Aspen Simulator
As much as I’d like to blog about my trip to Austin and SXSW last week I’m just too excited over the iPhone SDK goodies that dropped last Thursday.
You may be asking yourself, “he’s a web guy, why does he care?” Well, there happens to be a beautiful gem tucked away called the Aspen Simulator.
This is a complete pixel and functionally perfect replica of the iPhone and it’s fantastic for testing web apps. Before I was spending a lot of time back and forth between my iPhone and my desktop but since this thing is so identical I really don’t have to own an iPhone (but I will anyway).
It’s a little hard to find, but after installing the developer tools look under / Developer / Platforms / AspenSimulator.platform / Developer / Applications.
A few tricks
If you want to do a two finger zoom just hold down the option key while click dragging. You can also rotate the the phone by using the command key and right left arrows. To lock the phone press command L. Still try to figure out how to do a two finger scroll.
Comments
Bryan Veloso http://avalonstar.com
I didn’t know it was called the “Aspen Simulator” when I was working on the mobile version of Revyver, so I had my iPhone sit in front of me the whole time refreshing. It wasn’t until I had opened up XCode and ran a sample script that the head fell to the desk.
This is definitely an awesome tool, and that’s definitely a squeaky clean design you’re working on. :D
Kenny Saunders http://www.fortyeightdesigns.com
Unfortunately it’s not 100% accurate to the version of mobile safari that is on the device, but it’s a great tool nonetheless.
Nathan http://nathany.com/developer
If you’ve watched Apple’s new video on iPhone web development, you will also know that Dashcode has been updated (is being updated?) to have all the iPhone controls and such. Then you have a free editor and JavaScript debugger.
Austin
You might want to mention Dashcode’s new ability to make web applications; it also tests them in the Aspen Simulator.
Elliot Jay Stocks http://elliotjaystocks.com
Cheers Nathan - this is going to come in very handy indeed.
Nathan Borror http://www.playgroundblues.com
The Dashcode thing sounds really cool. Looks like my weekend is going to be filled with tutorials and documentation reading :)