Hi, I am reeeally interested in creating iOS apps (and possibly Android apps). I have done a bit of coding in .php and .aspx VB and attempted to learn Objective-C so I could create apps, but it looked far too complicated and even if you know it well, it looks like it takes a long time to create even simple apps. There is one problem though.... I don't have a Mac! I currently have a Mac in the Cloud which I pay $10 a month for, so I can connect to it via VNC. It has XCode and the iOS Simulator but the connection is slooow. It takes about 5 times longer to do anything that it would if I had a real Mac. The obvious answer here is.... "Buy a Mac", but even if I go for the bottom of the range Mac Mini, it's still going to cost £500 plus. Therefore my question is..... will I be required to do a significant amount of work with XCode that warrants me forking out to purchase a Mac? Or is a Mac in the cloud that is slow good enough, purely for compiling and uploading to the apple developer account?

Hey mate, Actually, if you can afford it, you can get a decent mac from $150-$200 if you search for them on craigslist - do a quick search! Cheers, David buzztouchmods.com

Well, think about it this way. If you stick with Mac in Cloud for a year, that's $120, which is almost the price of a Mac mini used. Go two years, and you've already bought it. If you plan on maintaining your app, you'll need access to Xcode and everything for updates. Thus, makes more sense, even in the short term, to purchase a Mac mini (which you can use for many things!). I "may" have one available for sale soon for about $200, if you are interested? Would come with Xcode AND Eclipse installed. Mark

Not so easy to get a mac for $150-$200 in the UK!

Well, I may have one available soon that I could let go for $200. Would include the Mac mini, wireless mouse, and possibly a keyboard, if anybody is interested. 50Gb HD and 2Gb memory. It's what I've used to develop three iOS app on! Mark

$300+ with shipping?

Depends on how much shipping is to the UK! PM me with an address, and I can check it out. Probably sounds like a deal to me! Mark

Hello Mark, If Ravey is not yet in i am more than willing to have that mini. Posting a PM to you.

It's not for me Mark, but I know someone who desperately wants a cheap one. They just aren't that cheap in the UK! Try postcode SY1 4HW, although I'm butting in here a bit, maybe @mr-t-from-mk should have first option! *edit* Hi @Sandeep! How are you? My friend can wait for a mac, he's not a member of BT!

Hi Ravey, I am fine bro. Whats up with you? I was willing to have this mac mostly because this would save me installing xcode on it. Since i have never used mac before, Mark's mac installed with xcode and eclipse would be really helpful to me. BTW i have posted a PM to Mark.

Wow! UPS is crazy expensive, but US Post Office much more reasonable. I agree we should give @mr-t-from-mk first option, then @sandeep based on @raveyd deferral. I'll wait to hear from @mr-t-from-mk.

Ok Mark thats fair enough. Lets see what @mr-t-from-mk has to say on this.

@Raveyd Hey mate, if you find one over here in eBay / Craigslist we can sort something out about postage.

Nice one @MacApple!, Thanks very much! :) How you liking the (near) walkover this season? Ok @Mark.

@Raveyd League, bleh... CL? All about it. Tomorrow is #SellOutSaturday where everyone goes to games to show we don't need them.

Good luck!

So, a bit of a bug in all this... The Mac mini is an older 2007ish version, meaning it'll only run Snow Leopard, and NOT Lion or Mountain Lion. Which also means that it's stuck for eternity at Xcode 4.2, which means no iOS SDK past iOS 5. So...if you (or even I) were planning on developing using iOS 6 features, we're out of luck using this Mac mini. Might have to sell both the ones I have to try and raise money for a newer, Lion supporting one. And, by the way, my first experience at the Apple Support forum...terrible. The guy who initially answer my question had a serious attitude when I tried to get him to provide some clarification. Then an Apple person stepped in and answered in a single post. buzztouch has such an amazing forum...great people here! Mark

Great people Mark and you are three of them!

Thanks!

Hi guys, thank you all so much for your responses and waiting to hear from me, such a great forum :) I live in the UK so I imagine that postage is quite a significant amount from over there in the US. I think that if I'm going to spend half the money, I may as well spend the whole bunch and get a fairly newish one as I am serious about developing apps (and maybe plugins 8-) ). @sandeep, go ahead mate :) @GoNorthWest, thanks for the offer anyway mate, looks like you have loads of people interested though lol.

@mr-t-from-mk, I'm with you on getting a more recent one. Not sure I want to even sell my old ones with this new bit of information I have. It severely ties my (and anybody else who might buy it) hands with respect to future app development. I'm quite disappointed! Mark

I would say it is more important to have a device for testing. Once the project is compiled and on a live testing device, most of the work is done in Buzztouch, not Xcode. But you need something to see the changes...even an iPod touch would work. With that model you could maybe get by with the virtual Mac.

Good point, Susan!

Don't discount the idea of building your own if you are a hardware guy. I just finished putting togther a Quad Core i7 Hackintosh for my buddy @ $700 USD. Might make my own with a Sandy Bridge next. It's nice to have a single box that runs MAC/WIN. http://www.tonymacx86.com/home.php MacBook AIR tho is my next purchase. Develop on the go BOTH iOS and Android. I keep missing out on sub $500 deals on craigslist but they do pop up weekly...