TUAW Responds: Reader requests remote iPhone Snapshot util

TUAW reader Patrick McCarron read my Mac-based file catcher post and wrote in to ask if I could set up a utility to automatically trigger screen shots from the Macintosh. Sure, Patrick. You've got it.

Like SnapNGo, AutoSnap grabs the contents of the screen and serves it via Bonjour. Unlike SnapNGo, AutoSnap automatically names and serves its files and can be triggered from your Mac using FileCatcher. Tap on the "File Throw Auto Snap" server and your iPhone snaps a picture and shares it to your Mac. The file appears on your desktop.

So then, I got to thinking. Since SnapNGo is sending pictures, why not adapt Apple's Picture Sharing Browser sample code to work with my updated protocol? So I grabbed a fresh copy of the code, and did a bunch of code monkey stuff to it, and produced a new utility: Erica Picture Sharing Browser--because I really stink at coming up with good names.

EPSB works more or less the same way that File Catcher does--tap on the server name to trigger a screen shot--but it also displays the picture in a fancy NSImageView and, favorite bit, offers a check box that allows you to optionally save the screen shot to your desktop. It uses the same automatic names produced by SnapNGo but you can easily rename the files once they're there.

Thanks for the suggestion, Patrick. I hope you enjoy the results.

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Source: http://ericasadun.com/ftp/EricaUtilities/

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TUAW reader Patrick McCarron read my Mac-based file catcher post and wrote in to ask if I could set up a utility to automatically trigger...

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mr. O

Kick. Ass.

Erica keeps making incredibly useful features that much easier to execute.

November 04 2007 at 4:10 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

andee

same here.
zsh: permission denied

what am I doing wrong?

I've even tried the chmod +x ./autosnap command..

November 03 2007 at 5:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

armchairgeek

Thanks Erica! This is a great solution.

November 03 2007 at 4:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

David

Thanks Erika! Thank you for all the contribution, at this point your posts are the only reason I come to tuaw.

By the way, you haven't mentioned mind dojo yet, the game is basically brain training on the iphone, it run incredibly. I can't believe it's a web app. (http://dbelement.com)

November 03 2007 at 4:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mars

@Jack, The IP address in the pic is what's called a class C internal IP address. Probably 1/4 of all personal computers have an IP address of 192.168.something.something. That IP address is not directly accessable to outside networks.

November 03 2007 at 2:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Shunnabunich

Is there a way to read the iPod/iPhone's name (i.e. as it would show up in iTunes) remotely from the Mac? If so, then you could have a list with any available Touch devices and a big ol' pretty Capture button, relegate the IP address and port info to an "advanced" view and have a user-selectable save destination for the screenshots, and you'd basically have a really awesome, dead simple screen capture app anyone could use. Maybe call it something like Podshot. :P

Actually, on a related note, is there any way to enable video out functionality outside of video playback? Imagine being able to record video demos of your iPod/iPhone software. Mmm. (Sorry if this has already been discussed elsewhere!)

November 03 2007 at 2:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jack

Shouldn't you blur the IP address?

November 03 2007 at 2:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

AudioBear

Erica I just wanted to say how good AutoSnap and the 'Erica Picture Broswer' is. Such cheeky cleverness should not go unheralded.

Keep it up

November 03 2007 at 2:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

danzigmessiah

EPicS Browser? or something like that.

November 03 2007 at 11:44 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Aaron Nelsen

@Matt: I'm new to this too, but what I've been doing is using Terminal on my Mac and logging into my iPod touch via SSH. Which goes something like...

ssh root@IP_ADDRESS

(then it asks for your password)

Once logged in type /var/root/bin/autosnap

Then you can use FileCatcher to snap pictures at your leisure.

Hope that helps!

November 03 2007 at 1:47 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply