iPhoney

iPhoney is an iPhone simulator for web designers and developers that runs on Mac OS X. You can grab a copy of it from Marketcircle’s iPhoney page. (iPhoney is open source, and you can also find it on Sourceforge, though as of this writing the version there is not the latest.)

iPhoney does an ok-but-not-great job of replicating the iPhone Mobile Safari browsing experience. There is an option for Zoom to Fit as well as Hide/Show Location Bar, and it does let you View Source. You can also rotate it. (You can’t pinch/zoom or change the magnification beyond the Zoom to Fit capabilities.)

Here are some screen shots comparing Mobile Safari running on an actual iPhone versus running in iPhoney. (This post was used for comparison.)

Fig. 1: Mobile Safari on iPhone (vertical)

Fig. 2: Mobile Safari on iPhone (horizontal)

Fig. 3: iPhoney (vertical)

Fig. 4: iPhoney (horizontal)

I’ve found iPhoney useful for basic testing. It obviously does not take the place of an actual iPhone for proper testing, but if you just want a quick overview of how a page might look, it’ll work just fine. Also, since it’s open source, you can feel free to use the code as you wish, and even improve it. (Under the terms of the GPL of course.)