• Redesigned editor interface
• Ability to Extend Frames
• Callouts can be animated and customized
• Tilt and restore animations
• Mobile device frames graphics
• Cursor effects (highlighting, magnifying or spotlighting)
• Blur Effect
• Faster production with higher quality output including Flash with HTML 5 fallback

Many of these have been available in the Windows version, but they work differently on the Mac. Since I don’t have a Mac, I can’t test it myself, but see Techsmith’s screencasts below for a quick look at some of the new features.

• Gradients, shadows, and rotation
• Updated quiz templates
• Publishing to MP4
• Ability to publish to tablets, smartphones, and iOS devices
• Single click publish to YouTube option

Also new is a subscription pricing model. Pay $59/month on a month-to-month basis or $39/month with a year commitment.  Captivate is also sold as part of the Adobe eLearning Suite which is now at version 2.5. The suite includes Flash Professional, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Acrobat Pro, Presenter, and Audition. The Suite retails  for $1,799 ($599 for education version). The Suite is also available on a new subscription pricing plan: month-to-month ($135/month) or per year ($89/month). The new subscription pricing does not appear to be available for education purchasers.

• Updating the My Screencast.com plug-in
• Fixing the a problem where a lack rectangle or table of contents covers the video
• and incorporated a requested option to show a rectangle around the area being recorded (as opposed to just flashing green indicators in the four corners)

Strangely enough, after installing the update and checking the version number under Help > About, the new version number is 7.1.1 (Build 1785, but it is dated way back to Jan. 13.

If you have Camtasia Studio and have not yet updated, just go under Help > Check for Update to get the maintenance update and then install.

All the more reason to continue supporting, using, and Screenr and Screencast-o-Matic for free, online screencasting and hosting. Here are a few recent examples that I have tried on each:

• Screenr: Google Scholar Settings
• Screencast-O-Matic: Embedded small version below. This is an example for a forthcoming book (more on that later) and includes notes (comments) at two points in the timeline. I had not realized I could add those at Screencast-O-Matic in the past.

The conclusion? “The results of this study indicate that screencasts facilitate student learning. By viewing instructional screencasts, most students learn how to successfully complete a multi-step research process, such as the series of tasks in this study. Most students are able to transfer their knowledge of the concepts involved in the process and apply it in new scenarios.” While this is a limited study it does show that instructional screencasts can be successful.

Here’s the screencast, embedded. I’ll have to create another one to show how to do this. If you don’t want to listen to the whole thing, the call out annotation is at 1:58.

Or go direct to it on YouTube.

First, there are now quick links to share a hosted screencast via Twitter and Facebook. The Tweet and Facebook Like buttons show up just above the hosted screencast window. However, these will only appear on screencasts that are in a Public folder. Screencast.com also lets you create Hidden, Password, and Authenticated folders. Any screencasts in something other than a Public folder will not have the social buttons. Note that  Jing uploads are in a Hidden folder by default.

Second, Google Analytics users can put their Google Analytics code so that Analytics can track the number of visits to particular screencasts and can integrate that with the rest of your site’s Analytics data. Just click on the My Account link in the upper right corner and then add your Google Analytics key in the new box for it. Note that you should not put the entire Google Analytics code that you use on pages on your web site. Just put in the code that looks like UA-XXXXXXX-X into the box.

Third, Screencast.com Pro users (not free users) can add or edit captions to any screencast from within Screencast.com. Some other technical requirements must be met. See Techsmith’s tutorial for more details.

Fourth, Techsmith is asking for feedback on Screencast.com and is using a Feedback button on the right side of the screen. This button connects to a Get Satisfaction account for Techsmith. Not only can you send feedback, but you can send it privately or publicly. Curious to see what others are asking? Take a look at the Screencast.com questions, answers, and comments or see the full Techsmith feedback

Lastly, HTML5 support has been added. What this means is that for hosted items with Flash hotspots (and table of contents and close captioning) will work even on devices like the iPad that don’t know how to support Flash. It is nice to see all these new features.

Since the summer, ScreenToaster has been up and down. The site itself has been down at times.  As of Jan. 2011, the site remains, but every time I try to record I just get the recorder down message whether I’m logged in or not.

Strangely enough, other users seem to find ways to make it still work. The “Just Toasted” gallery on the site has several screencasts from Feb., although none seem to have sound.

Meanwhile, I have to wonder about Screenjelly and Veodia itself as well. Screenjelly still works, but check the footers at ScreenToaster, Screenjelly, and Veodia. All have a 2009 copyright date, when they were all most active. Check the ScreenJelly Twitter feed (last post April 2010), Veodia’s blog is empty and the news page has no content since 2008. ScreenToaster’s Twitter account is similarly dated.

As an intermittent blogger myself with long gaps in my activity, I know that sites can return, but when these three have been so long incommunicado, I suspect that it is time to move on. Fortunately, Screencast-O-Matic remains active and has made some improvements (which I’ll cover later). As to ScreenToaster, I am reluctantly saying it is now time to declare it “toast.”

Not to sound too negative to this screencast, I do like a couple of other aspects of the CrossLoop demo:

• Small size (video window about 320×240 pixels, delivered by default as a pop-up)
• The way it zooms in to the relevant section (it looks to me like it was created with Camtasia Studio 5 using the new SmartFocus pan and zoom feature.

For me, this is a good example of how adding music may turn out to take too much time and energy to find an engaging track that is not distracting from the information content.