Abhishek Chatterjee Online

Yes, this is the first and foremost question we need to address. The answer is actually very simple, and its also one of those which throws people off the track.

You will need the following:

1. Mac OS X 10.5 or later
2. Latest iPhone SDK (you need to sign up as a registered iPhone developer on Apple, it's free)

3. A device to test (iPhone/iPod touch) with the iPhone OS updated to the version you are developing for
4. A $99 iPhone Developer Program membership "IF" you want to deploy your application to App Store

Now the important thing here is, you can start iPhone dev with almost no monetary investment at all. The very first requirement, i.e. Mac OS X might have had you thinking. Usually most people conclude as per popular belief that if there is no Mac, there is no Mac OS X. It was true till the reign of Tiger. But Leopard onwards this has changed which shifted its target architecture to Intel. So that means, you could build a Mac clone using the same hardware that Apple uses and install Mac OS X. Yes, that indeed is true and also the cheapest way to get a perfect Mac OS X installation running. However don't do that before you have tried installing Mac OS X on your existing Intel computer (AMD is a bit of an issue but there are workarounds for it too).


So point 1 now translates to - Build a H@ckintosh. On a lucky day, this could be a breeze for you. You may already have a OS X compatible hardware set and doing a plain install might get it working. But for me, it wasn't completely true. I had to go through a long process of finding the right OS X distribution, tweaking BIOS, and fixing driver issues. I still don't have a 100% working video display driver and I hope someone somewhere will figure out a fix. If you got confused by my rant, don't worry that's my post no. 2 on how I got my H@ckintosh in place.


Post #2 should be: Getting the Hackintosh ready

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be posting a series of articles in which I will highlight my experiences with starting iPhone app development. I am sure there are many out there who have this thought crossing their minds "The iPhone is sooo cool, I am a programmer, I guess I should write some programs of my own!" and this just remains a thought since you either don't know where to start or you get thrown off by the fact that you need a Mac to run development tools and IDE or you simply loose interest because of the hazy picture.

I shall share my experience in a series of posts which will solely describe my experience and not try to act as a tutorial. These posts shall just serve as a kick off point which trigger enough interest in you to start researching more and actually get your hands dirty with creating apps.



So I guess lets begin then... post no. 1 on its way :)