Filed under: Software
GrabUp
GrabUp is an interesting little app that adds a new wrinkle to OS X's built in screen capturing functionality. When you install the prefpane, it allows you to add the GrabUp menu item to your menu bar. GrabUp just sits waiting for you to invoke it (by hitting Shift - Command - 4). Once you hit the key combo a crosshair pops up, letting you select part of your screen to capture. So far this is pretty standard stuff. The image is saved to your desktop and uploaded to GrabUp's server (like this) and the URL is automatically copied to your clipboard. The idea is that this will make it very easy to share screen captures over IM or email since no account is needed. The app just uploads the image and returns a unique URL.
It isn't as robust as Skitch or ImageWell, but its beauty is in its simplicity. You don't need to have an FTP login or Flickr account to upload your picture to the web, and that is pretty compelling. The only question I have is: does it scale? What happens when thousands of people are using this app?
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
John Ellenich said 4:49PM on 4-15-2008
Ever hear of Jing? It's the EXACT same thing, except more robust and can do video capture too...
http://www.jingproject.com/
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mmonquito said 4:52PM on 4-15-2008
Has anyone looked at the company's "About" page?
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KeynoteKen said 4:55PM on 4-15-2008
This is a filler comment but make sure you put a comment here, then have the icon where it is now, then have more comment.
:)
Tristan said 4:54PM on 4-15-2008
http://www.modelconcept.net/
for something similar. its an image uploader widget that uploads to fileshack.us
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Al said 5:14PM on 4-15-2008
Or you could, you know, hit Command-Ctrl-Shift-4 and paste the image directly into the IM without hosting needed.
Solution looking for a problem...
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eric f. said 10:51AM on 4-16-2008
what if you're chatting with someone on an iPhone via Mobile AIM? they can't get multimedia messages, so this is a perfect solution.
eric f. said 10:52AM on 4-16-2008
you could have the same issue if you're using adium...
Aquastorm said 5:17PM on 4-15-2008
Uhh... Did they forget about Jing project? Jing has all that and allows for video screencasts as well.
http://www.jingproject.com/
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Kevin Ballard said 5:37PM on 4-15-2008
It seems like commenters here are missing the real beauty of this thing, which is that it's zero-click. You take the screenshot, and your clipboard is automatically populated with the URL. No fiddling around with another app, no clicking "Share", no using a widget. It's just take screenshot, paste URL.
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pscs said 5:47PM on 4-15-2008
Some tips for "normal screenshooting"
cmd + shift + 3 = whole screen with frame shadow
cmd + shift + 4 = cross hair without frame shadow
cmd + shift + 4 + space = select window with frame shadow
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byaah said 6:27PM on 4-15-2008
Thanks! I didn't know about the cmd+shift+space+4 one. Thats pretty neat.
Nate said 5:55PM on 4-15-2008
Wouldn't it be easier to use Quickshareit because then you can choose what you upload. All you have to do is drag the picture to the icon on the Dock.
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andy Pullen said 6:36PM on 4-15-2008
"The only question I have is: does it scale? What happens when thousands of people are using this app?"
That's two questions. Second one doesn't count.
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Roger Clark said 7:09PM on 4-15-2008
I wrote a program that does this for Windows:
http://www.screenie.net/
I also wrote an AppleScript to do the same thing: http://drano.org/Snippets/ScreenieAppleScript
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Ryan Walker said 7:18PM on 4-15-2008
Personally, I love it! Thanks for sharing!
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Poontangy said 9:11PM on 4-15-2008
Talk about your microscopically focused applications. A program for people who need to take screenshots and have them appear on the web as quickly as possible.
Honestly, you commenters must constitute the entire userbase for this thing.
At least, I hope.
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Maikel said 10:12PM on 4-15-2008
Personally this is perfect. If you don't like, don't use it. As simple as...
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Andrew said 12:02AM on 4-16-2008
I think this would be useful for message boards -- a quick and dirty way to upload a screenshot asking for help, or showing someone how to do something.
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SirCrumpet said 12:58AM on 4-16-2008
Sounds to me like everything this can do is already covered for me by Skitch. Any advantage to this, other than having to click one less time?
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Kevin Ballard said 5:25AM on 4-16-2008
Personally, I was always very annoyed at how hard Skitch makes it to get the URL. You have to hit Upload, wait for it to finish, then hit the button *again* to open a browser window, then copy the URL from that. I've always thought Skitch should just copy the URL to your clipboard the moment the upload is finished.