Brighton device lab

People of Brighton (and environs), I have a reminder for you. Did you know that there is an open device lab in the Clearleft office?

That’s right! You can simply pop in at any time and test your websites on Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Kindles, and more.

The address is 68 Middle Street. Ring the “Clearleft” buzzer and say you’re there to use the device lab.. There’ll always be somebody in the office. They’ll buzz you in and you can take the lift to the first floor. No need to make a prior appointment—feel free to swing by whenever you like.

There is no catch. You show up, test your sites on whatever devices you want, and maybe even stick around for a cup of tea.

Tell your friends.

I was doing a little testing this morning, helping Charlotte with a pesky bug that was cropping up on an iPad running iOS 8. To get the bottom of the issue, I needed to be able to inspect the DOM on the iPad. That turns out to be fairly straightforward (as of iOS 6):

1. Plug the device into a USB port on your laptop using a lightning cable.
2. Open Safari on the device and navigate to the page you want to test.
3. Open Safari on your laptop.
4. From the “Develop” menu in your laptop’s Safari, select the device.
5. Use the web inspector on your laptop’s Safari to inspect elements to your heart’s content.

It’s a similar flow for Android devices:

1. Plug the device into a USB port on your laptop.
2. Open Chrome on the device and navigate to the page you want to test.
3. Open Chrome on your laptop.
4. Type chrome://inspect into the URL bar of Chrome on your laptop.
5. Select the device.
6. On the device, grant permission (a dialogue will have appeared by now).
7. Use developer tools on your laptop’s Chrome to inspect elements to your heart’s content.

Left to our own devices. — Ethan Marcotte

Your website’s only as strong as the weakest device you’ve tested it on.

Device Lab / Oktavilla

Do you live in Stockholm? If so, you’ve got a device lab you can visit.

So feel free to drop by and test your responsive/mobile designs.

The Bocoup Open Device Lab

Mat unveils Boston’s open device lab, and provides a beautiful raison d’être while he’s at it:

Websites work everywhere by default, and they stay that way so long as we know how not to break them. That’s what the Open Web means to me: ensuring that entire populations just setting foot on the web for the first time will find it welcoming, regardless of the devices or connections used to get there.

Labcase - Open Device Lab, in a case.

This is a really great idea—a portable open device lab. It’s UK-based and you can hire it out for a few days at a time.

More details here.

Donate Your Dusty Device

Got an old phone lying around that you don’t need any more? Why not donate it to a device lab? You know it makes sense.