Shup is a small memory resident app that can upload files to Stashbox. It can also instantly upload images (or other types of files) to several online storage services straight from Windows’ right-click context menu (Flickr, Imageshack, Photobucket, Stashbox, Waffle Images , or even a custom file hosting service).
The tool also performs several other functions as well such as on-the-fly image encryption, screenshot capture and upload, and image editing.
Imagine being able to right click on an image and instantly send it to your online image storage account.
Now imagine that you have several online accounts, and that this same right click context menu can access all of them, giving you the ability to select which online account to fire-away and upload to with the press of a button. That’s exactly what Shup can do and it is the reason that I was attracted to it (see screenshot). Here are some notes on this program:
- Stashbox.org: Shup is created by the people from Stashbox, a free file uploading service, which is why Stashbox figures so prominently in the program’s machinations. Note that you can upload any type of file to Stashbox.com using Shup’s context menu, but that files on Stashbox are not guaranteed to stick around forever. Not sure about max file size allowed either.
- The search box: Shup’s main interface consists of a searchable list of all the files which it uploaded. The searchbox is useful for finding the entry that you need, at which point you can either find (or open) either the URL of the uploaded image or the file path where it resides locally. Oddly, though, the main interface displays your uploaded images not by the image names but the serial number it gave each image on uploading.
- Supported online services: Flickr, Imageshack, Photobucket, Stashbox, and Waffle Images. If yours is not on the list, however, you can create and save a new profile that is added to the right click menu (this seems like a fairly easy process, but I have not done it myself).
- Shup.com URL: every file you upload gets its owl shup.com URL. If uploading to another service (e.g Flickr and not Shup.com) this URL simply redirects users to your file on the file hosting service (in this case, Flickr).
- Desktop capture: this will take a screenshot of your screen and immediately upload it to Stashbox (no, it does not seem like you can upload somewhere else).
- Uploading non-image files: you can upload any type of files as appropriate to the online hosting service you are using. It still has some kinks to iron out: I tried to upload a 220 meg file (it didn’t protest, so I assumed that I wasn’t exceeding any upload limit). After waiting for some time for the file to upload and the progress bar to get all the way to the end, the upload wouldn’t finish/complete, and I had to cancel it. Uploading a 5 meg mp3 worked fine, though.
- Stashbox secure: is an option whereby you can encrypt your files on-the-fly from the context menu and upload it to either Stashbox or Reaper.
- The Shup Image editor: is a fairly straightforward image editor. Nothing to write home about, really. Surprisingly, it does not support text annotation.
- Tagging: of photos is possible from within the image editor (which is a rather strange place for it as I would think tagging from the main interface makes more sense).
- The Ignite Network (beta): you can get to this from the tools menu. What it is, it seems, is a project whereby users can chat ’paint’ or alter an image online collaboratively (?). A nice idea, perhaps, but I personally doubt it will ever amount to much (There’s also a gallery section where the artistic image creations are shared).
- Memory use: 5.5 megs (not a lot for this type of app IMHO).
The verdict: this is an interesting application, which is why I decided to post if on Freewaregenius, but still seems like its does not quite know what it wants to be. I can recommend it if (a) you use multiple image hosting services that Shup supports, and would like the convenience of uploading from the context menu, (b) if you need to set up a right-click image/file upload for a custom hosting service (in which case you will really appreciate Shup), and (c) if you like being able to upload files to a file hosting service (Stashbox) for quick file sharing. If you only use a single image sharing service, though, you can probably find a smaller program for direct uploading that might serve you better.
Version tested: 0.19
Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP, Vista.
Go to the download page to get the latest version (approx 620K). Also visit the Shup home page.
