iPhone Emulator Guide

iPhone Emulator Guide
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Developing and designing applications for iPhone is gaining popularity, but the ability to test these apps in an emulator can be tricky. However, you can effectively test your creation by using the right kind of iPhone emulator. In many cases, it can be as simple as clicking a mouse. Explained ahead are instructions to get started with an iPhone emulator.

Downloading an Emulator

  • Download and install a mobile web application testing tool on your computer.

  • One such popular product is MobiOne.

  • MobiOne is a powerful iPhone emulator designed for Windows. It comes with a drop and drag mobile web visual design for HTML code generation and mock up functionality. It has updated OSS components, a variety of mobile design templates, gesture support, multi touch and doesn’t require SDK. The tool comes with CSS3, HTML5 JavaScript support. It also supports an open source JavaScript based mobile development tool kit called PhoneGap.

Download MobiOne from here.

Using an iPhone Emulator

  • If you are starting from the scratch, open the ‘MobiOne Design Center’ to design your iPhone application by dragging and dropping components onto the canvas. But if you have already designed an iPhone web application, you can head straight to the ‘Testing your iPhone App Design’ section.
  • Click on the deep green icon with three Wi-Fi waves, located on the top right side of the menu bar. This will open the integrated iPhone emulator that will test your application.
  • From the File menu, click on Open HTML File. Browse and open the web application file if it is stored on your system. But if you have created your app in MobiOne, it will appear automatically.
  • Now, test your mobile web application’s zoom-in and zoom-out friendliness with Control plus mouse click. This will let you pinch and zoom in the iPhone emulator. You can rotate the on-screen iPhone canvas by clicking the small rotate icon in the toolbar to see how your application looks in landscape mode.
  • A powerful emulator will allow you to precisely mock the behavior of a real iPhone, so that you can effortlessly debug your app.
  • Send the newly tested app directly on your iPhone, either as a linked text message or an email, by selecting the small envelope icon from the toolbar.
  • Opening the received email attachment or link on your iPhone will directly load the application on your phone for real testing and sharing.
  • Just keep in mind that the explained method will only keep your application live for three days, as it’s a testing service.

Online Emulators

  • You can also explore online emulators, if MobiOne doesn’t fit your requirements. Some popular online emulators are TestiPhone, Testing for Success, FoneMonkey, iPhone App Testers, and iPhone Tester.
  • To use any of these simply open an iPhone emulation website. Most online emulators will effectively work with Windows Explorer, Safari, Firefox, or Google Chrome.
  • To start using the emulator, browse the file from your system or type the URL of the mobile web application in the emulator’s address bar.
  • Click around inside the mobile web application to test its functions. Just keep in mind that online emulators offer limited testing functions.