Unless you have a drawer full of smartphones, testing websites across multiple mobile platforms can be a little tricky.
With so many users accessing the web from their smartphone, and more and more everyday, the importance of testing on a mobile device is becoming more and more important.
Here’s an excellent solution that runs straight from your desktop.
Built with Adobe Air, Mobilizer is a slick app to preview mobile websites online, design mockups, and local HTML.
Mobilizer’s features include:
- WebKit-based Adobe AIR app lets you preview mobile content on a variety of phone shells.
- Visit any URL or drag and drop local HTML, Flash, or image files.
- View the same site on multiple devices.
- Export PNGs of device views – perfect for portfolios.
- Quick, painless installation and upgrades via Adobe AIR.
Check it out!
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I was impressed from the first click.
You can pull up multiple phones, type-in any URL, and the page is pulled-up on all of them at once, so comparison is very easy.
Download it for free, Mac or PC, from the Mobilizer website.
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James Cooper says
This is handy but be aware that it doesn’t do any ‘mobile detection’. It just basically loads a ‘normal’ webkit browser in phone shape boxes!
So if you want to test for non-webkit you’ll need to do that on a real phone!
Drew Palko says
I noticed that too… :P… I got excited for a second… but then realized it wasn’t what i wanted it to be
Eric Dye says
Let me know if you find something that does.
Thanks!
Eric Dye says
Way to break-down the knowledge, James. Something to keep in mind when testing, for sure!
David Alan Hjelle says
Not to mention that mobile WebKit has different capabilities than desktop WebKit in a few instances: ContentEditable, overflow: fixed and overflow: scroll, file uploads, slightly different handling of click events, and probably others.
Brian Alexander says
This could be handy for YouVersion. NICE!
Ben Terry says
I’m just a little bummed the iPad isn’t an option.
Eric Dye says
That would be a nice option, for sure.
Rich from Moble1st says
Loved reading this old review of our super easy, 100% accurate tool for testing your website on leading mobile devices. Just want to update you — we’re not an emulator (with all its flaws) but an online testing lab that delivers real results from our lab in Austin Texas, which is jam-packed with actual phones and tablets. Just like you describe: you enter your URL and in less than a minute you’ll be scrolling through screenshots of your website’s display on 14+ mobile devices. For example, check out how slick Church Mag appears: http://app.mobile1st.com/mobilizer/#/view/Cx8a