I’m as annoyed as the next guy about how hard it is to find a decent screencast app for Mac. The forthcoming Mac OS 10.5’s new iChat Theater (and the built-in screen sharing/control features) should create some new opportunities for developers, but right now it’s hard to know what works or is worth trying.

Further, I narrowed the field with the following requirement: I need an app that records to QuickTime-compatible files, not Flash. Here’s what I’ve found so far:

• Snapz Pro X, the $70 oft-cited front runner is now native.
• iShowU, $20.
• ScreenRecord, $20.
• Copernicus, $free.

Extra: this how-to pointed out OmniDazzle and Mouseposé as tools to help draw users’ focus during both live or recorded demos.

screencast, mac, mac os x, apple, demo, screen sharing, screen copy

Sure it’s old news, but I am pretty happy that Mac OS X 10.4 has a built-in VNC server.

You’ll still need a client, like Chicken of the VNC, but it couldn’t be much simpler to make work. Though, you could run a separate server app (even several instances of it) and work up a hack like this to allow you to have several people all logged in to the same machine (and getting different screens) simultaneously. And it’s also worth mentioning the VNC to Flash screencasting trick.

And…if what you really want to do is use and control a couple (or more) computers side by side, then what you might really want is some virtual KVM software (or, more properly, some keyboard and mouse-sharing software). Zach is super excited about Synergy for these things.

built-in, mac, Mac OS X, Mac OS X 10.4, remote control, screen sharing, virtual network network computer, VNC