Easily test websites on the iPhone / iPad Simulator

Read this article if:

• Your client wants the website to work on the iPhone or iPad but you don’t own one yet.
• You’ve been testing on an iPhone but would like to speed things up by using a keyboard and mouse.

iPhone Simulator can simulate both the iPhone and the iPad, and comes with Mobile Safari. In this article, I’ll show you how to install it.

Before you start, make sure that you are running Mac OS X version 10.6 (a.k.a. Snow Leopard) – click the Apple icon on the menu bar, then click “About this Mac.” Unfortunately, I’m not aware of a way to run iPhone Simulator on 10.5 (Leopard).

1. Register as an Apple Developer (if you haven’t already)
2. Follow links to “iPhone SDK.” If you are already logged in, this link will take you there.
3. Click a link similar to “Xcode 3.2.3 and iPhone SDK 4” to download the SDK. It is a large file, so have your newspaper or knitting at the ready.
4. Once the download is complete, expand and install it.

Unfortunately, the iPhone Simulator is difficult to find. Here’s how to add it to your Applications folder:

1. Open Finder
2. Press Command+Shift+G and enter “/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/” in the blank. This will take you directly to the folder containing “iPhone Simulator.app”
3. Control+click on “iPhone Simulator.app” and click “Make Alias”
4. Single-click on the alias and press the Return key. Type “iPhone Simulator” to rename the alias and press Return.
5. Drag the alias and drop it on the Applications folder in your dock.

Now you can easily run iPhone Simulator from your Applications folder. For a great article describing how to use it, see Using iPhone Simulator from the iPhone Development Guide.

Please comment if these instructions don’t work for you.

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