Buying A Mac For The First Time For App Dev

zippy said:
xcode runs fine on 4g for iOS. Android Studio is a hog and will need 8g. I had a 2013 macbook pro with 4g for a good while doing xcode. I only upgraded to 8g when I installed Parrallels and Android Studio.

And a mac mini is perfectly fine. If you are getting one of the new mac mini's, the ram isnt upgradable because its soldered in, so your ram choice is pretty final.

Btw, you dont need Android Studio to do Android dev. Eclipse works fine. Although you find the new tutorials are more focused on Android Studio.

Word of warning, the Android Studio emulator is the worse ever. Especially after using the XCode's iOS emulators. It will feel like you need 128g ram for the Android Dev emulator
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this.
 
Just pop'd into the iStore and found out that it costs roughly 2k more for upgrading from 4GB of RAM to 8GB.

The MBP is definitely better value for money though the mini seems to have great price to spec ratio since there is no screen, mouse, keyboard etc.
 
If I was you, I'd either get the mini or the iMac. Both are cheaper and allow you some upgrading freedom in the future whereas the pro doesn't.

The air was designed for portability and it won't really cut it once you start using xcode heavily.
 
Just got the mac mini for R 9 799. Posting from it right now.

Can't seem to download chrome. Small scratch at the top right of machine so a little bit disappointed with that.
 
Le^stat said:
Nice one... Keep us posted with your thoughts.
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Managed to get chrome installed.

Used to use a mac back in 2008. Still love it.

Feels snappy and only lagged initially when loading pages for the first time in safari.

Busy downloading node and office for mac. Got myself some terminal themes as well. I think that is what I missed the most.

Also, must say, it is pretty amazing you can get all that functionality in such a tiny space.
 
shauntir said:
Managed to get chrome installed.

Used to use a mac back in 2008. Still love it.

Feels snappy and only lagged initially when loading pages for the first time in safari.

Busy downloading node and office for mac. Got myself some terminal themes as well. I think that is what I missed the most.

Also, must say, it is pretty amazing you can get all that functionality in such a tiny space.
Click to expand...

mac mini is great bit of kit. I got mine strapped to the back of my TV which is bolted to the wall. Use a wireless keyboard and trackpad which is held together by the magic wand.
 
Picked up one of the last(?) 2012 Quad-core i7 Mini's off the IC store towards the end of 2014, for cheap-cheap. It's not really being used for much, other than XBMC atm.

Bought the SSD upgrade kit, but haven't pulled the trigger on that yet. Plan is to put it through its paces at some point, want to start teaching myself some code on the side – should be ample for the next few years, I think (already upped the RAM to 16GB). These models were hitting #$&*@ crazy prices Stateside for a while, as in easily over $1000 at a point – then many popped up on the Apple refurb site, and things normalised – but that latter well has now run dry...

Point is – saw my exact model over on Valueforest a few weeks back for R5k... keep your eyes (and ears) peeled – some rare but good bargains to be had, every now and then...
 
MacBook Pro 13-inch: 2.6GHz with Retina display(2014) 128gig...

Digicape- no stock and no chance...
IC - "what is a mac?" sorry no stock...
Istore - Canal Walk- no stock.

Its looking bleak, I might just have cough up the extra $$.. :(
 
Android Studio and XCode runs perfectly on my MBP 15" Retina 2014! Plenty fast enough. But whatever you get, make sure you get at least 8GB of RAM. All my 16GB gets used up from just having Android Studio, XCode, and several other default applications open.
 
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