Apple has a really strict policy regarding who all are allowed to publish apps on the App Store. It is well known. The license costs enough to deter lazier app developers from uploading drab and insipid applications on the platform, and spoil the iPhone experience.

But that does leave it with some collateral damage; there is a shortage of apps to entertain oneself with since not everyone can afford paying the license cost year after year. And so, we find Mac users struggling to find good ways to entertain themselves. Apple requires its app developers to pay Apple a cut when someone buys their app. They do not allow direct communication between the developer and the customer, nor do they allow paid upgrades for apps. The worst is that Apple is probably not oblivious to this criticism, but it has never relaxed its norms and rules. What really discourages developers is that Apple requires apps to operate in the Sandbox paradigm. Sandbox is Apple’s app development software and what you need to know about it is that it essentially demands that your app work independently of others.

As any Android user will testify, it is really unnecessary; interlinking apps and using them in the same context for solving the same problem is actually pretty convenient, intuitive and helpful. Not to mention, it makes things quicker too. Whatever might be the case, since there is such a dearth of apps people enjoy on their Androids and iPhones, we thought it’d be a nice idea to share about some nice Android and iOS emulators you can use on Macs. Using emulators with Windows can paralyze your system. However, with their OS’s superior design and efficiency, Macs are better poised to keep their sanity with an emulator.

Once you install iOS emulator on Windows, you can then run, test, or debug different iOS apps as if you were using a real iPhone or an iPad. Many emulators also allow developers to switch iOS versions to check cross-version compatibility.

The best iPhone emulators to use on Mac PCs. IPadian fits all the three criteria we discussed about earlier. It is lighter in size than most other options available, at least in terms of the size it takes up while running. It looks ravishing.

Almost like the real deal. And third, it is downloadable, which helps you use the software with or without the internet, like a normal iPad would.

IPadian is easy to install from the internet. The only trouble it seems to cause people is with the side installations it can come with. Maybe it was a paid promotion or something, but I ended up installing Chromium inadvertently on my Windows PC.

Maybe if I had read through the screens and not pressed “OK, OK, OK”, I wouldn’t have faced this problem. It wasn’t the best experience, but I managed to salvage my PC. One thing to watch out for in iPadian is the detailing in the design. It might reduce your PC’s performance, but most Macs I’ve seen take it like champs and the emulator really gels well.

Once you have iPadian, your PC is basically an iPad with a keyboard attached to it. Go crazy using as many iOS apps as you like. Price: Free This one’s not exactly free, but that does not deter fans of MobiOne Studio from buying the application. There are a lot of great apps and games you can use on your Mac using this emulator.

It is primarily a designing application, however. It is meant to create apps and websites to suit them with various OS such as Android and iOS. But it can run games for you as well. In fact, this same software contains emulators for both iOS and Android. If you’re in for learning how to make your own apps and games or design and optimize your own websites, MobiOne can really help you.

It is based on HTML5 models, and has open source Cordova framework you can employ. But even as the development is very “what you see is what you get”, it does take time for one to familiarize themselves with the whole interface. Basically, it does take some time to understand what happens when you touch each button. Although, hardly anyone would need it if they are using it just to play Android or iPhone games on Macs. If you like it, you can buy it for $99.95. It has a 15 day free trial period though.