Google, gimme native screen capture for Android

Frak, do I have to root every friggin' Android device just to take screenshots?

Last week, while writing my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 first impression review, I had to take photos of the screen with a digital camera. On an iOS device, clicking the power and home buttons simultaneously would have captured the screen. C`mon, Google, must you make screen capture so difficult? There are third-party utilities, including Screenshot ER, which supports Honeycomb. But they require root access -- and, hey, I'm not going to root a tablet I haven't finished reviewing.

There's plenty of confusion out there in the fragmented Android device market regarding screen capture and what third-party apps are available. Some utilities are rumored to work without root access on some handsets, but after reading through a bunch of blogs and forum posts the only certainty is root access.

Maybe Betanews' geek readers don't mind. Rooting is like breathing. First you take the phone out of the box, then you root it. Oh, yeah, insert battery first. But Auntie Matilda or Poppy John won't be rooting their Androids or be rooting for them if they want to capture something on the screen.

Apple offers this capability as a necessary utility. Why not Google? Yeah, you can make some sorry excuse about security or people really not needing screenshots. But, get a life, the number of blogs and forum posts addressing the topic shows there is demand.

Screen capture is great marketing. Enthusiasts are the best marketers, so, hell, Google, give them the best tools for promoting Android. Apple has hugely benefitted from the large number of casual or professional write-ups using screenshots to illustrate something about iOS. Google, make it easier for the masses to do the same for Android.

I don't mean to sound like a whiny-puss. I'm just expressing apparent widespread want for native, screen capture on Android 2.x or 3.x -- the desire to get this basic utility.

Have you got a screenshot solution you'd like to share? Do you want Google to make snapping screenshots as easy on Android as Apple does on iOS? Comments await your answers.