EMULATION OF THE POCKET PC FOR TESTING

All device kits usually have a device emulator as part of the development environment. An emulator is a good place to start testing, but it's never as accurate as the real device.

The Pocket PC emulator is part of the Microsoft eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0 that can be ordered or downloaded from www.microsoft.com/mobile/downloads/emvt30.asp.

Although the emulator doesn't currently play Flash movies, it can be used to view images and mock-ups of content for layout purposes.

For the emulator to play Flash content, Macromedia would need to create an x86 version of the Pocket PC Player for Pocket PC. If there is enough demand for this, Macromedia will most likely release a version for developers, email: mailto:[e-mail].

But don't worry, you're not out of luck. We've created a series of HTML files and images created to help "emulate" the PDA experience and included them on the Flashenabled.com/ book site (see Figure 2.49).

Figure 2.49. Using a frame set to test Flash content if a Pocket PC is not available.

You can also use the "Remote Display Control Power Toy" for Pocket PC from Microsoft. The control can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpc/downloads/powertoys.asp.

This program allows you to display and control the screen of the Pocket PC device from a connected laptop or desktop computer. This control also allows you to test Flash Pocket PC content on your laptop or desktop computer. Simply connect the device to your computer and then run the control. You can now copy files directly to the Pocket PC and view the output on the control. This makes it relatively simple to test and develop content for the device.