iPhone Safari Mobile Browser Simulator for Windows

The iPhone Browser Simulator for Windows makes use of the same Apple webkit that Safari 4 uses to render it's pages and is available only as part of Multi-Browser Viewer. This Simulator should give web developers a pretty good indication of what a website would look like on an Apple iPhone using the Safari Browser.

The simulator uses two primary navigation modes so that the user experience is as close as possible to the iPhone browsing experience.

  1. Navigation Mode (Ctrl+N to switch mode): By default all pages are rendered in navigation Mode. Use this mode to scroll and zoom and do basic interaction with pages.
  2. HTML Mode / Non-navigation mode: (Ctrl+N to switch mode): HTML mode does not allow you to zoom, or scroll, however it may be usefull when you need more interactivity with a specific section of your website, for instance an Ajax or HTML5 movie playback.

 

iPhone Browser Simulator Basic Usage Intructions

  • URL Window: Click on the time bar(gray bar at the top of the screen) to hide and display the URL window. Just like the iPhone Safari browser you can enter search text in the Google search box, or reload or stop a webpage.
    iPhone Simulator URL window

  • Zoom: Only available in Navigation mode. To zoom in or out on a page, hold down the Shift key while dragging the mouse up or down to zoom in or out.
  • Right Click Context Menus: All of the other browser simulator functions can be accessed by using the right click context menus as illustrated below.

    There are two main right-click context menus:

    1. HTML and web page related functions can be accessed when you right click in the screen area.

      • Exit navigation Mode - Switch to HTML mode for video/flash/Ajax interaction with the webpage.
      • Page 100% - By default the webpage is always loaded to fit the screen, like on the iPhone, selecting this option you can reset the view to the webpage's actual size.
      • Fit to Window - The opposite of "Page 100%". Resets the view to allow the web page to fit into the viewable screen area.
      • Refresh page - Easy access to refresh the loaded page. Can alo be accessed in the URL bar.
      • Enter URL - You can hide/show the URL bar either by clicking on the gray time bar at the top of the screen or by using this shortcut on the right click context menu.

    2. Application/simulator related functions can accessed when you right click in the black border area of the phone.

      • Landscape - Turn the iPhone 90 degrees to display the webpage in landscape mode.
      • Settings - Access the application settings dialog, where you can set the homepage, edit bookmarks and update the useragent string.
      • Page Source - View the HTML source code of the webpage.
      • Save Screenshot - Copy the current viewable area of the iPhone simulator screen to the clipboard.
      • About - About the Safari Browser Simulator / Emulator for Windows.
      • Help - Loads the online help facility for the Browser Simulator.
      • Exit - Closes the iPhone Browser Simulator, which can also be done byclicking on the round button at the bottom of the phone.



  • Settings: The settings for the iPhone browser Simulator can be accessed by right clicking somehwere on the frame of the application and selecting "Settings".
    The settings dialog window allows you to:

    • Edit your current bookmarks
    • Set your custom time
    • Edit/Set your homepage
    • Turn javascript support on/off (on by default)
    • Turn other plug-ins support, like Adobe flash support on or off (off by default)
    • Update the Useragent - by default the useragent is the current iPhone default string, however you may change this if you wish.

The iPhone Safari Browser Simulator for Windows has been developed by TWD Solutions Pte Ltd, exclusively for use in the Multi-Browser Viewer application, to assist webmasters to cross browser test their websites. The simulator uses the same webkit and rendering engine and is a fairly accurate guide of how a webpage will be displayed on an iPhone. To test Apps for the iPhone or for more information on how to develop webpages for the iPhone, we suggest you visit developer.apple.com where you can download and install the iPhone SDK, if you have access to an Apple Mac machine.