you'll be set for good. Mac users can check out Adium (pictured, but souped up), Windows users can try out Trillian or Digsby and anyone can use Meebo on the web.

If you're going to work with a wide variety of people online, you should be able to easily IM with them no matter what service they use.

IM during phone calls or even in person is the fastest way to share URLs, it's a great way to take shared notes and, as consultant to international Communities of Practice consultant John Smith says, it's a great way to clarify communication between people who don't speak the same languages natively.

Jing

Jing is the fastest, easiest way to record a short screencast demonstrating how to do something online. It's not particularly robust but for a quick tutorial to send to a client, you'll probably like it a lot.

The ability to watch again and again makes screencasting a particularly useful tool for consultants to offer their clients. If you're teaching any tangible skills, as opposed to just marketing fluff (or even genuinely useful marketing strategy!) then making screencasts all day long could prove very useful.

Annotated Screenshots with Screensteps or Skitch

ScreenSteps was the app we used to make this post in a jiffy, Skitch is another app we're totally in love with. Both are for Mac only - can anyone recommend a good PC equivalent? Update - we were wrong ScreenSteps has a Windows version after all!

The idea is that both make it really easy to grab screenshots, annotate them and then upload them to the web. For many clients, a screenshare or a screencast will still move too fast and it's really nice to be able to read text explaining how to do things at any time.

AideRSS: Filter RSS Feeds for Popularity

We write about AideRSS here all the time. Consulting clients love it, though. Tell them you can give them a feed, or run a feed through email for them, that delivers just the most popular items from any news source and they will adore you. Plug in any feed and it will score items by number of comments, inbound links, saves in delicious.com etc.

You can do this with almost anything. In the above screenshot, we've performed a Google Blogsearch for posts that link to a company's website, then changed the RSS URL to output 50 items instead of 10 (the default in the URL), then run that feed through AideRSS and grabbed the "best" feed. The goal here was to identify bloggers who had written about the company and gotten a big reaction from their readers. This is a good way to try and find a blogger for a company to hire if it's looking for one, among other things.

Those Are Our Favorites, What Are Yours?

Everyone's probably got a different list of "must-haves" but apps vary in terms of performance and functionality. If we're missing anything here, please let us know. What's more fun than learning about new ways to most effectively teach other people about all the exciting things going online these days?

Photo: Little Birdies, by Flickr user IanMatthewSoper