It was while I was writing my previous story, Be Notified By SMS Everytime You Receive An Email, that I discovered a neat little program for taking screenshots of a Sony Ericsson mobile phone. That is the phone I have and I was looking for a way to show you this SMS message on my phone screen :
I spent ages trying to figure out how to do it. Was is a built-in function on my phone? Did I have to download special software? In the end, I turned to my old dependable pal, Mr Google and asked him “how do I take screenshots on a Sony Ericsson phone?” and he turned around and spat this back at me – a piece of free software called Display Reader which takes screenshots for any part of a Sony Ericsson mobile phone screen.
The software is zipped inside a RAR file which, in case you don’t know, is another form of ZIP file. So just unzip it and bring out the standalone “exe” file. It doesn’t have to be installed and can be put onto a USB stick if you want.
Here’s what the screen looks like :
First, connect your phone to your computer USB port with a USB cable. Then the next thing you have to do is find the right port setting on your computer and set DisplayReader accordingly. 9600 normally works but you have to go through ports COM1 to COM6 until your phone finally connects with the app (you’ll know it has connected when the “not connected” message disappears from the black top bar).
The image has a fixed size of 176×220 pixels which is not very big but it’s better than nothing I guess. When you have a connection, use your phone buttons to find the screen you want to take a picture of. Then press the “read” button on the DisplayReader app. The phone screen will then slowly start to appear on the app screen. This will be your screenshot.
Then press “save” to save the image to your computer. It will be saved as a “bmp” image but it is very easy to convert the image to “jpg”, “gif” or “png”.
This is what you are left with once it has downloaded to your computer. Like I said, not very big but it gets the job done.
What software programs do you use for mobile phone screenshots? Do you have a better free alternative? If so, I’d love to hear about it. Give us your links and suggestions in the comments.
Tagged: mobile tips • screenshot
