Screenshots (Printscreen) with the iPhone

I recently posted about my iPhone black screen of death experience. Well a few days later looking through my camera roll I noticed some weird pictures. In fact when I first noticed them I was confused because the screen appeared as if my iPhone was in charging mode but it wasn’t plugged in, and it took me a couple of ticks to figure out that I was in fact still within my camera roll looking at a picture. The time displayed in the picture was right about when my iPhone had crapped out and I was frantically clicking all the buttons to try and bring it back to life. And I remembered during that time I’d heard the shutter sound go off a couple of times. So because I thought my iPhone was faulty I figured that this is what happens when you somehow make your way into the camera app and take a photo whilst the screen is dead, and thought they would be great evidence to show to someone in the Apple store to prove how messed up my iPhone is. Now I can’t remember quite how it went, I imagine I was doing some research online and came across some iPhone screenshots, but it suddenly clicked in my head that I had maybe accidentally come across some built-in iPhone screenshot functionality. And a subsequent quick google proved this to be the case. I was fairly new to the iPhone so I figured that this functionality would be common knowledge to the seasoned user, but I’ve since asked around and a fair number of iPhone users were in the dark about this functionality. I guess it was inconspicuously introduced last summer with the 2.0 firmware update and wasn’t publicized (I wonder why it wasn’t publicized, perhaps because a Rolls Royce never breaks down?). Apparently before this update screenshots were only possible by jailbreaking your iPhone.

Press Home & Lock buttons at the same time
Whatever app you are in, whatever screen you are on, whatever is happening on the screen, press down the home and lock buttons at the same time and the screen will flash simultaneously with the phone making a shutter sound and that screenshot will be added to your camera roll:

Why would you want to take a screenshot?
Well I guess you could ask the same question for your PC or Mac where as long as I can remeber the Prt Scr button has existed – maybe you are putting together a presentation or some documentation, or maybe in Windows you are just creating some great art work! I have found myself wanting to take an iPhone screenshot in the past when it has been relevant to post, and I’m sure I’ll want to many times over for future posts. Also perhaps those who find it most useful are the app developers creating screenshots for their products in the App Store.

Next hopefully Apple introduces iPhone copy and paste functionality!