Aug 30, 2012 I'm about to purchase my first-ever Mac, and the choice has been narrowed down to a Macbook Pro or a Macbook Air. The reason I'm doing this is to help me get started developing apps for iOS. I'm not particularly interested in the other apps available for the Mac platform per se, just looking at it from a development perspective.
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Photo by Rodrigo Galindez
Do I need a Mac to make iPhone apps? Apple Watch apps? Mac apps? The short answer is no. But there's a lot more to it than just that.
When making apps for an Apple device (phone, watch, computer) you need to use Xcode. A free piece of software created by Apple that allows you to design and code up apps. Xcode only works on Apple's operating system OS X. So if you have a Mac, then you can run Xcode no problem. If you don't have a Mac, there are two work arounds that I know of that you can use. So in total there are three ways you can run Xcode. Here's my thoughts on each of them.
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1. Using a Mac
This is by far the best option. Using apple's hardware to run Xcode is going to be your best experience for making apps. You might not have a Mac though and buying one can be expensive. I remember when I wanted to first buy a Mac and couldn't get over the price tag. The MacBook I was looking to buy cost $1,200. A PC with similar parts (RAM, CPU, HardDrive, etc...) cost only $400. Three times the money for a stinking Apple logo! In retrospect, the money was well worth it.
If you are interested in going this route and buying a computer, check out my Mac Buying Guide for developers.
Also be on the lookout of place where you could use a Mac for free. Maybe your library has a machine you can use.
2. Using a Cloud Service
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This is my second favorite option. It's a really creative solution for helping people make apps who don't have Macs. There are few companies that own a bunch of Mac computers and allow you to access them via the web and control them remotely. It's kind of like renting a Mac month to month. All you need is a web browser to access your machine. The downside to this is you have to pay a monthly fee and you must be connected to the internet to do your work. Here are links to two companies that do this: macincloud.com and xcodeclub.com
3. Virtual Machine
This option involves creating a virtual machine on your computer, installing Apple's OS X operating system, and then running Xcode on that virtual machine. I don't like this option for two reasons.
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- It's complicated. It takes a lot of work and technical know how to get your virtual machine set up.
- It's illegal. Apple doesn't sell OS X by itself as a stand alone product. They sell computers with OS X on them. For this reason, you can't buy a copy of OS X and run it on your computer. You would have to download it illegally. Some people argue that Apple would never come after you for doing this but I don't think it's worth the risk and besides, you're going to have a MUCH better experience with an actual Mac. Here's a good summary of the legality.
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If you got the budget for it, buy a Mac. I know it's crazy expensive but I believe you'll fall in love with your Mac. If you end up using a cloud service, let me know in the comments what your experience has been. I'd love to hear more.