If you’re a true iPhone 4 shutterbug, you’ve probably expressed irritation at one point or another that the built-in Camera app doesn’t tie into a physical shutter button. If you act quick — real quick — Camera+ has you covered: they just added a feature that allows the app to take over the volume button to trigger a snap.
It’s a hidden feature, and when Apple gets wind of it, they’re going to pull Camera+, so if this is the sort of feature you’ve been looking for, download the latest version of the app and then type this URL into Mobile Safari to turn the feature on: camplus://enablevolumesnap. Turning it off is done the same way: camplus://disablevolumesnap.
What’s the point of this kind of functionality? Well, it can be particularly difficult to take a good picture with an iPhone if you’re taking a self-portrait, since it can be difficult to hit the shutter trigger button on the touchscreen when you can’t actually see it. Repurposing a volume button as a physical shutter button takes care of that problem nicely, but obviously, Apple’s worried about confusing users.
It makes me wonder why Apple doesn’t introduce a single physical shortcut button on the iPhone 4, which can be assigned to functionality in any application. I suppose it’s a slippery slope, but I can’t be the only one who has wanted a physical Instant Rimshot button on my iPhone. Can I?
[via Gadget Lab]
