Mobile+Emulator

= Mobile Emulators =

Smartphones and mobile internet are becoming more and more popular. In an article titled Mobile Access 2010 found on Pew Internet written by Aaron Smith he states that “The use of non-voice data applications on cell phones has grown dramatically over the last year” and that “a May 2010 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project finds that six in ten American adults now go online wirelessly using either a mobile phone or a laptop with a wireless internet connection. Americans are also taking advantage of a much wider range of cell phone data applications than at a similar point in 2009”.

Gradually, how a website looks on mobile devices is becoming more and more important. Mobile Emulators or Simulators are comparable to web browsers. They are all a little different and it is helpful to see what your website will look like to potential customers or clients. A library website just like a business website will benefit from the use of mobile emulators.

A few mobile emulators are dotMobi Online Emulator, Nokia Browser Simulator, Opera Mini Simulator and IPhone Simulator. In a review of mobile device tools written by John Pring, Opera Mini Simulator was mentioned as “a good practice to include in your testing workflow”. ==  Implications What are some of the implications in regards to libraries? That question was asked and discussed at The Library Technology Conference 2010 in an article entitled “And One Device Will Rule Them All: Make Way For Mobile Technologies”. The answer summed up by several University of South Dakota University Librarians was that “We can now use WorldCat.org on our mobile phones, and EBSCOhost just released its customized application for mobile device users”.

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