You might have heard that the latest
iPhone 2.0 beta firmware allows users to save web images to its running camera roll for later download to its host machine (or sharing via email). Well, a reliable source let us know that the image capturing good times don't end there: the iPhone now capable of taking full screen caps (like the one above) simply by holding the sleep button, then tapping the home button. We haven't personally tested either technique (we already know what you're thinking: we can't say whether it captures screens from a video), but apparently it flashes white to indicate the cap's been taken and the image has been added to your roll. Let's hope these two neato features make it to the release firmware.
posted Apr 14th 2008 5:16PM
That is freakin' awesome.
Great. Now let me attach multiple photos to a single e-mail.
and save images from email attachments.
Let's hope this (image above) changes to:
Save Photo
Go To URL
Open in New Tab (or window)
I second that motion
The correct usage would be...
For hyperkinked image:
• Save Photo
• Go To URL
• Open URL In New Window
• Cancel
For hyperkinked text:
• Go To URL
• Open URL In New Window
• Cancel
Third.
Hyperkinky.
I see what you did there...
You need to install Adblock on that phone. :-D
Hah, you got that right.
I got ads blocked in firefox and i hate the blank white square on the right cuz that's where the ad should go :)
That's the first ad I've ever seen on Engadget too.
Engadget has ads?
@nxtiak - So select 'Collapse blocked Elements'
and they said 3g is a big deal. I'm in heaven now!
Well its about damn time.
Boom
Doesn't this strike anyone as an odd button combination? Sleep button and home button. Firstly it doesn't seem really intuitive and secondly when people try it they will probably sleep their iPhone/iPod Touchs?
Well I'm sure people can manage to hold down the sleep button and press the home button at the right times.
It's a shame that the screen capture function has already taken up the "home + ringer off" combination.
You're right, but the alternative would put a relatively unused button on every screen in the entire UI.
The iPhone uses a very consistent design:
1 - Application-dependent input actions are available on the touch-screen.
2 - Application-independent input actions (such as screen capture) use hardware buttons.
3 - Application-independent input actions that are the result of application messages to the user (the phone rings, an SMS message appears, etc.) are available on the touch screen, but allow the user to return to the original state through some mechanism.
There may be exceptions, but I cannot think of anything at the moment.
Well the screenshot functionality is in 1.1.4 version of iphone. You just have to turn it on though plist setting.
And the button combination on 1.1.4 is HOLD home and TOGGLE the vibrate button to get a screencap.
Thats just the tip of the iceberg come June and the rest of 08. It's going to be a fun year for iPhone/Touch users.
I did that with the old beta. All you do is hold down the sleep button and tap the home button. I used build 5A225C. I found it purely by accident, what happened is I went to power off and my hand slipped and hit the home button and I saw a white flash and I freaked thinking that I broke my phone. When I saw the white flash I heard the camera click and so I naturally went to my roll and there it was, a screen cap of my home screen!
as much as i love apple, its just another case of them adding what should have been 1.0 functionality far later than necessary.
What a dick.
Cram it, deepak.
Wrong Mank! Yet another dick.
@engadget: Can you guys forward this to Meizu???? i think they might wanna see this
So really, what's the point of having screen capture BUILT IN?
I've used many pdas, smartphones, etc.. and never needed to use a screen capture program.
I can understand bloggers, and sites etc, to use this so they can put screen shots of their programs, and reviews etc.. but for the average USER, why make it a built in feature???
So lets have a special version for bloggers and such people and a not so special one for general users.... /S
Also just because you might not use the feature doesn't mean it shouldn't be there, if you don't need it don't use it.
Oh GOD, what will we do without that precious kilobyte of memory! Those jerks, what are they thinking, bloating it up like this?
Now, let me return to zooming in and out of this page for the joy of watching that fancy effect...
Lets just remove all the features you don't like shall we.
completely unrelated- but why can't they release a full internet browser on something like a psp, ps3, 360? They all have the power neccessary to run, say, firefox , and its annoying to have no ability to download plugins for flash, etc.
b/c MS and Sony have other products to sell you if you want a full browser...
Um, the PS3 and PSP both have internet browsers already. Only the 360 doesn't.
Can't it be done also with 1.1.4 and 1.1.3?
Yes... the home button + the ringtone button
Yet another feature that iPhone users are rejoicing about that I've been able to do on my phone for 3 years.
In other news... The Engadget awards... I can accept that the engadget readership were all possessed enough to pick the SE K850i as phone of the year but... Engadget too!?!?!
Have you guys ever used that piece of ****? Damn, I would rather have seen even the iPhone as best phone of the year instead of the K850i....
Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it (the iPhone) is? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?
[borrowed from Kelly's Heroes]
Engadget folk are bloggers, not professional reviewers or - it seems - gadget experts. Expect nothing better than the ill-informed views of (some of) its readers.
How thick is your 3-year-old phone? How is the browsing? No way the screen is as high-res or as large as the iPhone's screen, and it's touch-screen no doubt uses an overlay, rather than the durable glass the iPhone uses. Does the operating system work as well as what the iPhone uses? Hmm... I can answer that for you, sight unseen: No.
I admit that there are many features I want to see on my iPhone, but it's SOOOOO much better than the previous SonyEricsson 'smart' phones I had that I have to chuckle when I see people ignore the good things the iPhone does in favor of bitching over MMS or something else.
Just sulk away and keep talking about how your phone did that "3 years ago," no one's really keeping score.
@ill trooper
i think everyone knows that the iphone is a pretty amazing product. but to say people who want mms are just "bitching"? how about we never say a negative thing against the iphone? criticism is important for apple to know what to improve. and perhaps mms is important to some people? the iphone is NOT perfect....but its pretty freaking good.
So, ummm... yeah. Let's look at the N80. 2+ years old. 352x416 but at 2.2" because if you hadn't noticed, not everyone likes a wide, long touchscreen phones because some people actually like to have tactile feedback and the ability to blast out text messages at lightning speeds. Besides, I wouldn't exactly describe the iPhone's screen as hi-res...?
Yup, the browser is great. Basically the same one as the iPhone browser. If I wanted to, I could also mention that my N95's browser has guess what... Full Flash support... Yeah.
The operating system? Well, if it didn't work well, why would 100 million + people be using it at this very moment....?
It's a chunky monkey but what would you expect for a phone packing so many features at its time...?
Yeah.
@Mike:
weird, i just watched that movie a few days ago.
Good movie. Oddball was great! :-)
The N80 is slow, unstable, thick, and ugly.
The N95 costs TWICE as much as an iPhone, yet has neither a touch screen nor a keyboard, limiting you to predictive text which will *never* be a true replacement for either of the preceding input methods.
NEXT!
no service...story of my life
LMAO, too true for so many people.
And unfortunately not likely to get any better. The wireless networks currently cover the places have the best cost/profit population densities (including throughput, like interstates), so if you're not covered now, you're probably not going to be covered in the future. The wireless companies just write it off as irrelevant.
Their new spectrum is purchased to overlay their current coverage maps with higher speed, faster technologies, not to reach additional customers.
You could always go with a WinMo Smartphone and Skype for your home usage (or potentially an iPhone and Skype), and then take advantage of the cellular coverage when you're in a more populated place.
Yay, Apple should launch a new slogan
Apple: "where basic functionality is a feature" or
This with copy and paste / being able to do more than just view the web should have been there all along. It has been on S60, and Windows mobile for years.
Now if they could just integrate this as a copy and paste system, I would have absolutely no complaints about iPhone functionality. There are too many instances where I get information in an email that I need to paste into Safari. I think that implementation of this wouldn't be too difficult.
For instance, use the Sleep+Home button combination, but have a "make selection" option where text could then be highlighted with a reverse pinch, or highlighting with a finger; the home button could then pressed to copy once the selection is made. Once there is an item in the clipboard, the same button combo could be used to bring up a Paste option.
Uhh, my Helio Ocean has been doing this ...since... I got it.
And that automatically means that the OS on the Helio is not, in fact, a total heap of crap, is that it? Or what was the point you were trying to make there? Yes, the iPhone got the OS right, for the first time in cell phone history. That's why people like it.
Nobody is claiming Apple is the first to do it, so it seems to me like you're responding to a statement nobody made. The Ocean is old news buddy, and so are crappy phone OSes.
Yes... And that is exactly why they need to keep adding things. Cornball phones have features that the iPhone does not. Improve it. I'm all for it.
Artie Macstrawman strikes again!
Don't mind me... I'm just here to say that the iPhone is ALWAYS the most feature rich phone EVER.
Hmmmm. Apple doesn't believe in scrum/AGILE/product backlogs/etc, do they? This is the first time I've even heard of this kind of feature, let alone a want for it. What about:
- landscape keyboard for e-mail/text messaging?
- support for MMS messages?
- copy/paste functionality?
- making Safari stable enough to support more than one active window? (which crashes 50% of the time when browsing multiple pages, in my experience)
- ability to open links into separate windows instead of navigating away?
- Flash/Silverlight/(name you RIA tech of choice here) support?
- additional "nitpicky" features not listed here
(Queue the upset fanboy comments... now.)
"(Queue the upset fanboy comments... now.)"
So you can fire opinionated salvos but you attempt to invalidate any return-fire by predicting it? How sporting!
for somebody calling themselves "obvious", you've missed the obvious problem in implementing copy and paste - that is, how do you do that and retain usability?
yeah apple has a long way to go ... just give them time. That's what the updates are for. ;-)
That key combo just shows the iPhone needs more than 2 physical buttons. Maybe iPhone 2 will have that.
Finally some worth while features.
You guys know that you can just download screenshot from installer which does the same thing..well it only takes a snapshot of whatever your doing but it should be enough to keep people till 2.0 actually releases.
Yeapp...it works. pretty neat
This is probably for 3rd party developers to take promo pictures to put on their website or whatever. Not meant for your average user. Some things won't work very well in the simulator (stuff that relies on your current location, for example), and have to be run on actual hardware for a good shot.
And full-screen capture is old news. All iPhone firmwares have had it. It requires a special .plist setting and odd button combo, so it's only been for Apple's in-house promo pics so far.
Either way, it isn't really a feature. Don't expect it to be really well publicised (the changelog for v2.0 is gonna be huge!)
Yeah, the screen cap has been there since 1.1.3 with the HOME+Vibe toggle. The images it saves are a bit on the soft side though, so I still use Capture to take screenshots for the blog.
Forgot to mention, they changed the key combo so it will work on the Touch.
Is that the default homepage for the iPhone browser?
I can personally confirm that this works, on the new version (beta 3) of the 2.0 firmware. I can upload the screen captures I've got if you like.
It does capture screens from a video - at least from a YouTube video, I haven't tried it with an iPod video, but as I think it is basically the same API they use, it should. I have shots from a YouTube video about sandcastles.....
now they just need to work on usefull features like Bluetooth obex and a2dp support, and a universal im client.
Dude can you all like idk CHILL OUT! No the iPhone isn't perfect, it doesn't have all the features you want. BUT for a first generation phone it is pretty darn good, and the fact that added functionality is coming in the form of free software updates is kinda one of the coolest features of the phone.
i guess everybody will chill out when engadget stops reporting every little basic functionality that is added on this unfinished product as a gift from go.., i mean jobs. they have tuaw for reporting this kind of stuff.
Much better than MMS.
It is nice that they are adding all these extra features , but how about getting the basics right? MMS , Video , Bluetooth tranfers , wifi sync etc...
But I will say one thing. Despite all the drawbacks, the iPhone may just be the best the phone I have ever had. (^.^) I just love these updates. The only question is which update will get these things done?
1.1.3 already has a screenshot-taking capability (and i would think 1.1.4 also does), just hold the home button and toggle the mute switch
personally i hate the iphone, but with concerns to all the bickering...
has anyone ever had a device that can do EVERYTHING they want it to do? i mean there will always be things device x will be missing...
Yeah, I so wanted this instead of something I might *actually use in real life* such as a SPP bluetooth profile...
I can save images wit my JB'd touch.. And open new tabs...
I think it would be better for single quick tap to just automatic open the link of URL/Images.
To save images or open URL in new tab requires tap and hold and then the menu in the image come up.
Not everytime i want to open in new tab and definitely save that extra tap on screen.
Oh i also would iphone to handle compressed files.
Hopefully we can save the PDFs that we download n view on safari too.
Who cares. What I really want to know is..... when the hell is iPhone formatted Engadget coming?
Ask and ye shall recieve...
http://getallthe.com/tech-1
The nice thing about this site is that it loads engadget without all the pics. Of course the pics are important, but if all you're looking for is the info, this is it.
What i would like to see is not only making snapshots but record movies. Or is that confirmed for 2.0?
cool
You are neglecting this is beta software, I would suspect that this feature is really a limited debug tool, If a beta tester thinks something is not showing up the way it is suppose to then send a screen shot as opposed to trying to describe I.
I don't see much of a use for a feature like this and would not be surprised if it is removed from the final version.
We better be getting picture messaging, soon. That's my dad's only complaint about his iPhone as well.
Hopefully this does come to the iPod touch, and the 2.0 update includes a camera roll or something similar. Right now there is no camera roll, so any application (right now, just ones from a jailbreak) that wants to store photos to the iPod and have them be immediately viewable uses the camera roll. Each time I take a screenshot with Capture, I have to FTP into the iPod and browse to an obscure location in order to retrieve it. Now, I know there won't be jailbreak apps to factor in, but what would a drawing app do to save images?
I have a question. I have AT&T right now and want to get the iPhone 2.0 when it comes out. Is there any way for me to use the iphone as a phone, ipod, and web browser w/out upgrading my texting plan or unlimited data plan. I only use wifi and dont care to use edge. I know alot of people have said just type in 999999 for my SS but then it turns as a pay as you go phone so I think that's technically changing my plan. I want my plan to remain the exact same but i just want to use the iphone. Thanks