Website testing on iPhone and iPad
With an increasing number of people using their mobile or tablet to surf the Internet, it is important that you test your website or web application on these handheld devices. In this article we turn our attention to iPhones and iPads. Using the iOS simulator we can emulate these devices from a desktop.
It is unrealistic to have access to a complete range of mobile devices for testing, which is why simulators or emulators can be a useful alternative. Of course they will not beat testing on the real thing, but they can be a cheap means of ensuring everything is working as it should.
iOS simulator for iPad and iPhone
The iOS simulator lets you test your website or web application on your computer, and can simulate an iPad or iPhone. iOS simulator is part of the Xcode developers package which can be downloaded for free:
- As a registered Apple iOS Developer
- Get Xcode from the Apple App store (OS Lion only)
Once you have downloaded and installed Xcode you can launch iOS simulator from the following directory on your mac:
/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/
It is an easy to use application, you can switch between devices by navigating to "Hardware > Device" where you have the choice of iPad, iPhone and iPhone (retina). You can fire up Safari and perform your tests including navigation using native gestures. If you don't have the latest Apple handheld device this is the next best thing.
And there you have it, you can now test your websites on mobile devices for free, without the cost of purchasing all that hardware. Of course these simulators and emulators will always come in second place when compared to the real thing, but they will get you a long way when it comes to testing.
