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Quick! Snap a photo with your volume button (update: it’s gone)

By | December 28, 2010, 10:01am PST

Summary: There’s a new app that contains a previously banned modification to the behavior of the iPhone’s volume buttons. If you like such things you might want to buy Quick Snap while you still can.

MacRumors notes that there’s a new app available in the App Store that contains a previously banned modification to the behavior of the iPhones volume up and down buttons.

Previously, camera apps (like Camera+) were removed or rejected from the App Store for mapping the shutter release function to the iPhone’s hardware volume buttons. Apple called it a violation of Apple’s terms due to the potential for confusing users.

Quick Snap - Camera Plus ($1.99, App Store) was released on December 15 and Wired’s Gadget Lab noted that it had the banned feature. What’s more, the previously-banned shutter mapping is prominently mentioned in both the app description and screen shots (pictured).

Here’s the description:

Turn iPhone Volume Button into a Shutter Button? “Quick Snap” is the app for THAT!

Why choose the soft or full screen shutter when you can use VOLUME BUTTON as the hard shutter button on your iPhone? You are now one step close to the real digital camera experience! Isn’t that awesome?

There’s no question that shooting with the volume key is easier than finding that tiny button on the screen. If you agree you might want to grab Quick Snap while you still can. I’m giving the sleeping elves in Cupertino until about 5:00pm PT before someone throws the kill switch…

Would you find shooting with a hardware button useful? Should Apple include this feature in the stock Camera app?
Update: QuickSnap is no longer available in the App Store. I hope that you got it while it lasted.

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Wired Inc., Snap, Photograph, Jason D. O'Grady

Jason O'Grady is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

Disclosure

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady is the creator and editor of O'Grady's PowerPage, which has been publishing mobile technology news since 1995. He maintains an advertising relationship with the following legacy advertisers on the PowerPage:

  • Amazon Associates
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  • Tekserve

    • Advertising on the PowerPage is brokered by a third-party agency (BackBeat Media) and he recuses himself from these negotiations.

Biography

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

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RE: Quick! Snap a photo with your volume button
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 11th Oct
certainly must say you create a selection of terrific elements and definitely will document a handful of mulberry bags prospects to incorporate in soon on just about every day or two.
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0 Votes
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Bought it out of curiosity
oncall 28th Dec 2010
Having a little trouble with motion blur while pressing the button. As you know the iPhone does not have image stabilization. I usually can minimize this with the onscreen mechanism by holding down the exposure then releasing when I want to capture. Seems to be a little buggy though as a couple shots came out looking stretched like the camera didn't realize the orientation had changed, but otherwise it does what it says.
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i have a different problem - everytime i try to raise the volume
Ron Bergundy 28th Dec 2010
the darn camera takes a picture of my ear!!!
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oncall 28th Dec 2010
@cyberspammer2

Just don't hold it that way.

It's called Facetime for a reason, your supposed to be pointing your camera at your face, not your.......

Nevermind.
0 Votes
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RE: Quick! Snap a photo with your volume button
DainBramage1 28th Dec 2010
@oncall: I'm having a similar problem... to verify, I took a straight overhead shot of a CD and it came out nowhere near round. Also, unless there are settings for it that I haven't discovered, the app only takes 480x320 images. >:-|
0 Votes
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Oh well
oncall 28th Dec 2010
@DainBramage1

$2 not so well spent sad
0 Votes
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I've already got a button for that
tonymcs@... 28th Dec 2010
WP7 wink
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RE: Quick! Snap a photo with your volume button
rgcustomer@... 29th Dec 2010
This kind of interference is why I don't buy Apple products.
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RE: Quick! Snap a photo with your volume button
mattmuir 29th Dec 2010
@rgcustomer@... Then why are you in an Apple blog??
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RE: Quick! Snap a photo with your volume button
james347 29th Dec 2010
Or take a photo the way it was designed, there's a thought.
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Apple API rigidity comes with positives also
nfiertel 29th Dec 2010
In principle, Apple products always work a certain way. That is why I can walk over to anyone's Mac and help them with this or that since I know where everything ought to be according to the API The only programs that do not follow this paradigm are crappy programs such as Corel stuff that is an import and stinks because of it ( never mind their lack of support for issues). Hacking thus opens a door to the kind of PC anarchy that some love. On the other hand, I am a kind of pilot when I use my computer and expect that all instruments do what they are intended to do. I can imagine someone flying a jet who looks at his horizon control and finds that someone converted it to a level control for his iPod..ha ha..no good...On the other hand, perhaps Apple could give one some specific choices for certain controls.
0 Votes
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RE: Quick! Snap a photo with your volume button
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 11th Oct
certainly must say you create a selection of terrific elements and definitely will document a handful of mulberry bags prospects to incorporate in soon on just about every day or two.

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