TUAW reader Scott writes that he's discovered how to grab screen shots from the iPhone or iPod touch running the new beta developer release. While attempting to reboot the phone, he noticed the "infamous" white flash I wrote about a few weeks ago. A little experimentation revealed the magic key combo was Power Button followed by Home Button. Unknowingly, he had shot about 5 of these due to several lockup-reboots.

We have no way to confirm this because none of us are running 1.2/2.0 but let us know if this magic key combo works for you.

A lot of iPhone dev types have known about the SBMobileScreenshotr preference for a very long time. What we didn't know was how to make it do anything. The software programming site RipDev solved the mystery.

After setting the preference in /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.springboard.plist, just restart Springboard and use the following super-secret key combination: Hold down the Home key and toggle the mute switch. Your screen flashes white, a screen shot appears on your camera roll. How did they figure this out? Given the relative unlikelihood of coming across this key combination by chance, I'm guessing they might have had some human direction. Or maybe they're just really really good at disassembling code.

If you'd rather not edit your property lists directly, add http://repository.ripdev.com as an Installer repository and install Apple Screenshot Enabler. Warning: trying to remove the mod via Installer.app caused my phone to reboot. It just would not uninstall properly.

Thanks TJ