Testing webOS Applications on the Palm Pixi

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While we've already discussed the consideration for developing webOS Applications for the Palm Pixi, now is the time to take note of some key points regarding testing these applications.

Like the Pre applications, you can use the Palm Emulator to test any Palm Pixi application. The Palm Emulator is a part of the SDK itself so if you've been developing applications using the SDK, you should already have the emulator available for use. You would use the emulator in the same way for Pixi applications as for Pre applications barring one difference - Resolution.

As we've discussed earlier as well, Palm Pixi has a lower resolution (320x400) than Palm Pre (320x480). The default resolution of Palm Emulator is same as that of Palm Pre so you need to change it in order to test Palm Pixi applications. The Palm Emulator page provides the instructions for configuring the Emulator to suit the Pixi resolution. Since Palm Emulator is based on the VirtualBox platform, therefore the instructions listed on the Palm Emulator page are actually VirtualBox configuration commands. The VBoxManage command offers a convenient mechanism to control the various features of the Palm Emulator Graphical User Interface including the resolution, screen layout etc.

Any mobile application needs to be exhaustively tested for providing a rich User Experience and Palm Pixi applications won't be an exception to this rule. Make sure you test your webOS Pixi application thoroughly for resolution, layout and positioning related issues before you release it. We hope that you find these guidelines useful while testing your Palm Pixi webOS applications.

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