Screenshot ER adds a toggle widget, but has some shake and data bugs to fix

A toggle widget

The two best apps to take screenshots on a rooted Android phone are ShootMe and Screenshot ER.

On second thought, the best app to take screenshots is ShootMe.

Both apps do more or less the same, but Screenshot ER took a step forward by adding a toggle widget: tap it to activate the app, shoot your screen, tap the widget again to switch the screenshot service off. That's a really cool new feature.

But...

Shaky

Screenshot ER Lite only takes screenshots of my home screens when in shake mode. When I'm in an app I can shake my phone until the battery drops out, but Screenshot ER won't take any pictures. It takes pics from the notification bar toggle, but there's an 8 second delay for that in the lite version, and you'll end up with the Screenshot ER notification icon on every screenshot.

The previous version shot my apps by shaking just fine. Maybe the bug only bites my phone (Motorola Defy running Froyo), maybe it bites yours too. Give it a shot (and a shake) to see if it works on your phone.

Data leak?

False alarm: for every screenshot I take, Screenshot ER appears to download 1.6 MB (yes, megabytes!) worth of data. Even when I block it with DroidWall. There's no point trying to keep it offline with LBE Privacy Guard either, because then it won't work at all.

Screenshot ER doesn't need all that data to take screenshots. If you switch off your WiFi and mobile data connection it shoots your screen too. Interestingly, even with all your data connections switched off apps like TrafficStats and LBE will still report the 1.6 MB per shot. Obviously the data usage is a false positive, but it's alarming anyway.

The mystery data is probably because Screenshot ER works around the limitations of Android by acting as an internal server: your phone "downloads" the screenshot from itself. An uncompressed image of a 480x852 screen would be about 1.6 MB.

Concerns about erroneous data reporting can be lifted by a better explanation in the market description and in the app itself, but because shake-to-shoot doesn't work in app screens I'll keep using ShootMe a bit longer. ShootMe shoots app windows by shaking, which Screenshot ER won't do for me. Maybe it will after the next update?

• ShootMe (android underground)
• Screenshot ER Lite (Android Market)

The problem of chat and VoIP fragmentation: Whatsapp, Viber, Skype, PingChat, Kik Messenger, LiveProfile, KakaoTalk, GO Chat, etc. should open up

The good ol' days

A long time ago you needed separate programs for all instant messaging networks. One app for MSN, another app for Google Talk, a separate program for ICQ, another for AIM, and Skype chat only worked with the software from Skype.

Then came the multi-network clients. Trillian, GAIM, and Pidgin for PC. Nimbuzz, fring, Palringo, and many more for Symbian. Android and iOS got their fair share of multi-network IM apps too. They even got unified inboxes that brought your emails and SMSs together.

VoIP was always unified, because almost every VoIP operator uses the SIP standard. Except for Skype, but Nimbuzz and fring took care of that.

And then things fell apart

Somehow, someone turned back the clock. First, Skype got pulled from Nimbuzz and fring. Apparently because of a dispute over video calling, but normal calls and messages over Skype were yanked out too. Until Skype opens up again I suggest you don't pay a single penny for SkypeOut (use one of the many other VoIP services instead).

Fortunately Skype chat still works in imo, so you only need one instant messenger on your Android phone.

Or do you?

When AOL bought ICQ, they tried to axe their service from 3rd party clients in order to force-feed you their own app. Then came Blackberry Messenger. A great way to avoid the ridiculous SMS rates (the most expensive 140 bytes in the universe), but it only works on Blackberries. WhatsApp copied the ping app from Blackberry and brought it to Android and iPhone. And so did PingChat. And Kik Messenger and LiveProfile and Viber and KakaoTalk and GO Chat and many more. The app stores are full of single-network chat apps and they breed like rabbits.

The problem? All the new kids on the block use proprietary protocols that only work in their own apps. With so many networks your friends will be scattered all over the place. And with your friends scattered over MSN, WhatsApp, Skype, Kik, Viber, etcetera you'll need to fill an entire homescreen with apps that all do the same thing.

Some of these apps (like Viber) autostart without an option to switch it off. Others (WhatsApp) autostart and don't even have an exit button. They keep you available all the time, even when you want to take a break from messaging without shutting down your entire internet connection. They also upload your entire contacts list to their servers, even the contacts that you don't want to share. And if you want to stay connected, these apps and their background services take a large bite out of your RAM. Some even keep their processes alive if you sign out, if they let you sign out at all.

There is no multi-network program that connects the new IM/SMS hybrids into a single app. We're heading back to the dark ages of 1995 where every messenger required its own app.

Pick up the pieces

Urgently needed: one app to bind them all. Trillian, Nimbuzz, imo etc. did a great job unifying the old chat networks. The time has come to include the new messengers, and to force Skype back in line. This requires a bit of work from the multi-network app programmers, but that's not a big deal. They're more than willing to add networks to their apps. What holds them back is the lack of cooperation from Skype, WhatsApp, Viber et al. If the new networks stop being so anal retentive and publish some public APIs we'd have updated multi-network clients in a minute. At the very least the new networks shouldn't sabotage attempts to reverse engineer their protocols so that others can throw their networks into the mix.

WhatsApp, Viber, PingChat, Skype, Kik, KakaoTalk, GO Chat, LiveProfile: open up!

Bonus tip and abuse alert

If you uninstall WhatsApp, your phone number stays in their system. Your friends will keep trying to message you, WhatsApp keeps telling them you're still a WhatsApp user even when you're not anymore.

There is a way to remove your phone number from WhatsApp, but WhatsApp decided to hide the method in a dark corner of their small print.

To rescue your phone number from the claws of WhatsApp, you'll need to send them an email.

To: support@whatsapp.com
Subject: Remove
Message: +12345678910
(The subject should read "Remove" and the message should be your full phone number in international format).

They promise to remove your phone number from their systems in about a day, but some people had to wait for weeks before WhatsApp finally forgot them. When I tried it took them 10 days. Apparently someone over at WhatsApp HQ has to delete all those phone numbers by hand.

When they finally send you a mail back to inform you that your number will be deleted they don't verify that you really asked for your own number to be removed. There's nothing that can stop you from zapping other peoples numbers out of the WhatsApp system.

Update: you can now unlink your phone number from within the Whatsapp app.

Screenshooter shootout: Screenshot ER vs. ShootMe

For some reason Android doesn't come with a built-in screenshot app. All the screenshots on this site were made with ShootMe. Now that Screenshot ER released another update it's time to compare the two apps.

Get your guns out

When you open ShootMe, it makes you accept its software license. That would be OK if it only happened on first launch, but ShootMe makes you agree to its small print everytime you launch the app. After you accept, it starts the shooting service. You can tap away the program interface after that, or go to the settings menu to make it disappear automatically when the service has started.

Screenshot ER takes you straight to the settings screen upon launch. Here you can switch the shooting service on, or activate one of its other shooting modes.

The repeating license screen of ShootMe is annoying, but when configured right it is the only thing you need to click to activate the program and go straight back to your home screen. Screenshot ER requires two clicks (one to start the service, another to get back to your home screen) so ShootMe wins, but only by a noselength.

Pull the trigger

There are four ways to shoot your screen with ShootMe. The default method is by shaking your phone. A nice touch is shooting in continuous mode (screencast) to make little movies of your screen. You can also grab shots by shouting at your phone or putting your finger on the light sensor, but these are gimmicks without much practical use.

ShootMe can notify you that it's done shooting by making a shutter noise, showing a notification on your screen, doing both, or none.

Screenshot ER can snap on shake, or from a notification icon, or straight from the settings menu. Unfortunately the free version comes with a minimum delay of eight seconds, which makes the shake option the only viable way to shoot your screen.

Screenshot ER has three methods to tell you it's done shooting: shutter sound, notification on your screen, or showing a preview of your screenshot.

Winner: ShootMe, by a big margin because it can make movies.

Save your image

ShootMe and Screenshot ER let you choose between PNG and JPG. ShootMe lets you pick from three image quality/file size settings, Screenshot ER only has one flavour.

All your screenshots end up in a folder called ShootMe (in the root folder of your SD card) when you use that app, and there's no way to change the destination folder. Screenshot ER lets you set your own folder name and location.

More image quality settings vs. choosing your own folder, tough choice. Winner: undecided.

Loose bullets

Screenshot ER demands full internet permission. If you don't trust your screenshot app with unrestricted internet access, just block it with an app like DroidWall or LBE Privacy Guard. Screenshot ER doesn't need to go online to shoot pictures. ShootMe doesn't ask for any internet permissions.

The developer of ShootMe pulled it off the Android Market because he got fed up with market comments from idiots with the social skills of a Vogon, but you can grab a copy from the link below. You can comment on this blog post too ;)

Both apps require root access. This is a limitation of Android itself, so you can't blame the apps for it.

There's something missing from both apps: a way to activate them without opening the app interface. Both apps would be a lot better if they'd come with a widget that lets you toggle shooting mode on and off with a single tap on your home screen widget.

Update: Screenshot ER added a toggle widget. However, there are some bugs crawling around.
Keeping Screenshot ER offline requires a trip to DroidWall or LBE, but installing ShootMe takes a trip to the android underground download page. Winner: undecided.

Final shots

Both apps are good, but I'll keep using ShootMe. The custom screenshot folder of Screenshot ER is nice, but the extra click to activate the app and send it to the background is not. Having to tap in the overcrowded settings menu just to toggle shooting on and off is a bit too much. Switching ShootMe on and off is faster, and it shoots movies too!

• ShootMe
• Screenshot ER Lite

Android keyboard TouchPal free for the time being

Don't like the stock keyboard that comes with Android? No problem. There are plenty of other keyboards to choose from.

A bit of SlideIT, Swype, and SwiftKey

What do you get if you crossbreed SlideIT with SwiftKey? The new keyboard on the block is called by the cheesy name TouchPal. It's been around as a private beta test version for a while, but now everybody can grab a copy from the Android Market. There are many good reasons why you should, and only a few why you shouldn't.

TouchPal is like Swype, but with a couple of extras. The Swype gestures in TouchPal are called Curve. On top of its Swype-like input, TouchPal comes with a bunch of predictive text and auto-correct options and it can auto-complete unfinished words. Sometimes it's a bit too much, though. TouchPal insists on auto-capitalising the first word in a line even when you don't want it to. Worse, it inserts spacing between words even if auto-spacing is switched off. If you try to type www.google.com TouchPal turns it into www. google. com, with spaces!

If you don't like Curve you can turn it off. You can also switch to an old skool T9 keypad.

Languages, dictionaries, spelling

You can download dictionaries in most western european languages (and thai, chinese, russian, and indonesian too), but eastern europeans and most asians are left out. And it only has american english, not british. Maybe TouchPal will add more languages over time. You can add your own words to a custom dictionary to fill in the gaps.

A nice touch is that you can use multiple languages together, so if you're bi- or trilingual you don't need to switch languages in the settings all the time.

Bells and whistles

More good stuff: there's a "close" button in the top right corner so you can hide the keyboard with a single tap. That beats long-tapping the menu key or hitting the highly unpredictable back button. The virtual cursor keys are great as well. They make it very easy to put the cursor in exactly the right place, no matter how fat your fingers are.

You get quick access to the screens with numbers, special characters, and smilies. There's also an option to put alternative symbols on the normal letter buttons, which you can then insert by either long-tapping or a downward swipe. Unfortunately TouchPad only displays the extra characters on the bottom row in Curve (Swype) mode. The other keys have numbers and special symbols as well (just long-tap and see what happens), but the TouchPal keyboard fails to show them. According to the developers that's because downward swipes on the top two rows conflict with Curve. Maybe they should look a bit harder for a solution. While they're at it, they should add a page with letters like å, ß, ç, á, è, ñ, ø, š, ô, ü, etc.

Permissions and pricing

TouchPal asks for access to your contacts so it can add the names in your address book to its dictionary. It also wants full internet access, something that keyboard apps should never ask for. Apps like TouchPal can read everything you type, including passwords and credit card numbers. Better keep TouchPal offline with DroidWall or LBE Privacy Guard. Don't worry, blocking internet access does not break TouchPal. You can still download additional languages, because TouchPal launches the Market app for that.

TouchPal is available for free on the Android Market until the 31st of October, 2011. After the freebie period TouchPal will probably become a paid app, and judging from the price of the Windows Mobile version it won't be cheap. The free version never expires, so grab a free copy while you can.

• TouchPal (Android Market)
• TouchPal (cootek.com)