If you’re new here, welcome. We’re in a period of testing right now but are aware of most bugs in the current build available. Please hold off on sending us any bug reports until we push a new build out, at which point we’ll ask you once again to participate in testing.
Also, you are using a BETA account right now. Please don’t upload anything that you would mind loosing.
It’s no secret that screenshot sharing has been a big request for Droplr. Even so much that we’ve had users already creating scripts and services to do it ;). We hear you! And believe us, we want it to … but we want it right.
Many apps similar to Droplr upload screenshots automatically. There’s even a few awesome services out there wholly devoted to this task. There was the great GrabUp and then the even cooler TinyGrab (and many more). Each of these services works by listening in the background for you to take a screenshot, and as soon as you do, it uploads that shot to a server and copies the URL to your clipboard so you can share it out. However, I’ve personally been really dissatisfied with the workflow of these types of apps.
The problem that I’ve always had with these services is that they don’t quite work the way I do. I take many screenshots per day, for many various reasons. But I don’t want to share *every* screenshot I take. The amount I want to share is a pretty low percentage, maybe about 1/3. So uploading every screenshot ends up with a bunch of files I never intended to share on a server somewhere. Not to mention some of them I might wanted to have been private, meaning I either have to turn the app off before hand or go delete it from the server.
I think we’ve found a workflow for Droplr that solves this problem pretty well.
Most of the time when I’m taking a screenshot, I know the purpose of it beforehand. I’m either taking a screenshot to use for my own purposes, in which I want the file on my desktop so I can then load it into Photoshop or import it into an app like LittleSnapper. On the other hand, if I’m taking a screenshot for the purpose of sharing with someone, I usually don’t have a need for the file itself and trash it right after it has been successfully uploaded. Which in itself is often an annoying task, that all these screenshots litter my desktop when I never needed the file.
So for Droplr what we’re doing is enabling a different shortcut key combination, separate from the main Droplr shortcut, to initiate a screenshot for sharing. It will be the standard screenshot behaviour you get with OS X with cmd+shft+4 which gives you a crosshair for you to select the area you want to capture. In this mode you can either capture your whole screen or just a small section of the screen. You can also use the spacebar to trigger “Window” mode which will allow you to capture objects in OS X such as windows, menus, icons, etc… (and you even get a spiffy icon from NeXTSTEP to do it). After you’ve made the selection we’ll upload the screenshot right to Droplr and give you the standard behavior of the link & popup. The advantage of course being that the file never litters your system.
We believe this will work well in separating screenshot behaviour into the user’s intent, 1, for their own use and 2, for sharing. We’ll be pushing this out as a small part of our next update to the app. Beta testers, please be ready to test it out and provide feedback on how it’s working for you on http://talk.droplr.com.
We’ve just pushed out another update to Droplr’s web application, recycled edition™. For the goods, log in and make sure and do a shift-refresh to clear your cache.
1. We’ve added a settings page finally where you can manage your account information including your name, email address and password.
2. We’ve added a few display options for the app pages, mainly giving you the control over how many items show on a page before pagination occurs.
3. We’ve added the ability for different domains when using Droplr. Currently, the default behaviour is to link an item with http://droplr.com/LINK but we’ve had some feedback that some people would appreciate shorter URLs. We’ve added another domain option which will be http://drp.ly/LINK, very similar to http://bit.ly which many people are already familiar with due to its large use on Twitter. As well, you can use your own domain if you’d like! Go to the settings page once logged in to check it all out.
4. You can now navigate the web interface with the keyboard. This should just give those power users a way to navigate around without having to use the mouse as much. We’ve tried to keep to some standard conventions such as “j/k” for previous/next page, “1” for home and “2-5” for toolbar items. You can find a full list of the keyboard shortcuts on the help page once logged in.
*note on the custom domains, the web app currently supports these but if you use a large domain the display in the popup will be a little wonky. It still works just fine but we’ll have a fix for this display issue in our next release.
We have a few tiny updates to push out later in this week for the web app and then we’ll be turning our attention to the desktop application for a major update. We have some really cool & exciting things planned for it for this next release … so stay tuned!
As always, we really appreciate your feedback, bug reports and support on http://talk.droplr.com, our members-only forum.
Sorry for the late post on this, but in case you missed it, we made just a few refinements to the web interface earlier this week.
You can now sort each section by using the section headers. These sorts will be remembered by your browser so when you return you can begin where you left off.
Secondly, we’ve added a basic filter to each section. For now, it filters through the filenames of each section, although we’re open to adding more fields to it if it makes sense in the future. Hopefully this will go a long way in helping you find what you’re looking for when managing your stuff.
As always, another update coming soon :)
You: Why can’t I get a Droplr account?
Us: We have to keep things close right now as we’re still testing and building the service. Bugs, crashes and other bad things will occur. As we put things together, it’s important that we not overload ourselves too soon and keep the pool of testers small, focused and purposed.
You: I was on the initial newsletter list and haven’t received an invite.
Us: This is probably a fluke as when we first did our first beta roll out we were seeing a lot of email services munching up our invites in their junk mail. Remember that beta thing (see above)? We’re sorry about this, and if you contact us we’ll get it sorted up.
You: Is there anyway I can get an invite right now?
Us: Here’s a secret. Everyone in the initial beta group has one invite to share! Maybe if you ask them nicely, they’ll share the invite with you. Or maybe if you have an invite to another private beta service, you could swap.
You: But I’ve already asked everyone, isn’t there any other way?
Us: Yes! Droplr is trying out a new site called Kickstarter which might allow us to help fund the project in its initial stages. Every pledge will receive an invite to the beta immediately if the project is funded. As a bonus, you’ll also receive a free premium subscription. And if that wasn’t enough, you’ll also be helping Droplr get developed even quicker AND supporting Mac indie development. Could it get any better!? No. You can pledge here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1982780929/droplr
You: Anything else?
Us: A big thanks to all our beta testers who have been helping us improve the service. The best is yet to come!
Just a quick note to let you know that there’s a few updates today in the web interface. We’ve exposed thumbnails for the images section which should help out in managing your stuff. Also, we’ve finally added delete functionality! :)
Release mainly to provide Snow Leopard support. Specific features:
Of course, if you have any problems, thoughts, questions, concerns, report them at the support forum:Â http://talk.droplr.com
Bug fix release to address some of the main issues people were having with .8.1. The update is available on the goodies page or through the app’s update feature. The fixes include:
As always, if there are any issues to report with this release please use our support forum at http://talk.droplr.com
We’ve pushed out another beta release which you can now download through the goodies page or through Droplr’s update check within the app. This update includes:
As well we’ve finally exposed the beginnings of the web app to all testers. You should be able to log in and now see your files. Many updates on this front coming in the near future.
