Adobe Shadow, a new Tool to Simplify Mobile Web Development
Adobe has released a new tool that aught to make web development simpler for those targeting mobile devices.
There is a plethora of devices available today, in a number of different form-factors. To create an effective website or web application, on needs to target each form factor separately; the same design and UI can’t really work well across all screen sizes.
Adobe’s new tool, called Adobe Shadow allows testing on multiple devices at the same time. It allows synchronized web browsing across multiple devices so as your browse a website on your computer, the same page opens on all your devices, allowing you to see them all in action in a single glance.
Adobe Shadow features a number of components working together. First of all you have the Adobe Shadow application for your Windows or OSX computer. Secondly, you need to install the Adobe Shadow plug-in for Google Chrome. Finally you need to install the Adobe Shadow app on your mobile devices (tablets or phones).
One the app has been installed on your computer, your browser and your mobile, you can launch the Adobe Shadow app on the mobile device, and pair it to your desktop. Now as you browse a page on your desktop it will also open on all paired devices.
Not only this, Adobe Shadow can also be used to remotely debug these devices, so you can modify the code of the page as it runs on any device.
Currently, Adobe Shadow is a Labs project, and only works on iOS and Android. You can download Adobe Shadow from the Adobe Labs website; that page also contains links to download the mobile apps and the Chrome extension. The following video shows this new software in action: