On a project we have in development now, we’re deploying a site that must work across mobile devices. Not just iPhone, but Android, Nokia, Blackberry, and Palm. Rather than purchasing a bunch of test devices, you can install emulators for each platform and then run the phone’s web browser. Here’s some places to look and some instructions about how to build up your own testing suite. These are instructions are for Mac. Except for where they’re not.
iOS
1. Install the iPhone SDK which you can get from developer.apple.com. You’ll need to signup for a developer account.
2. After install, it will be at /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone Simulator
Android
1. First, download the Android SDK from their site for your particular platform (developer.android.com/sdk) and unpack it.
2. Open the Android SDK and AVD Manager. On the Mac, this is done by opening the directory where you unpacked the SDK in Terminal (cd/path/ to/sdk) and running tools/android. On Windows, just launch SDK Setup. exe within the SDK directory. The result is the same – the Android ADK and AVD Manager application opens up.
3. Click the Available Packages link.
4. Tick the checkboxes that are for packages with SDK Platform in the name.
5. Click Install Selected and confirm that choice in the dialog that opens up on your screen next.
6. After installing, in the manager, go to Virtual Devices and click new. Choose a name (I typically choose name them after the skin (or resolution), so HVGA, for example. Choose a target (SDK version). I’ve been doing 1.6 for browser testing. Click create.
7. Launch by running `tools/emulator @<NAME>` from the sdk directory, where <NAME> is the name you chose in step 6 (such as HVGA).
Palm
1. Go here and follow instructions: http://developer.palm.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&layout=page&id=1545&Itemid=55
2. The Palm Emulator will be installed in your Applications directory
FYI, I found the Palm browser the least web standards friendly
Blackberry
1. Go to http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/resources/simulators.jsp and download. Choose the Torch phone. It must run their OS version 6.0
2. Fill out form
3. Download
4. It is a windows executable, so put it in a location that is accessible by Windows.
5. Run the executable and the subsequent steps. Eventually you have an emulator app you can run.
6. Go to setup within the phone in the emulator and turn on it’s wifi. I had to do that to test web pages.
Nokia
1. Go to http://developer.symbian.org/wiki/index.php/Symbian_Emulator and follow the install instructions, which require installing several supporting layers onto a windows machine. I used Windows XP, which seems like the most likely to be supported.
2. It took awhile to install everything, but the instructions worked as promised