Screencasting is becoming a standard method of conveying software-related information. I'm fairly certain that even my mom knows the word, which is my typical buzz-guage. And here you were, thinking "I wish there was yet another contender in the screencast recording arena", right? Lucky you.

Synium's Screenium, which is currently in beta preview, is a new arrival in an already teeming category of software. It has standard features like fullscreen, fixed area and mouse-follow capture, hotkey integration and adjustable quality/frame rate with capture presets. It also boasts a single window capture mode and frame rates up to 60fps. I don't know why you'd need to capture a screen at 60fps, but it can't hurt to know it's available.

In my testing, Screenium performed exceptionally well in the area of small filesize, high quality captures and its default presets were simple and useful. It also gets high marks for ease of use. And it didn't max out my CPU and turn my fans into Harrier jets after 2 minutes, which is kind of nice when you're recording microphone audio. It's got some distance to cover before the official release in February, but Screenium is looking like a strong contender.

Mac Developer Cam Stevenson dropped us a note to let us know that BurrOak Software is looking for beta testers try out PictoDrop. PictoDrop is an image management program that looks like it will help you sort, version, and apply effects to your images in a very Aperture-lite post-processing way. It's a closed beta, so if you're interested you're going to need to send off an e-mail to pictobeta@burroak.on.ca to apply to be a tester.

It looks like a fairly cool program, built at least partially using Core Image.

The coding elves at Parallels must not sleep. They have released just another beta of Parallels Desktop for Mac (this is Beta 3 for those keeping score at home). In case you haven't used the previous Beta, there is a new UI for Parallels, which I am not too crazy about, and a number of bug fixes as well as support for USB 2.0.

New in this beta is the inclusion of Transporter Beta3. What does Transporter do? It allows you to migrate an existing Windows install on a PC to a Parallels install over a network. It will also convert VMWare and Virtual PC disk images to Parallel Disk images.

We have written about WriteRoom before and were impressed with its simple idea. Today WriteRoom 2.0 beta has been released and it brings with it a number of changes. The first change you might notice is that WriteRoom is no longer free. It is now shareware with the price tag of $14.95 while in beta with the idea that'll be more when it is fully functional (even though it is in beta. When did it become cool to charge for beta software?). Also new in 2 beta is support for rich text editing, live word count, the ability to save documents where ever you would like, and WriteRoom now stores documents in standard text/rich text format.

There's nothing more satisfying than knowing that someone is listening to you - and hearing you - when you're unhappy about something. Well, you spoke and the folks at XtraLean listened. When the ImageWell 3 beta was released in the wild a few days ago, the most common complaint was that image cropping was no longer as easy or intuitive as it had been in version 2.1. It even had me stumped initially, although I, admittedly, didn't mind it all that much once I figured out where the crop tool was hiding. Instead of ignoring their user base, as many freeware, shareware and even major commercial software developers do (I'm talking to you, Adobe), XtraLean quickly went to work to bring cropping, as we previously knew and loved it, back from the dead.

A note from the developer says: "We've had some great feedback so far - bug reports, suggestions and complaints. The number one complaint was the cropping feature was too complicated in ImageWell 3. We are happy to announce that we reworked the UI to make image cropping more like it was in ImageWell 2.1. A new build with this better (at least we hope it's better) cropping can be downloaded here. During this beta/release candidate cycle we'll be putting out a new build every two days. Be sure to submit your feedback, bug reports and complaints - so we can try to make ImageWell the best we can. Again, thanks for your support."

Thanks you, XtraLean, for caring enough to listen to your users instead of ignoring them. You are a shining example of what the Mac community is all about.

I spend a lot of time in chat (I'm very popular) and sadly all of my friends and colleagues refuse to use the same IM protocol. That's why I eschew iChat and use Adium instead. One of the developers behind Adium gives us a peek at how the beta 1.0 release is shaping up. Before you ask, Adium 1.0 won't support voice/video chat which is just fine with me.

This release looks very promising

ImageWell calls itself the "the free and lean image editor" and it is, indeed, both free and lean. It's one of those apps that "just works" and doesn't try to do more than it should. We're fans of ImageWell here at TUAW. It makes our jobs easier. Recently I noticed that the ImageWell 3 beta was available for download and I jumped on it like a rabid dog. Guess what? It "just works" even better.

ImageWell rocks for quick and easy edits to images. Just drag an image onto the well, make your adjustments (like cropping, rotating, watermarking and/or resizing) and send the file to the local folder, FTP server or iDisk of your choice. It supports .Mac, WebDAV, FTP and SFTP for uploads. A few simple clicks is all it takes and you'll generally be done with what you needed to do in about the same amount of time it would take for Photoshop to even launch. You can even add text, shapes, thought clouds and balloons with ease without having to launch another app to dress up your pic.

Although the basic application is free, ImageWell now also offers a registered version that includes some additional bells and whistles, like more shapes, styles, gradients, and batch resizing. You can upgrade to the registered version for $9.95 during the v3 beta, but the regular price will be $14.95.

The interface on ImageWell 3 is a bit different than version 2.x. (no more drawers!) and I was a tad confused by that when I launched it - I'm quite the creature of habit. But once I figured out where things had moved to I felt at ease again. The online help and documentation is very good. though, so if you're confused too, just fire up the help pages and you'll be all set.

ImageWell 3 requires OS X 10.3.9 or greater, and is a Universal Binary. If you're looking for a lean and mean image editor, give it a try.