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ubik
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« on: March 14, 2012, 08:29:46 PM » |
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Subject says it all-- what is the cheapest Mac I could possibly get to upload apps to the App Store? I won't be developing directly on the Mac but I will need to shoot ports to my ipad and ipod touch.
Ideally this will be something I could get used. Saying I am not a Mac person is a massive understatement.
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Player Ʒ
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« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2012, 08:33:26 PM » |
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Have you checked on eBay? You can find a cheap Macintosh for almost less than ten percent of Apple's prices. Slight exaggeration because of overpriced, underpowered things, but yeah, eBay.
Unless they demand it be a new Macintosh, then you may have to fork out a chunk of your paycheck for one.
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EdgeOfProphecy
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« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2012, 08:45:11 PM » |
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If you're comfortable buying second hand, it would be the best deal.
Whatever you get, make absolutely sure it has an Intel based processor. You cannot build an iOS app unless you're using an Intel based machine. They started putting Intel processors into Macs in like...2006 or something? Somewhere around there.
Beyond that, the Mac Mini would be your best bet for a new Mac at the lowest price. I think they're around $600.
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PsySal
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« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2012, 08:49:49 PM » |
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Yeah, note the intel thing. I got a mac mini from somebody second hand and didn't understand this. You can't do builds for intel macs on an powerpc mac, either. But I don't regret it, it was pretty cheap.
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PsySal
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« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2012, 08:50:57 PM » |
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Hey, something just occurred to me. Is it possible to do a hackintosh build? That way you could just get a cheap, used PC and put a recent OSX on it. That would likely be the cheapest way to work.
Anybody with experience along those lines? Maybe I should try it myself, on dual-boot or something...
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EdgeOfProphecy
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« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2012, 10:58:38 PM » |
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Hey, something just occurred to me. Is it possible to do a hackintosh build? That way you could just get a cheap, used PC and put a recent OSX on it. That would likely be the cheapest way to work.
Anybody with experience along those lines? Maybe I should try it myself, on dual-boot or something...
I tried a hackintosh once, and it didn't go terribly well. Getting complete compatibility and stability was tough, and I spent many many hours tinkering with the thing to get it to work right. It might be easier nowadays, that was a few years ago. Plus, there's the fact that Apple updates iOS pretty frequently, and thus updates Xcode pretty frequently, which usually requires a pretty recent version of OSX to run. If you want to be able to build for the latest iOS version over the next few versions, expect to be upgrading your OS a couple times. When you upgrade, things might break. |
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Rob Lach
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« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2012, 01:29:48 AM » |
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you can pick up a mac mini pretty cheap.
If you go hackintosh, find a parts list that someone else built with success.
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Richard Kain
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« Reply #7 on: March 15, 2012, 07:25:09 AM » |
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I payed $700 for my Mac Mini, and that was about a year and a half ago. While $700 is more than I usually pay for desktop PCs, I must admit that I've been rather pleased with my Mini. The thing is sleek as hell, whisper-quiet, and runs great. I was even able to install and run StarCraft II on it. If you are looking to get a basic Mac for development, I can recommend a Mac Mini. I'm testing my own iOS development on it right now, and it runs XCode just fine.
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ThemsAllTook
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« Reply #8 on: March 15, 2012, 10:02:02 AM » |
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Apple's Refurbished Mac section has some good deals in it if you want something somewhere in between new and used. I'll echo earlier suggestions of a Mac Mini. There's a more-than-adequate one up there right now for $519. |
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ubik
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« Reply #9 on: March 15, 2012, 06:41:50 PM » |
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I'll very likely go with a used Mac Mini. I will indeed make sure that it has an Intel processor. I do have a hackintosh install on VMWare but it isn't the latest version and will not run xcode.
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Snow
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« Reply #10 on: March 16, 2012, 12:28:29 PM » |
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I tried the Hackintosh route and always ran into 2 snags - if I was running OS X on VMWare - it was slow and choppy as hell. If I had a PC that booted OS X, even when I had a system that was to specs - I couldn't run the latest version of OS X which is what was needed, especially for xcode and all the tools I was using, or it would kernel panic on a hair trigger. I'd fix it, then I wouldn't have sound. Fix it again, and I would have to wait 15 minutes before the gpu driver knew what it was doing and finally showed the desktop. If the gpu driver screwed up, then I would get nothing but a blank screen and would have to go through the entire process again.
It just is not worth it. I will agree with Apple haters that it's an asshole move to only be able to use their operating system on official Apple hardware. I would have gladly paid a few hundred dollars for a version of OS X that could run on any PC. They'd still be making money.
I finally caved and bought a 2011 Mac Mini, just before the updated version came out that lacked a super drive. I was very fortunate. Mine only cost me $550. I haven't had any problems with it and is a fast little machine. It certainly hasn't disappointed me with iOS work.
So if you can find a new or used 2011 Mac Mini - I would say that's the best route.
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wademcgillis
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« Reply #11 on: March 16, 2012, 01:48:16 PM » |
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I finally caved and bought a 2011 Mac Mini, just before the updated version came out that lacked a super drive. I was very fortunate. Mine only cost me $550. I haven't had any problems with it and is a fast little machine. It certainly hasn't disappointed me with iOS work.
So if you can find a new or used 2011 Mac Mini - I would say that's the best route.
That was the 2010 Mac Mini. Source: I bought mine in fall 2010. |
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ubik
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« Reply #12 on: March 17, 2012, 05:58:25 PM » |
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I will say that I am extremely impressed by what I've seen coming out from Apple. It's been since around 1993 that I used MacOS (I programmed on System 6, in the Toolbox) and the level of smoothness and overall polish is quite astonishing. Just picked up an iPod Touch too, yesterday, and that thing is pretty much blowing me away, there is a fuckload of processor power in there for something so tiny.
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wademcgillis
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« Reply #13 on: March 17, 2012, 06:40:01 PM » |
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Just picked up an iPod Touch too, yesterday, and that thing is pretty much blowing me away, there is a fuckload of processor power in there for something so tiny.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/ |
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ubik
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« Reply #14 on: March 17, 2012, 08:10:04 PM » |
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I'm aware of that but I'm referring to mass-market devices that are usable by the consumer.
It does show the writing on the wall for what's coming with mobile device games. The time to get into it is now.
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« Last Edit: March 17, 2012, 09:48:22 PM by ubik »
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Developer
