One tool company's solution to mobile fragmentation

Xamarin, the software company best known for its work on the Mono and MonoTouch .NET Framework-compatible cross-platform tools, today announced an upcoming user interface testing platform for mobile developers. The Xamarin Test Cloud allows studios to more easily test their mobile games and app on hundreds of devices, without having to write a single test case. The Xamarin App Explorer, which comes as part of the package, shows developers how their game and its interfaces will look on hundreds of mobile devices, while also testing every possible screen resolution and button press automatically. The package then offers detailed technical feedback on both visual and performance monitoring. The aim is to beat device fragmentation and ensure that your game will work on the majority of mobile devices -- a key issue that has plagued the Android platform in particular for years now. As part of the announcement, Xamarin says it has acquired automated app testing company Less Painful, the team behind the Calabash mobile UI testing framework. As a result, the Xamarin Test Cloud is based on Calabash. The Xamarin testing tools will be released to the public sometime in the third quarter of 2013, although a number of companies are already using the underlying technology, including eBay. Those developers interested in applying for the beta should visit the official website.