Here are simple instructions on how to change the default user agent of your web browser such that it emulates Apple iPhone.

The advantage is that you can browse websites that are designed specifically for the iPhone using a desktop browser. Also, you can read free magazines as they are only available to visitors who use the Safari browser inside the iPhone.

Emulate iPhone User Agent

The user agent string for iPhone mobile phone is as below:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A543a Safari/419.3

Step 1: Install the User Agent extension for Firefox. If you are using Apple Safari, you can directly change the user agent to iPhone or iPod Touch from the developer’s tool bar. How to change User Agent in Google Chrome.

Step 2: Restart Firefox.

Step 3: Go to Tools -> User Agent Switcher and add a new user agent using the settings below:

Description: Apple iPhone User Agent: Mobile Safari 1.1.3 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) App Name: AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) App Version: Version/3.0 Platform: Mobile/1A543a Safari/419.3

Now switch the user agent to iPhone and most websites would render their mobile or iPhone specific layouts to your browser.

The Safari user agent string for iPhone is similar to the user agent string for Safari on Mac or Windows except that it contains an iPhone platform name and the mobile version number. The platform name for Safari on iPod touch is iPod.

Also see: iPod & iPhone Screen Capture: