Zoom Anywhere

I’ve been in and out of Apple’s iPhone simulator for the past two years, and for the entire time, I’ve been frustrated by what I assumed was an inherent limitation: pinching and zooming and only works in the middle of the screen:

Today I was so supremely frustrated by this that I played around with all manner of double-clicking, alternate modifier keys, etc., until I stumbled on the simple solution. Googling for answers after-the-fact revealed that I’m by no means the first person to discover this, but it’s quite possible I’m the first person who has told you!

To zoom in on an arbitrary point with the iPhone simulator:

Hold down the option key to obtain the familiar “simulation fingertips”.

Move the mouse until the fingertips are the desired “starting width” for your gesture.

Keeping the option key pressed, hold down the shift key to enter “panning” mode.

Move the mouse until the fingertips are at the desired starting position.

Remove the shift key while continuing to hold the option key.

Click and drag to zoom in or out at the selection location.

It’s a little cumbersome, but it’s about 1000% more useful than not being able to do it at all.