I really want to get started, but man are those Macs expensive...especially for a non-US like me.
I'm thinking about trying to run OS X in VMWare. But would this prohibit me from doing iPhone development? I will gladly buy a copy of OS X to give Apple their due...
Thanks, Makil
A Mac Mini is $599 and comes with OS X ($129 by itself). The specs on the Mac Mini aren't awe-inspiring but they're perfectly usable. I just wouldn't be able to justify saving a few hundred bucks (max) by buying a bargain basement PC and running it as a Hackintosh. You lose all ability to get support from Apple, you have no guarantees it won't break compatibility in the future, and you are highly unlikely to get the same relatively seamless experience of a real Mac.
Bottom line, whatever money you save, you'll probably end up paying for/regretting later. I own both a Mac Mini and a Macbook and I've had a better experience with both than with any PC I've bought or built in the past. I just wouldn't recommend trying to make an end run around this for the sake of a few hundred bucks. Heck, if you add up VMWare ($189) and Leopard ($129) and the cost of even a bargain PC, you're pretty close to a Mac Mini already, so I can't see this being worth it.
I don't know, man. The Mac Mini isn't expensive at $599, assuming you've already got a keyboard, mouse and monitor.
this questions has been asked in various way several times before. For a taster, see here, here and here.
edit: I think this question should be closed as a dupe...
The answer is yes.
To develop iPhone applications, you need the iPhone SDK, which in turn requires Mac OS X version 10.5 (Intel). If you can satisfy this requirement in your OS X installation, then you can build iPhone apps. Whether you can test them just as easily depends on USB support in your installation.
The fact that the Mac Mini is $599 is irrelevant to the question and how inexpensive it is, is relative. What is inexpensive to one may not be to another (especially since the OP states that he is not in US, where it might be much more than $599).
Yes, its possible. But, issue is that iPhone SDK gets frequent updates and requires updated version of Mac OS X - updating hackintosh is pain (you can do better development on MacMini instead of wasting time to upgrade) and you will never know when your hackintosh will be unbootable!
USB, Audio are another issues I have seen in hackintosh.
It's definitely possible, and it's not even that hard if you're buying the parts with the intention of running OS X on them.
Most of the difficulties and incompatibilities people experience are due to attempting to try out OS X on hardware they already have. They may have an AMD system which needs a Voodoo kernel, they may have a Radeon 4xxx which will only work in VESA mode without hardware acceleration. Of course these things can be made to work, and it is getting easier all the time, but it's more effort and it's where the bulk of the problems come from.
Once you do get your Hybrid Mac working (as I affectionately prefer to call them) it still won't be as perfectly painless as the ideal (note: not actual!) Mac owning experience. But still, with a little common sense you get a lot more computer for a half or less of the price.
Edit: as for running OS X in a VM on a PC, it's really not very nice at all. It's a tremendous hassle to get it to boot at all, and even then it's not very usable as an environment, often without working sound/LAN/etc. You can obtain complete VMWare images of OS X which may not even work inside different virtualised environments!
I've tried, but I haven't successfully run OS/X in VMware. I do know someone who's successfully developed iPhone apps on a hackintosh, but getting your hackintosh set up is quite difficult.
I'm in the same boat, I don't want to shell out foir a Mac until I know I'm comfortable with the toolchain, and I'd like to get a feel for iPhone development using my current hardware. Interested to hear of others experiences.
I know it will work, if you can get the damn thing to install and your able to get usb working.
I currently own a G4 mac mini and had a 2nd gen intel IMac (had to sell it to pay the bills). I paid for my iphone developer lic., bought a 2nd gen touch, booted my mini, downloaded the iphone sdk... Oh no, you need 10.5. Bought and installed 10.5... Oh no, you need an intel mac. Forced sdk install, apps build great for the simulator, but what is this, I can't sign my code. More hacking... Oh no, provisioning error. Connected the touch, unable to mount dev partition. I now left with no job, no money and no way to release my apps to try to make some money.
Oh, yeah, I'm going to try to install hackintosh in vmware, but only because I'm flat broke. Also, I wouldn't buy a another mini knowning that my g4 mini cost $599 (back in the day) but once I was done making it usable, I spent over $1000 ($200 aftermarket 1gig ram upgrade, $99 keyboard/mouse, $150 monitor, etc). Of course it's cheaper for better hardware now, but the mini nickel and dimes you to death. Do yourself a favor and just get a macbook, that will be my next buy.
And the funny and/or worst part about all of this is, I don't even like OSX or the iphone/touch.
Getting OSX 10.5.6 to work on my PC took maybe one/two days ( not the actual install time .. that took only like 10 minutes each ). Initially I ran into some roadblocks and it took some research on net to find how to fix those. Updating to SL could turn out to be a b****h, but I will manage ;).
When I finally did get into Mac, I felt extremely handicapped. All those shortcuts that have become second nature to me with near Jedi dexterity were no longer useful. No Windows+E to get into My Computer or Windows+R to get to wherever you want to get on the computer. No Shift+Home to select a whole sentence. End key not moving cursor to end of text in safari URL box. Maybe its a problem that could be fixed by configuring the keyboard shortcuts or something. Then I seem to be too used to Aero, since I kept dragging the windows to the top of the screen to maximize them. Then when I did use the maximize button on the window, it would just grow in height and now in width. Compared to that .. I was much more comfortable on Ubuntu. Thats just my opinion .. no offense to all you Mac fans ;)
And $599 is expensive .. for example, where I live, the average monthly salary of a person ( of a salaried person with a good job ) is around $300-$500 and they can live pretty nicely on it. While I did considerably more than that on my PC. When you look at the specs its damn worth it ... compared to a Mac Mini. I have a damn overclockable P45 motherboard ( Biostar Tpower i45 ) + Core 2 Duo E7400 @3.2 GHz + GSkill 4GB RAM sticks and an HD4870 512Mb GPU. I can game smoothly at 1920x1080 without any glitches ( even Crysis ). Now if I had spent that $600+ on a Mac, I wouldn't be able to enjoy all that, would I?.
What I do want to know is, if I have an Apple Developer License, can I develop iPhone apps on a "Hackintosh" ?
The factory I need in order to build the next coolest and greatest car is expensive. Can I build my car in an old mill, with some stolen machines and robots? Yes, you probably can. Not the best way to do it, but it is possible.
There's always a cost involved in getting into any business. You can figure out a way to pay for it, or you can find a way around it. Some people use their savings, some max their credit cards, some borrow from their family or friends, others raise money from investors, some do some consulting work to pay for the new venture. Then of course there are those who will find other ways to do it.
Yes, $599 for an Mini or $1500 for a MacBook may be very expensive, but that's the way Apple wants it - to make money off of selling you the tools to make money yourself. You may not like it, or think that it is "right", but then consider how you feel when your software products get "borrowed", copied, sold by someone else who thinks you don't deserve to make money off your hard work.
It's cool to be creative and find ways to accomplish goals without having to lay out a lot of money. However, there are times that one just has to move on to something else that is more within the available budget. That new car you are building may just have to wait until you have the needed resources to build the factory.
I was (with some effort) able to install OS X, snow leopard, as well as the dev tools onto my IBM X61 and have had no issues with it or developing IPhone apps on it. I have the OS fully functioning. Note: I bought a retail copy of Snow Leopard for my project.
Why? I had more time than money. If I had to choose again and I had the $1500 beans (+tax, + whatever) to buy a mac book pro I would have as it certainly wasn't 'simple'. But I didn't.
But now that I have done it, I have an immensely cool IBM MacBook :) and am quite proud of the accomplishment. I also learned an awful lot in the process. Was it hell? Yes.. Was it worth it? Yes...
Hope that helps!
You need apples proprietary (what isn't proprietary with apple) iphone sdk in order to develop iphone apps.