GrabUp: Screen Sharing at the Next Level
Recently I published an article describing all of the cool things one can do with Apple’s built-in “Grab” application. The article included the majority of the modifier keys available while taking a screenshot, and I also described what uses there are for taking screenshots. The one explanation I did not go into enough detail about is the fact that screenshots can be used to teach someone far away how to complete a task on their Mac. GrabUp makes screenshots one hundred fold easier to share.
GrabUp is a small menubar program that waits in one’s menubar anticipating activation from its shortcut. By pressing “Command”+”Shift”+”3/4″ more than just a screenshot is taken. Your image is uploaded to the Internet, and the link is copied to your clipboard automatically. This program takes out all the struggle of emailing a screenshot to a relative who desperately wants to make a slide show of his children for the first time. In addition, the program keeps track of all the recent uploads for later use. The keyboard shortcut that once snapped a simple screenshot is now capable of sharing your screen across the Internet via a personalized, private link like this.
GrabUp is an amazing program but it does have a flaw or two that are worth writing about. This application’s function is very simple and, occasionally, that leads to a few problems. Sometimes, when taking a screenshot, I have personal information on my desktop that I would like to edit out of the photo. GrabUp’s functionality does not allow for me to do this because it uploads the images straight to the Internet. Furthermore, I may forget that I have to edit screenshots before sending the link, and the person I am trying to help will receive my personal data. Additionally, there is certainly no way to prevent it from uploading to the Internet and overwriting one’s clipboard once you have captured your screenshot (unless you turn the whole program off).
GrabUp has changed the way many Mac users, including me, look at screenshots. Now, when one of my friends goes out of state, I can still help him or her with their computer endeavors. Also, this program is completely free, so there is no hassle when attempting to download and try GrabUp to save the day for your friends and family. I suggest downloading GrabUp if you do not mind the small annoyances that I pointed out.
Skitch.com is a much better solution (beta) that does grab + edit/annotate + share in an easy flow.
It’s even superslick.
Plus, GrabUp doesn’t quite work for me. I hit the Key-Combo, and the magic does not happen for some reason.
jing is free and does SO much more
http://jingproject.com/
[...] 21, 2008 GrabUp: Screen Sharing at the Next Level: [...]
I agree that Skitch is the best screen grab application available for the Mac. It can do so much and it does everything easily and efficiently.
jing to me seems cleaner and easier to use and set up. Just my 2 cents
I much prefer skitch to anything else out there. I must use skitch, like, 4-5 times a day.
I still feel as though GrabUp has a different purpose then Skitch. For me GrabUp allows me to take a picture of something and have a friend be looking at that picture in as little as 5 seconds later. Skitch is nowhere near that fast (albeit Skitch is still way faster then Windows).
Lets say you try to take 3 or 4 pictures rather quickly. With GrabUp thats possible and easily manageable. With Skitch, well now you have to Upload, Click “Share”, load the web page, and copy the link, numerous times. When I Skitch an image, I will add annotations, arrows, text, etc. Jing, has yet again a different purpose. Video file sizes, although extremely well compressed by Jing, still take much longer to upload then a simple image. Its image annotator is slightly less usable then Skitch’s. Again I’m trying to get across that the audience and occasion is different for each application.
What I feel is most important is that GrabUp has latched onto a single idea and perfectly executed it. Its simple, easy to use, effective, fast, and a pleasure to use. Thats exactly what Mac applications are supposed to be.
I hear plenty of people say they use this or that 5+ times a day. Well this is one of those applications where you can use it so easily it will literally be like moving your mouse across the screen and you’re interacting visually with someone across the net. Pretty cool stuff.
Finally, there is no doubt that all three of these applications are extreme improvements on their Windows counterparts (I know Jing is available for Windows). In such an online collaborative world its good to see that Mac users are bridging that gap in rather interesting ways; I don’t see the same on other operating systems.
There’s a free tool I wrote for Windows, it’s on SourceForge (vvcap), also available at http://www.vvcap.net, does exactly same thing. Everyone is welcome to try it out. If you’re interested, source code for both server and client available for download. Also features DES encryption of the images, which means that it’s a lot harder to hack and steal your pics