- dotMobi Emulator: http://emulator.mtld.mobi
- Opera Mini Simulator: http://www.operamini.com/demo
- Mimic: http://pukupi.com/tools/mimic
- DeviceAnywhere: http://deviceanywhere.com
- Nokia Mobile Browser Simulator: http://mobilewebbook.com/shorty/66307
- Openwave Phone Simulator: http://mobilewebbook.com/shorty/93271
TESTING
There are a few strong options for testing your mobile site, and it doesn't involve expensive purchase of the variety of devices out there. By using XHTML for your mobile sites you can utilize three main testing options:
- Desktop Browsers
- Web-Based Emulators
- Desktop Emulators
- Browser Simulation
Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/60)
From the Miscellaneous tab choose Small Screen Rendering.
"The window width will be reduced to roughly 260 px and the layout will be reformatted to simulate rendering by a mobile browser." 1 This can also be accomplished in the Opera browser.
Emulators and simulators provide a preview of what your site may look like on specific devices. While this won't give you a broad view of what your site may look like, you can get a good feel of the most popular devices at the time. While some emulators are free, others may charge fee to gain access.
"Another way to test on the desktop is to create a Web page with an inline frameset or iframe, specify the dimensions to match your target mobile screen and add the URL of your mobile site.
These steps create a reasonable representation of a mobile device on the desktop. You can even go as far as to wrap the frame with an image of a phone for further realism." 2
1 Moll, Cameron, "Mobile Web Design," http://www.mobilewebbook.com.
2 .mobi, "Mobile Web Developer's Guide," http://dev.mobi/..