There are a number of online emulators available to test your mobile web applications once they are deployed. Opera Mini has an online demo at www.operamini.com/demo/ for example.
When developing locally it’s helpful to do some functional and visual design and layout testing before deploying.
Here are a few helpful tools to do this below.
For functional testing use Firefox and the following Add-ons and config file:
Firefox – www.mozilla.com/en-US/
User Agent Switcher – addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59
User Agent Switcher config file – www.mobiforge.com/developing/blog/user-agent-switcher-config-file
After installing the add-on and config file choose from a number of popular phones available under the tools->User Agent Switcher menu. If your site uses phone detection to format web responses differently for different target phones, this is a quick way to switch back and forth and see how the site changes.
For visual design and layout testing combine the Small Screen Render Add-on – addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/526 with the above to see approximately how the site will look on most small phone screens.
For a paid option, Yospace also has an excellent desktop application with a number of popular phones you can test locally. The demo has two phones and can run for five minutes at a time, available for download at – www.yospace.com/spede.html
To see my latest mobile project, point your phone’s browser to: m.becomeanex.org. Especially if you want help quitting smoking on the go!