I just discovered a new screencasting tool called Screenr. It’s from Articulate, a leader in the rapid e-learning space.
Screenr allows you to record anything on your desktop for up to 5 minutes. This is more than enough time to get your how-to or idea across. What I like about Screenr is that the quality is outstanding–even at full screen. In addition it produces an iPhone version so mobile playback isn’t crippled by the lack of Flash.
Screenr is tightly integrated with Twitter. Your Twitter credentials are your Screenr login. After you produce your movie, Screenr automatically creates a Twitter post with the URL to your movie. Add a brief description and hit publish. Your Twitter account will publish the post with a link to your movie. And yes, I tested it on my iPhone and it works just perfectly.
Here is my first Screenr screencast so you can see the quality of the output (the content itself leaves a bit to be desired because I didn’t plan it in advance.)
I see several opportunities for using Screenr:
- Record Keynote & PowerPoint presentations to communicate key ideas.
- Document computer how-to’s so friends & relatives quit pestering you.
- Narrate slideshows and easily share them with others.
So what’s missing? I see two things that separate Screenr from more full featured applications like ScreenFlow and soon to be released Camtasia for the Mac. First, there isn’t any zoom. When your watching this on your computer the output is razor sharp. When it’s embedded on a small blog page or worse, on an iPhone, it’s difficult to see the detail. Second, there isn’t a way to really edit the video. In my example, I made a mistake on the URL for the Jing Project from TechSmith. I can’t go back and edit the video to get it right. Neither of these are show stoppers though for such a useful utility.
And oh, did I mention that it was free?!
I encourage you to try out Screenr. It’s simple and straightforward. It integrates well with Twitter and the quality is super sharp. I think you’ll like it.
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