[ploogle]

I'm looking at getting a Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh for a startup iPhone development studio. I'm wondering if anyone has tried to run the dev kit on their Mini 9, and if it suffers from any speed issues. I don't want to drop ~$500 just to find that it's slow as all hell. If it's not worth it, I'll look into getting a Mac Mini instead.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

[kem327]

Originally Posted by ploogle

I'm looking at getting a Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh for a startup iPhone development studio. I'm wondering if anyone has tried to run the dev kit on their Mini 9, and if it suffers from any speed issues. I don't want to drop ~$500 just to find that it's slow as all hell. If it's not worth it, I'll look into getting a Mac Mini instead.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

I've installed the iPhone SDK, but so far only compiled/run the HelloWorld app Works just fine, no problems. Speed wasn't a problem with the HelloWorld, but no clue what that means for bigger programs. One thing I should mention though is the size of the dev kit -- a little over 4GB if I recall correctly. I'm running 10.5.6 with just MS Office and the iPhone SDK installed and I've only got about 1GB free on a 16GB drive.

Oh, another thing I should mention is that the iPhone simulator is so large that you have to turn the "phone" sideways in order to get it to 100% fit on the screen. Otherwise part of it is cut off because of the small height of the mini9 screen.

Hope that helps you some. I think the mini9 is probably your cheapest option -- I managed to buy mine for $225 and then upgraded the RAM to 2GB and the drive to a 16GB RunCore for about $80 total so my machine is more like a $300 than a $500 one

[cubedweller]

Works fine for me. I haven't done any serious development work on it yet but I've spent a few hours playing around and haven't found any major issues. The iPhone Simulator is a bit big for the screen, but it's really no problem to use (even when not in landscape mode). I haven't noticed any lag. My one complaint is the keyboard. I'm thinking of trying to get the international keyboard so that my quote key and bracket keys are in the right place.

[ploogle]

Thanks! Just wanted to make sure. If it runs basic stuff fine, it should run the rest fine as well. I'm going to get in the dev program ($99 fee, I believe) so I can run the software directly on the device itself.

Probably going to upgrade the HDD also, and invest in a portable hard drive.

Thanks again!

[st3ph3n]

Can you get the dev kit without joining up? Wouldnt mind trying before buying.

The iphone dev was one of the main reasons for me getting this and going osx on it.

[cubedweller]

Originally Posted by st3ph3n

Can you get the dev kit without joining up? Wouldnt mind trying before buying.

The iphone dev was one of the main reasons for me getting this and going osx on it.

The iPhone SDK is free. You just need to have an Apple ID to download it. The difference between the free version and the $99 version is the ability to load your apps directly to a device. The free iPhone SDK only allows development in the iPhone Simulator. Also, if you pay the $99 you can submit your apps to Apple for inclusion in the App Store.

[st3ph3n]

Ohhhh. Very nice mate. Just found the site for that now. Should really have looked harder last time.

[bjw]

There is a course for iPhone apps on itunes. It is being taught by personnel from Apple at Stanford University. May be a good start for those interested in writing apps for the iphone.

[cubedweller]

Originally Posted by bjw

There is a course for iPhone apps on itunes. It is being taught by personnel from Apple at Stanford University. May be a good start for those interested in writing apps for the iphone.

This is exactly what I've been doing for the past week or so. I just finished assignment #3 and now I'm on to the 6th lecture. I recommend it for anyone who wants to develop for the iPhone and has no experience developing for the Mac platform -- the first few lectures are really about using XCode and not so much about developing for the iPhone.

[st3ph3n]

I've subscribed to that podcast a few days ago but not watched any of it yet, and I've bought one of the O'Reilly books too. I downloaded the 2.0 dev stuff last night but didn't get round to installing it yet.

Possibly dumb question for the future - can I still sync my iPhone with my main box (which is a Vista Desktop) but also use it for the dev stuff? I don't particularly want to "pair" the phone with the mini as all my music and iTunes stuff is elsewhere but in the future I'd like to put my own apps on to it should they be of sufficient quality.