Snapz Pro X for Mac

1.0 stars

"Agree with all the Cons everybody has listed"

October 21, 2011  |   By bartbrown

Version: Snapz Pro X 2.3.2

Pros

It looks nice

Cons

Have come to expect MUCH better from Ambrosia -- maybe this is the beginning of their slide into the vapor. Static screen grab no better than Command-Shift-3 or Grab; streaming video buggy, incredibly lossy, dark, prone to crash; Flash grabs (like YouTube) just as bad, and not even remotely in the same league of even so simple and inexpensive a program as ClipGrab (or Screenium).

CUSTOMER SERVICE: Simply the worst, and it used to be be very good. My guess is that over many years and many apps, Ambrosia has built up a core following of people who think anything with the Ambrosia label HAS to be good, they'll DL an Ambrosia app, and put its poor performance and bugginess down to their OWN ineptness, or their System's. Ambrosia's now coasting on their past reputation -- and I do mean "Past" -- they put out updates no better than the hogwash they're updating, and charge up the wazoo and/or make the update process so onerous you'd rather hang yourself than suffer through it.

Summary

How anybody thinks this turkey rates nearly 4 stars -- let alone 5! -- is beyond me. Streaming video capture is my main need, and there are dozens of other apps that do it FAR better than SnapzPro (in fact, SnapzPro hardly does it at all, except in the most rudimentary and low-res way), at a FAR lower price, or free, that I don't know why anyone would put up with this insult to everyone's intelligence and buying perspicacity.

It's not like Ambrosia's not capable: WireTap Studio is a very good product, to which I was able to upgrade at a fairly reasonable price, back when there were TWO WireTaps: the lesser (and less expensive) WireTap and the more capable (and MORE expensive) WireTap Pro, so if you just wanted to do casual stuff, you could go with regular WireTap. It is my very strong conviction that once Ambrosia got people hooked on WireTap, They then contrived to provide only ONE update path: WireTap Studio. Now, however, WireTap Studio is $70.00. It's worth it to me, but the "casual" user is left with the "old" regular WireTap, which, like most Mac Apps, will become less and less able to handle regular OS X updates, let alone whole new environments like Lion.

And again, like many "shot-in-the-dark" companies, when Ambrosia was making its reputation putting out simple products -- God, Maelstrom's been around since the US had a budget surplus -- at reasonable prices, their Customer Support would practically send someone to your house to help you out.

No more.

Ambrosia apparently thinks it's hit the Adobe-level big time, and figure they no longer have to give a rat's about customer problems with their -- in this case, especially -- very flawed product. Pride goeth before a fall, and I think Ambrosia is about due for one... SnapzProX will go a long way towards insuring that fall will be rapid and painful. I believe their management REALLY needs to do some soul-searching.

Hmmmm.... maybe that's it: maybe Ambrosia's under new, predatory management. It certainly SEEMS like an entirely different company, in every bad way possible, than what it used to be.

Pity.

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