On OS X, the best way to almost natively test apps or websites is by using the so called “iOS Simulator” (now named simply “Simulator”) which is available as part of the installed Xcode Development Tools. Even though it requires a development suite installed, the tool itself is not only relevant for developers but also for testing or previewing e.g. mobile optimized websites or do a Screen Recording in iOS!
By default, after having Xcode installed on your Mac, the Simulator.app must be started via
Xcode.app > Xcode > Open Developer Tool > Simulator
This way to start it is cumbersome and takes a lot of time.
But good news: the iOS Simulator is delivered as a standalone app actually – hidden inside the Xcode.app Package Contents!
So to bypass Xcode for starting the Simulator, I wrote a simple Automator application which directly launches the Simulator.app!
You can download it here or – by following these steps – create it yourself.
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Just recently I found out about the awesome Twitter Statistics that you can activate for your Tweets. With this feature, Twitter gives you great insights about the reach and interactions of every single Tweet you publish – and of course sums it all up in a nice Dashboard. And the best: it comes at no costs!
I currently have an issue with Apple’s Weather Widget in the OS X Yosemite Dashboard not retrieving any city locations anymore. In the course of analyzing the issue, I found some interesting details I want to share here, about what JavaScript function and URL calls the widget makes and where it retrieves it’s data from.
