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Which Mac?

decomplexity
Rising Star
Posts: 493
Thanks: 26
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Which Mac?

My knowledge of Macs is zilch - so go easy on me pls...
I have built and launched into GooglePlay some apps for Android phones and tablets created Cordova (nee Phonegap) and the Eclipse development environment running under Win7.
I am now under some pressure to make these available also for iPhones and iPads.
Short of running an OS X emulator under VMWARE*, I appear to need (as a minimum) to run the 'package and upload' part of any new iOS app under OS X .Quite how much I can do on Eclipse/WIn7 and how much must be done on OS X I don't know, and any advice is welcomed.
Any suggestions pls as to the lowest (i.e. cheapest) form of Mac life - secondhand would be OK - which would suffice.   

* - a combination which has performance problems
Zen from May 17. PN Business account from 2004 - 2017
6 REPLIES 6
janitor
Grafter
Posts: 107
Registered: ‎11-08-2007

Re: Which Mac?

The lowest form of mac is the mac mini £499, but you dont get a keyboard, mouse or monitor, you could keep an eye on the refurb store but they don't come up very often. I thought there was iphone emulator software that run on windows machines, sure a friend of mine had it when he signed up as a developer.
apjashley1
Grafter
Posts: 307
Registered: ‎31-07-2012

Re: Which Mac?

Mac minis can be had on eBay for a few hundred, you don't need the latest and greatest model for a simple task like that.
You can run OS X on PC hardware though it's morally questionable and fairly difficult for a newbie.
I could give you remote access to a user account on my Mac?
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Which Mac?

Apple Official Refurbs...

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

Some of my older iMacs are refurbs bought direct from Apple.
No problems at all.
Recommended for those on a budget.
martinlangley
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎01-06-2013

Re: Which Mac?

Hi
A year ago I was GIVEN a Powerbook G4 which is now running
OSX Panter and hosting a LAMP ecommerce site, - it was on freecycle.
Because I'm getting near unleashing the site on the unsuspecting
public I have similarly "aquired" a G4 desktop with 500 MB ram
and Mac OSX Tiger, - again it was nowt on freeycle and has much
more grunt than the laptop.
Macs are easy-peasy to work on after Windows and Linux and on
ebay you can find all sorts of really nice (but "obsolescent") Mac kit
at rock bottom prices.
I'm a great believer in yesterday's technology, - it usually works fine,
its proven and thoroughly tested and usually about 1% the cost of
"bleeding edge"
Good luck, - email me if you need anything else
welcome_martin@hotmail.com
krumike
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎07-06-2013

Re: Which Mac?

You'll need an Intel processor... in fact Intel Duo 2 Core... so the earliest mac to use would be a late 2006 iMac.
That's what I bought from eBay a couple of years ago for £131 for similar reasons... iPhone app dev.
I run Mac OS X 10.7.5 (Lion) and it can't be upgraded to 10.8 (Mountain Lion) for other hardware reasons.
So as Xcode progresses I will probably have to wave it goodbye unless I buy another old (but newer) Mac.
An alternative is online Mac services... see macincloud.com
PLan
Grafter
Posts: 76
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎05-04-2013

Re: Which Mac?

As others have said you're probably best off with a cheap Intel Mac Mini, alternatively you can type Hackintosh into eBay search for a bit of fun(tonymacx86.com will educate you - link).  Wink