I was reading some sort of article stating you need Mac OS X to develop iPhone apps.
Is there really such a restriction?
Can't you just download the SDK (and the iOS developer program) IDE to Windows?
Yes, you do need Mac OS X for that. Xcode (SDK) will only work on Mac OS X.
However, if the legal part for you is not really important you can install Mac OS X on your normal PC. Just google "Hackintosh".
You don't need an actual Mac, just Mac OSX. If you don't feel like buying a mac than you can get a hold of the image of Mac OSX and install it onto your PC using Virtual Machine software. I use VMWare to run MacOSX from my Windows 7 x64 machine. VM's are a great way to go, the driers can take a bit to setup, but once everything is working it's perfect. VM's even support ethernet so from within the VM you can browse the web, download mac apps. Install things like XCode or GameSalad. I suggest researching how to use Virtual Machines.
One near-solution is to run OS X in a Virtual Machine on a Windows platform.
You're then developing on XCode on OS X, in a VM on Windows.
This way, you don't have to buy a Mac, or dedicate the hardware to a "Hackintosh".
Of course, this may not be legal by the license terms; I'm only speaking about the technical possibility.
You absolutely need Intel Macintosh hardware to develop iOS apps. The iOS SDK requires Xcode and Xcode only runs on Macintosh machines. I think that any Intel Mac will work, but with how fast things are changing a newer machine will get you longer time before you are forced to upgrade the machine.
Nope, you need an Intel-based Mac to develop apps for iOS. There is no iOS SDK for Windows.
That being said, there might be a way to use something like PhoneGap to develop your app "elsewhere" and then create a suitable package for iOS as well as other mobile platform. I am not familiar enough with PhoneGap and similar tools to know about this angle with any more certainty though.
You can't, there is no iOS SDK for Windows, it only has a Mac version. However, there are various emulators for Mac out there that you can try to install onto Windows. I've tried this before and it did work, however the performance was really poor. If you really wanted to do iOS development. I would strongly suggest you to actually purchase a Mac.
One year later...
I am not familiar with the prerequisites for developing native iOS apps, but wanted to add the possibility of creating a hybrid mobile application. Usually even then one needs the native tools and SDKs for building the wrapper application. But PhoneGap provide a cloud-based build service, which seems to do the job:
"What about developer accounts and SDKs? Do I need to set those up
before starting with PhoneGap Build?
No! But you might want to install some of the SDK emulators if you
don’t own a particular device that you want to test a build for."
Source: PhoneGap Build service
I have not tested the service myself. Just wanted to give an additional path to consider.
To be clear for iPhone apps development required Mac Computers. Xcode and iOS SDK to lead through the app development.Objective-C is the programming language which is most required for iOS app development to build apps. And to be frank, there is a difference between iOS and OS X. iOS and OS X share more framework. So porting app works from OS X to iOS is possible with a little work. If you are a cocoa developer you would be adapt to these frameworks easier.
Check for more information: developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Miscellaneous/Conceptual/iPhoneOSTechOverview/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007898
You can just install MacOS X on windows platform with the help of VMWare which you can use both of operating systems simultaneously side by side.
If you try develop iOS app with cordova like tools, you can simply build with the required SDK and compile it as iOS app then test it on your iPhone or any virtual emulators.
So this is an old question but also the first to appear for me in Google and I finally found a legal way. In 2020 you can go with MacInCloud, costs one dollar an hour for a basic plan. You can code everything elsewhere and then just use the cloud service to deploy the final steps in Xcode. Don't know about installing on your own ipad for testing, haven't gotten there yet.
Yes, you´re gonna need a MacBook or alike to develop for iOS. In my opinion, one of the biggest problems of developing apps for iOS is that you regularly have to buy a new MacBook (or another Mac based technology computer), since over time the most current version available of xCode for your already recently outdated OS X becomes incompatible with the newest iOS.
Related
Is it possible to use VirtualBox (https://www.virtualbox.org) to compile an iPhone app on a Windows 7 machine?
Specifically, we would like to utilize PhoneGap (http://www.phonegap.com) or Titanium (http://www.appcelerator.com/) to build the iPhone app.
PhoneGap requires Mac OS X Snow Leopard, which we would install on an instance of VirtualBox.
Has anyone done this before?
Yes, we understand this violates Apple's ToS. This is a prototype.
I would recommend looking into PhoneGap Build https://build.phonegap.com/
PhoneGap Build allows you to upload your source to their build service and get back app-store ready packages for a variety of platforms.
As far as I can tell, the only thing you need a Mac for in this process is to set up your provisioning profiles and developer certificate. Then you upload those to PhoneGap's service. From there it seems you should be able to use a non-Apple computer to develop and upload to the service.
This has been asked before, I know, but the answers are a bit dated.
I think I've read somewhere that the Snow Leopard EULA has changed and that you now are allowed to install the OS on a Virtual Machine of some sort.
I know I should buy a Mac and I might do so, but I want to try Objective-C in practice before I do that.
I want to develop an application for iPhone, but if the IDE is as nasty as they say I might skip it altogether. I just want to have a look at it first.
So, is it possible do install what you need to develop iPhone apps on a Windows based machine as host?
Yes. You can run OSX in a VM. I use MonoTouch and Visual Studio to write my applications in C# with a shared directory between the two. Write code in VS, build and debug on OSX within the simulator. It would also work with Objective-C if that's the path you take. If you're not a Mac Guy I would recommend MonoTouch though, it makes development MUCH faster.
Yes , it is possible to run OSX snow leopard on your PC.
I recommend that only for evaluation purposes (if you dont have access to mac development machines, friends/family/etc.).
Your shopping list would include:
a legit copy of snow leopard.
your choice of virtual machine (in my opinion , virtualbox is great, altough it doesnt support widescreen at the moment).
some guide for combining the above (google is your friend).
you will eventually need some drivers for your pc peripherals (sound card , usb etc).
I would start the research from step 3..
Once you're done , you will see that you need a very fast pc to develop, as Waiting for the apps to compile could be frustrating at times.
I tried to install OSX on my pc just for evaluation purposes , getting to know the SDK and the OS before I buy a machine. Actually waiting for the new series of MacBook Airs to buy one..
I've seen conflicting information on this. If I'm using RhoHub (Rhodes) to build an iPhone application, do I need to have a Mac in front of me or use their SDK with some kind of virtualized trickery? Or does Rhodes include a native Windows solution for testing/deployment?
I'm currently in a Windows XP environment.
You would need a Mac. The documentation states that:
iPhone versions of Rhodes apps need to
be built on Mac machines.
Additional Prerequisites for
iPhone are:
Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or greater (Snow Leopard)
the iPhone SDK installed (Apple only lets you submit apps for 3.0 or
higher, so that is also required for
Rhodes, starting with Rhodes 1.2)
the XCode IDE(highly recommended but not actually required)
Refer to this document: http://wiki.rhomobile.com//index.php?title=Building_Rhodes_on_Supported_Platforms#Build_Application_with_XCode
It looks like iPhone app development is now possible in Windows.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/rhomobile-brings-iphone-app-dev-windows-pcs-100?source=footer
My question is very simple:
Is there any solution to install xCode, or equivalent, under unix OS, like ubuntu ?
Indeed, i don't want to buy an expensive macbook to develop my private iPhone applications.
The iPhone SDK requires Mac OS, and you need to install the SDK even if you plan to develop applications with, say, MonoTouch or Corona.
I don't know if Mac OS can be run as a virtual machine inside Linux. Anyway, you may consider buying a Mac Mini. It is not very expensive and powerful enough for software development.
The OSX86 project might solve your problem. It's not as convenient as buying a cheap Mac, but you can install it on a regular PC and it seems there are ways to install XCode on it.
If you end up buying a Mac, be sure to look at the specs for IPhone development first. If I remember correctly, you need a mac based on an x86 core (such as the Mac Mini) to develop IPhone software.
xCode without Mac OS is definitely not possible. The real question here is, wether it's possible to install the complete Mac operating system in a virtual environment or not.
Last Saturday I tested a very nice soft called... VMware !
So is it possible to install mac OSX leopard on this kind of virtual machine ?
As far as I know iPhone development under unix is only possible if you jailbreak your iPhone. Which I would not recommend. You could try to buy a used Intel mac mini to develop for the iPhone.
Martin,
I am doing some apps development for an iPhone and I have a Windows 7. You can install VMWare and install the Mac OS 10.6 through this and load xCode from Mac. The key is in finding the correct place to download VMWare and Mac OS.
Good Luck.
Hi folks can any one please let me know , How to develop Iphone Applications on Windows Platform(Xp, Vista).if so
i have Windows System with XP OS
How to install the software
'what is the software name and
please let me know the Blogs and Free Downloads for Trail Versions
Thank in advance
Jagadeesh
It is not possible, and if it is possible, it is not worth your effort. Developing for the iPhone is only supported on Mac OS X through the Apple Xcode Developer Tools and Official iPhone SDK. While there are alternative toolchains out there (I don't know how good those are), you will almost certainly not be able to distribute your application to the App Store if you use those build tools. In addition, trying to setup your own cross-compiler environment can be quite painful. If you already don't care whether or not your application makes it into the App Store, then I suggest (from a purely technical standpoint) you buy a copy of Mac OS X Snow Leopard for $30 and violate the Apple EULA by installing it in a copy of VirtualBox on your Windows XP machine. You can then download and install the official Xcode developer tools and iPhone SDK in your virtual environment.
If you truly want to develop for the iPhone or have made the right ethical choice to not violate Apple's EULA, then I suggest you get yourself a used or refurbished Mac to develop on, or splurge for a new Mac laptop.
Take a look at the WiSDK project. Anyway it is under development and you need to register at beta tester if you want to try it. Note that this project is 100% unofficial.