Develop a website for an iPhone without having iPhone/Mac

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+3 Q:

Develop a website for an iPhone without having iPhone/Mac

Hi,

I need to develop a website which will be used exclusively on iPhone and iPad. I don't have those devices, neither do I have a Mac.

What are the possible free solutions for me to be able to test the website during development?

The most obvious one would be to use an iPhone SDK, ~~but since it costs $100/year~~ but since it is available only for Mac, it is not a solution in my case.

+1 A:

You can test your website in any browser, but yes, mobile browser probably behave different at some points.

If you cannot find a mobile web browser simulator for iPhone than the "cheapest" alternative would probably be an iPod touch.

Update:

You might want to have a look at iBBDemo:

iBBDemo2 - Cross Platform iPad and iPhone Simulator

Felix Kling 2010-06-23 09:41:34

+1 A:

You could try using something like:

www.testiphone.com/

phalewail 2010-06-23 09:51:49

Are there any security risks if your developing for an intranet application and testing on the above site?

rod 2010-08-02 18:40:20

There are some obvious things here:

1)Work very hard to make your site work on all major browsers - including Safari and any other mobile devices other than iPad... this will let you make sure it works on smaller screens well.

2)Read up on known glitches in these browsers and see if you can avoid them.

3)Whenever you are with friends showing off their iPad, or who have an iPhone, ask to test your site on it.

John 2010-06-23 09:54:13

"I need to develop a website which will be used exclusively on iPhone and iPad."

Emil 2010-06-23 09:58:28

so what? you can't test on other browsers? How will you possibly stop a website not being used on other devices, that's a truly stupid idea.

John 2010-06-23 10:08:35

iPad and iPhone mobile browsers have some features exclusive to those devices.

JBRWilkinson 2010-06-23 10:53:11

I need to develop a website which will be used exclusively on iPhone and iPad

This seems a bad idea. if it's only used on iPad/iPhone, surely you should write an App and get all the benefits of UI, etc.

John 2010-06-23 10:09:50

If the poster is writing an intranet site for corporate clients, this is entirely reasonable as it may be commercially sensitive information which is not appropriate to put in the App Store.

JBRWilkinson 2010-06-23 10:52:01

And he knows his clients only use Apple phones? Unless he works for Apple, I doubt it :) But OK, fair point on apps not being suitable for internal data.

John 2010-06-23 11:20:49

In fact, I am aware that it is a bad idea (it is a website, not an intranet). But the website specifications are written by another person, so I hope he has some serious reasons both to choose website over application and to target only iPhone/iPad users and ignore everyone else.

MainMa 2010-06-23 11:32:54

Does he actually use any iPxx-only features? Or is it possible the site can work on normal browsers as a bonus?

John 2010-06-23 12:00:02

@John: No, there are no iPxx-only features to use. I don't have the final requirements for the moment. Reading the few things I have, I think it is a website which targets *the users of iPhone in the context where they use iPhone*. Probably the *development cost* is the main concern: developing only for small screens and only for iPhone will be much cheaper than large-screen version + mobile version.

MainMa 2010-06-23 13:59:24

Websites should not be tied to specific devices.

This is not 1998 : Best viewed in I.E. In fact your suggestion is worse than that.

If you really want a website that only works on those devices then you'll need to check the user-agent string, but otherwise html is html and unlike what Apple may want you to believe, works just as well on Symbian, Blackberry, Android, S40, Windows, Windows Mobile, etc etc..

(In fact, it works better on Symbian as Symbian actually supports Flash.)

Dynite 2010-06-23 10:17:26

The OP specifically asked for input on how to develop for iPad/iPhone exclusive site, not whether this was a morally or politically good idea.

JBRWilkinson 2010-06-23 10:54:41

That's how cheap offshore developers think... take no responsibility and just do the exact literal thing on the spec. It's not a bad idea morally, it's a bad idea technically.

John 2010-06-23 11:19:50

@John: and yet that's the reality of professional development. You've been hired to deliver a spec, you deliver that spec. If you had input to give, you should have given it when you were first introduced to the spec.

Dan Ray 2010-06-23 12:34:40

Developers have a responsibility to understand what's wanted. We're not nameless interchangeable cogs. No spec is _ever_ delivered exactly as requested in my experience, and in fact this would probably lead to poor user reception. A developer (rather than a coder) is involved in the design, not just turning a diagram into code.

John 2010-06-23 12:49:49

I don't think the negative rep is justified, I gave a suggestion that it was a bad approach to limit to specific devices, but then told him how to achieve what he asked for...!

Dynite 2010-06-24 10:39:51

+2 A:

Download Safari 5 for Windows, enable the Developer Menu features and change the User Agent to Mobile Safari iPad or Mobile Safari iPhone. This will let you see how your website looks when an iPad or iPhone renders it. Just make the window smaller to get the full experience.

If analyst predictions are right, there will soon likely be an abundance of iPhone 3G devices on eBay as lots of people are eligible to upgrade to iPhone 4 tomorrow. Picking up a cheap 3G may be the best solution to your testing requirements.

Or you can test it out at an Apple Store if your website is accessible over the internet or available on a laptop with an ad-hoc WiFi connection.

JBRWilkinson 2010-06-23 10:44:22

Using Safari and switching to Mobile Safari seems for me the easiest and fastest solution. And it seems to give the expected result, even if some differences exist (like Flash is enabled). Thanks!

MainMa 2010-06-23 11:27:41

ansaurus

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Develop a website for an iPhone without having iPhone/Mac

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