There are almost twice as many mobile phones in the world than there are computers. With that phenomenal thought in mind you can understand why developing mobile apps is so lucrative, it’s a huge market with its users demanding ever more powerful and functional applications bridging the gap between mobiles and computers.
Google chrome's Dev Tools, available when you press F12 in Chrome will allow you any number of options for emulating a browser including device specific rendering such as a Galaxy S III Android OS running Safari. This is honestly the easiest way to do it if you use Chrome. 1.iPhone emulator for PC. There is a growing demand for iPhone emulators for pc so that it creates an environment to run the iOS applications on PC. It is popular because it lets you use all the games and applications originally designed for iPhone to be accessible over PC. This is an iPhone emulator which allows you to use any iOS. Some apps and features aren't available in iPhone Simulator, including the Safari Browser and the Apple App Store. Unlike some more advanced programs, like iOS development tools, it doesn't let you load and run your own iPhone apps on your PC either. Simple and lightweight application. Quality graphical interface. You can simulate the iPhone user agent in Safari 5 if you set up the Developers menu item in PreferencesAdvanced. The webkit engine in Safari 5 is similar to iPhone's browser so most of the HTML 5 stuff works the same. As a bonus the Developer's tab allows you to debug JavaScript and some CSS (not so well supported).
Keeping up with demand and trends is only half the battle for mobile app developers. They face the enormous challenge of testing their application across a multitude of different handsets and OSes. Each handset is slightly different and each has its own little quirks that can not be ignored, and that is before you even contemplate the huge differences from the mobile operating systems.
In this article we have compiled a list of free tools for testing your application across the most popular mobile operating systems, including iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Symbian and Palm. Some of the tools have been officially released (with the exception of the iPhone) and are available to download with their respective SDKs, Other tools, which maybe a little bit basic, can be used as a reliable testing environment.
There are also tools below for checking your websites “mobile-friendliness”. Some will allow for visual views, others will give you detailed reports and grade your site on its mobile effectiveness.
Google Android Emulator
For those of you who want to test drive Android you can use this Android Emulator which is patched to run on a Windows PC as a standalone app without having to download and install the complete and complex Android SDK, and you can even install and test Android compatible apps on it.
Official Android SDK Emulator
The Android SDK includes a mobile device emulator which mimics all of the hardware and software features of a typical mobile device (although, without the calls). It provides a variety of navigation and control keys, which you can 'press' using your mouse or keyboard to generate events for your application. It also provides a screen in which your application is displayed, together with any other Android applications running.
MobiOne
MobiOne Developer is a mobile Web IDE for Windows that helps developers to code, test, debug, package and deploy mobile Web applications to devices such as iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and the Palm Pre. Recently updated with its seventh version, it now includes a new drag-n-drop mobile Web visual designer for mockups, mobile HTML code generation, convenient mobile design templates, updated OSS components, screen capture, multi-touch and gesture support.
TestiPhone.com – iPhone Application Web Based Simulator
TestiPhone is a web browser based simulator for quickly testing your iPhone web applications. This tool has been tested and works using Internet Explorer 7, FireFox 2 and Safari 3.
iPhoney
iPhoney gives you a pixel-accurate web browsing environment – powered by Safari – that you can use when developing websites for the iPhone. It's the perfect 320 by 480-pixel canvas for your iPhone development.
Mobile Browser On Pc
iPhoney is not an iPhone simulator but instead has been designed for web developers who want to create 320 by 480 (or 480 by 320) websites for use with iPhone. It gives you a canvas on which to test the visual quality of your designs.
iBBDemo – Blackbaud iPhone Browser Simulator
iBBDemo correctly renders Webkit targeted html including the custom -webkit CSS extenstions, effectively giving you a compelling demo/test platform for iPhone Web content from the comfort of a Windows desktop (who said it could not be done?).
Emulator – Palm Developer Center
This official Palm emulator emulates the Palm webOS device on a Linux, Mac and or Windows. How to win big on slot machines. If you already the SDK installed, you will already have the emulator on your computer.
BlackBerry Simulator
There are a variety of official BlackBerry simulators available to emulate the functionality of actual BlackBerry products. With any of the BlackBerry device simulators, you can demonstrate and test how the BlackBerry device software, screen, keyboard, and trackwheel will work with your application. These simulators will also simulate behavior in various wireless network conditions.
Nokia Platform and Device SDKs
When coupled with your favorite development tool, the S60 platform and device SDKs provide all the features required to quickly and efficiently build and test Symbian applications on a PC.Nokia Platform and Device SDKs »Nokia Device Specifications »Nokia Mobile Browser Simulator 4.0 »
NMB 4.0 is a mobile Internet browser SDK that can browse mobile Internet content from your local computer. This resource has been archived because it is not considered relevant for developers creating commercial solutions today, but it was still fun playing about with it.
WinWAP Smartphone Browser Emulator
WinWAP Smartphone Browser Emulator let's you use WAP services on your Windows PC. The browser is a mobile Internet browser that emulates the way you would use the mobile Internet services on the built-in browser of a smartphone.
This Smartphone Browser Emulator is more about providing an experience that mimics the one you would have on a real smartphone. It looks like a smartphone on the desktop of your PC; you can click with the mouse on the buttons of the phone to scroll the screen and select links, and use the keyboard of your PC to enter text.
WinWAP Smartphone Browser Emulator »
Windows Mobile 6.1.4 Emulator Images
This official Windows Mobile 6.1.4 Emulator Images package adds emulator images to Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008 that allows you to test applications for Windows Mobile 6.1.4, including Internet Explorer Mobile 6. The emulator images CAN also be used as a standalone application without Visual Studio.
MicroEmulator
The MicroEmulator is a versatile and expandable CLDC/MIDP 1.0 mobile device emulator. It can be used as a standalone application on any Java enabled workstation. It will allow you to demonstrate MIDlet based applications in a web browser applet and can be run as standalone java application.
Perfecto Mobile -Test Mobile Applications on Real Devices
The Perfecto Mobile Handset Cloud service will allow you to test your mobile applications, websites or services on a multitude (over 450 handsets) of REAL handsets. It will allow you to access real mobile devices via the web and control them as if you were holding them in your hands.
This service is not free; you can choose from either paying $16 per hour or buy a subscription from $12 per hour.
mobiReady – dotMobi Compliance & mobileOK Checker
The mobiReady testing tool evaluates your websites mobile-readiness using industry best practices ands standards. The free report provides both a score (from 1 to 5) and an in-depth analysis of pages to determine how well your site will perform on a mobile device. You can either test individual page (by URL input), test the markup or you can choose to Site Test, which will give you detailed reports for an entire site.
W3C mobileOK Checker
The W3C mobileOK Checker is a free service from the W3C that helps check the level of mobile-friendliness of Web documents, and in particular assert whether a Web document is mobileOK.
iPad Peek
iPad Peek is a nifty tool that lets you see how any website will be rendered on the iPad. Click on the top border to switch from landscape to portrait mode. The virtual keyboard and the buttons on the iPad browser are just for show, but the reload button works.
Opera Mini Simulator
This MicroEmulator (see above) powered live demo of the world’s most popular mobile Web browser, Opera Mini 5. It functions exactly as it would when installed on a handset.
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I mentioned the Electric Plum Mobile Simulator as a nice way to check your site on an iPhone while using a Windows machine in my post called 'Create a great mobile experience for your website today. Please.'
Microsoft WebMatrix 2 RC is out this week and has a nice feature included - support for the Electric Plum Mobile Simulator for iPhone and iPad built right in. WebMatrix is Microsoft's lightweight editor for ASP.NET, PHP and node.js, as well the best way to install open source applications. It's a bit of a playground for the team. Features can be tried out in WebMatrix, and if they pop, we can move them into Visual Studio. I've been singing about Electric Plum for months, so I'm happy to see it in WebMatrix. Www freeblackjack com.
Here's how to use the iPhone simulator there, and how to add an iPhone Simulator to Visual Studio 2012 RC's list of browsers manually.
Oxygen not included cu 275206 download free. First, install WebMatrix 2 RC. You'll want this even if you're going to add Electric Plum to Visual Studio. From the Run menu, select Add new..
From here, you'll go to the Browser Extension area where you can add not only iPhone and iPad but also the Windows Phone 7 emulator.
Simulate Iphone Browser On Pc
Now the Run button has more browsers as a choice. Here I've left the iPhone as the default choice.
And when I run it, I get the nice Electric Plum iPhone simulation with my current site loaded automatically. (Did you notice that WebMatrix used NuGet to install this feature? All these extensions are buried in C:UsersYOUAppDataLocalMicrosoftWebMatrixExtensions20RC currently)
To add this browser to Visual Studio 2012 RC, go to the new browser button (integrated with the Debug button) while in a web project and select Browse With.. and add in C:UsersYOUAppDataLocalMicrosoftWebMatrixExtensions20RCiPhoneSimulatorElectricMobileSimElectricMobileSim.exe. For arguments put in 1 for the iPhone.
Now, make another entry for IPad and use arguments '2' for iPad. Your VIsual Studio 2012 RC menu should now look like this.
Now, this is just using the basic version of Electric Plum that you can download inside WebMatrix. You can get a MUCH more functional version for $29.99. It will give you a developer console, GPS support, accelerometer and some additional HTML5 support like local storage, etc. If you're seriously doing iPhone websites on a Windows machine, it's a bargain and you get both iPhone and iPad plus a load of features.
(NOTE: I am NOT affliated with Electric Plum nor do I sell their products. I just think they are cool folks.)
Have fun! Do you want to see stuff like this in VS? Tell me in the comments and I'll make sure the right people see your voice!
- Download and Install WebMatrix 2 RC
- Run WebMatrix and from the Run menu select Add New..
- Or, see the Electric Plum choices in the WebMatrix Gallery
- Download Visual Studio 2012 RC
- Hack away, as seen above
- Buy Electric Plum's product and tell them they are cool on Twitter!
About Scott
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
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