When building mobile web apps, it is pretty hard to test and debug the applications in multiple platforms as each platform may require a different device.

Ripple is a multi-platform mobile environment emulator which comes as a Chrome extension and aims to ease this process.

It enables us to choose the platform (mobile web, PhoneGap, WebWorks, WAC, etc.) + the device(s) supporting the platform and can display how a given URL would look like with such a combination.

The extension allows the use of existing tools to perform JavaScript debugging, HTML DOM inspection, automated testing, as well as multiple device and screen resolution emulation in real-time.

Also, Ripple displays detailed information about each device, the User_Agent used for loading the URL and has a "Geolocation" module that eases testing Geolocation-reiated apps.

Google Chrome Frame is an open source Internet Explorer plugin that enables IE to use the open web technologies and speedy JavaScript engine of Google Chrome.

It is actually not so fresh and around for a while, however, the stable version of the plugin is released lately and it is ready-to-use.

The plugin requires 2 steps to work:

• The user with IE 6, 7 or 8 should install it
• The website must add a tag to the web pages (detecting IE users and inserting the tag only for them is a good idea)

After that, any user with those IE versions will have a browser with better capabilities like support for HTML5, CSS3, better JS performance and more.

Google Chrome Frame is already used by many popular websites including DeviantArt, github or HootSuite.

It is definitely not a perfect solution as "a step from end users are required" but at least a step forward and almost doesn't add an extra effort for web designers/developers.

Browser Sandbox is an online platform which makes launching various browser versions possible.

It requires an installation of a plugin & can run:

• IE6-7-8
• Firefox 2-3-3.5
• Apple Safari 3-4
• Opera 9-10
• Google Chrome

The platform is definitely a gold mine for making cross-browser tests quickly & easily.

P.S. Spoon allows you to convert your own apps to Spoon apps & post them on the web. You can check the platform's homepage for that.