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iPhone screenshot utility

Earlier today, I learned about this iPhone screen shot snippet meant to be used inside an application. It produces PDF results. After playing with the code and realizing it probably couldn't be expanded to a general purpose screenshot utility, I decided to write one from scratch by taking advantage of UIApplication's _dumpScreenContents: protocol.

My screenshot utility, which you can download here runs from the command line and produces a PNG output of your screen. I look forward to using this tool. It's certainly going to be a lot easier than trying to light the iPhone correctly and avoid reflections while snapping pictures with a digital camera.

Update: My daughter figured out that if you set the iPhone to never sleep and put it into camera mode, you can script it to take screen shots every minute (or five minutes or however long) to take time lapse series of images. We are so going to try this out.

Update 2: Tried it out. Only gets about 4 pictures per minute when in a loop so video is a no-go.



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Earlier today, I learned about this iPhone screen shot snippet meant to be used inside an application. It produces PDF results. After...
 

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boeselhack

me too.
erica, does it work on 1.1.1?

October 23 2007 at 5:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
HungLO

I'm trying to run this utility, but keep getting "Unable to register "UnknownPurpleApp" port, 1103" error. Any ideas as of why or what it means?

Thanks in advance.

September 03 2007 at 11:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John Williams

So, how does one run this little gem

August 21 2007 at 2:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
rich

Excellent utility. To automate the screenshot procedure, I recommend using two expect scripts to capture the screen and then copy back over to your Mac. I then encapsulate those two calls into an AppleScript. Doing this, you can perform a screenshot through a simple mouse click.

August 18 2007 at 8:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rian

ok so...i'm really new to iphone modding. i'm able to change graphics and sounds and things like that, but for some reason i'm having problems installing apps.

could somebody give me a step-by-step on how to install this(the screenshot utility) by any chance? i've looked all the the net and can't find any tutorials that show you where to put files and stuff like that, only sites that say "here, download this and install it, there ya go!"

thanks in advance

August 13 2007 at 4:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dave

AWESOME.

The I think this is the first iphone application that I have put on without any difficulties at all.

It really shows off the quality of the graphics etc on this device.

August 09 2007 at 4:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew

I don't see a problem with Erica sharing her work on TUAW. I find it extremely generous in her case. It's not like she's trying to sell a product of her own.

Good job, Erica!

August 06 2007 at 11:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lostinseattle

shoot, d/l link is bad now... is there some place this can still be retrieved?

August 06 2007 at 3:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
punkassjim

Maybe it's just because there's a blurred line here, but I see TUAW as a "look what Apple did" kind of website. But Erica's posts these days are more like "look what I did!" And seriously...I have a ton of respect for her conquests...but the truth of the matter is, Erica is simply putting other people's toolchains and reverse-engineered SDK's into action. Why aren't the creators of these toolchains being featured?

I mean, hell, last I knew it was better form to at least have someone else bring the news to the community about a cool development, than to cover your own accomplishments and present them as news. Isn't that called self-aggrandizement? Does no one else see a problem with this? I mean, I know I'll get laughed at for suggesting TUAW should exhibit journalistic integrity, but...why? Meaningless personal boundaries my ass. I hold these folks to the high standard I think they're capable of achieving.

I've got no problem with Mike Schramm or someone saying "Our own Erica Sadun has done xyz..." because the truth of the matter is, Mike would probably do some questioning to make sure HE understood the news well enough to report it in language that the largest possible audience could grasp. Erica hasn't been thorough enough to get the whole message across, because she's too close to...well, she IS the source.

August 05 2007 at 6:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jcy

punkassjim, stfu and stfd. don't use your meaningless personal boundaries to dictate what's newsworthy on a blog

August 05 2007 at 5:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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