Screen Capture Tools for iPhone Apps

SimFinger & PhoneFinger help you make video demos of an app using the simulator with screen capture software such as Snapz Pro X or iShowU. Filming a real iPhone takes a lot more work to get a decent quality video, so screen capture can be the way to go if you don’t use the accelerometer or need to show integration with the phones native apps (which are missing from the simulator). PhoneFinger turns your mouse pointer into a customizable finger that taps the screen when you click, so the screen cap can feature a finger instead of a mouse pointer. I used it with iShowU to make the Duck You Undo video. SimFinger takes a different approach, the app is a window you position over the top of the simulator, and it does three things for your screen cap:

• Adds a white circle that follows the mouse pointer, which is great for directing the viewers attention in the vid.
• When you click the white circle ‘taps’ the screen.
• Shows a classy 3G style iphone with better gloss.

SimFinger has another handy trick, it can install fake versions of the native iPhone apps onto the simulator, so that in your video you get to launch your app from a normal looking iPhone, rather than the four apps the simulator has. See SimFinger in action with Snapz Pro in the Tweety demo. If you want a 3G looking phone and a finger, you can use SimFinger and PhoneFinger at the same time.