I want to develop for Ios and I want to own a mac, but...

[ajp29]

I want to develop for Ios but regrettably I dont own a mac. Last summer I tried to apply for the college offer where i could buy a mac and get a rebate on an Itouch. They said that I could not buy a mac mini and get the itouch offer but I could buy an imac and get it. I dont have the money as of now to purchase a good imac(the higher end ones), which I think i need for that offer. Is it possible to buy a mac and Ios device for less than 1000 dollars? I have had a lot of bad luck with ebay. Do i need an Ios device to create the apps? I think it would be best to have it.

By develop I mean that I want to learn obj-c(I know java,c++,c#,and pyhton) and make games for it.

Thanks

ajp29

 

[GGJstudios]

I want to develop for Ios and own a mac, but...
I want to develop for Ios but regrettably I dont own a mac.

Conflicting statements. If you don't own a Mac, work, save your money and buy one.

 

[ajp29]

Sorry my English is not that good. I meant that I want to start developing for Ios and I wanted to own a mac. Not that I want to start developing and that I own a mac.

 

[fredfnord]

Well, first off...

Do you know programming at all? Do you know C? Do you know object-oriented programming?

If the answer to any of those three is 'no', then just worry about getting a Mac now. The iPhone simulator will do you fine for at least a months of learning. Even if not, it will probably last you a few months. Buy the iPod/iPhone when you find you need it.

That said, you can get a perfectly adequate Mac used (look for a core 2 duo mini, or a core 2 duo MacBook) for $600 or less, from Craig's List. And I've seen previous-generation iPod Touches on there for $100 or so. $700 total. This is in the SF Bay Area, so your mileage may vary if you are in a different area.

Or you can get a refurbished Mac from the online Apple store for $850 or less. Right now everything seems to be $850 or more, but I've seen them for as little as $600 there. Right now you can get a MacBook or previous-generation MacBook Air for $850. The cheapest Mac mini on there is $850, but that's because it's the server model (internal RAID, comes with Snow Leopard Server).

You can get a recent September 2009 iPod Touch from the same place, Apple refurbs, for $150.

$850 + $150 = $1000. Or you can wait a little while, see if some of the cheaper minis show up on the Apple store.

If you want to look at the refurbs on the online Apple store, go to store.apple.com and then scroll down and look in the lower left-hand corner of the page.