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Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

macincloud.com

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Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#41

Post by w33ble »

wgx wrote: post #5
Roritharr wrote: post #2

How would one deploy a iOS app using this service? It seems interesting since i don't own a Mac and am interested in iOS Development, but don't want to fork out the cash for a mac mini or something similar.

You'd need to import certificates every time you booted the VM (I assume) which would get old pretty quickly. Edit - looks like there is persistent on-VM storage, from the homepage: "In additional to local hard drive space..."

It's unclear if that local space is shared with others that might be logging in after you though.

Really cool concept overall, but there's a good amount of uncertainty in there. There's a handful of gramatical errors too, so maybe they aren't really ready to launch?

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#43

Post by de90 »

pieter wrote: post #27

Interesting idea, but the pricing is just much too complex. By having to choose between monthly/weekly, morning/day/evening and then number of hours there are perhaps 50 different plans available? I'm just too confused to make a choice.

That's how I feel too. I saw the title, and I thought: "Wow, I could really use this". Looked at the pricing, and was too confused to continue any further..

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#44

Post by estel »

Khao wrote: post #6

It's ridiculous that this service has plans that allows you to "log in from 9am to 5pm, max 5 hours per day". It looks like it's 1999 all over again where you have online services that are only available during certain hours because the servers are rebooted or turned off every day. This is not "cloud"-like at all, and is especially bad when you don't live in the same timezone.

Are there any guards against using the cheaper "early morning" plan against a fake timezone to make it a "daytime" plan?

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#46

Post by estel »

de90 wrote: post #43
pieter wrote: post #27

Interesting idea, but the pricing is just much too complex. By having to choose between monthly/weekly, morning/day/evening and then number of hours there are perhaps 50 different plans available? I'm just too confused to make a choice.

That's how I feel too. I saw the title, and I thought: "Wow, I could really use this". Looked at the pricing, and was too confused to continue any further..

The pricing isn't just confusing, but (unless I'm misunderstanding it...) also plain stupid.

For example, as a monthly plan it's $30/month for anytime access up to 5 hours a day; but also $30/month for evening access up to 3 hours a day!? Who is the later plan targeted at, exactly?

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#47

Post by estel »

csomar wrote: post #40
munchhausen wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, someone who lives in a country that is not loved by Apple. Here in central Europe, a Mac Mini goes for 1200$ without a monitor, and that's in the cheapest online store (where you will have to wait for over a week for it, as they do not have them in stock). Also, since there are no Apple stores, repairs and warranty in general is a pain to deal with. Considering these circumstances, a "Mac in a cloud" seems appe…

Ship to a USA service that ships to your country. Apple has free US shipping, and DHL costs around $120 from US to Africa (Tunisia, I think EU will have the same price).

You'd be likely to hit import taxes on that.

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#48

Post by delinka »

theBobMcCormick wrote: post #35
delinka wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'd like to become an electrician, but don't want to fork out the money to buy wire cutters or something similar." Yes, the analogy falls apart because you don't run proprietary software on wire-cutters. I understand that you might want to "try before you buy" with Mac and iOS dev, but I'm speaking to a slightly different issue. If you want to do a job, you either acquire the tools to do the job (wire cutters/a Mac)…

Wire cutters cost a couple bucks. A decent Mac you could use for development is a bit more expensive.

The cost is not relevant to my point. If you want to start a courier service in a fairly large area, motorized vehicles are a bit more expensive than a Mac.

Can't afford the tools? Find another line of work.

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#49

Post by microtonal »

bambax wrote: post #23

I run OS X on VMWare, it's fast, it's perfect. I wonder if they're doing the same (virtualized OS X, which works well but is, I believe, against Apple's EULAs) or if they use actual Macs (which would be quite burdensome)...? Edit: confused iOS and OS X. I feel stupid.

Is OS X on VMWare supported, if you are not using a Mac has the host system with VMWare Fusion?

(If so, that would be news.)

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#50

Post by untog »

theBobMcCormick wrote: post #35
delinka wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'd like to become an electrician, but don't want to fork out the money to buy wire cutters or something similar." Yes, the analogy falls apart because you don't run proprietary software on wire-cutters. I understand that you might want to "try before you buy" with Mac and iOS dev, but I'm speaking to a slightly different issue. If you want to do a job, you either acquire the tools to do the job (wire cutters/a Mac)…

Wire cutters cost a couple bucks. A decent Mac you could use for development is a bit more expensive.

Replying to delinka here because I can't reply directly:

It's very sad that there should be any kind of pay wall behind tinkering with your mobile phone. I get that if you intend on making an app that's going to earn you millions then buying a Mac is small change. But what if you're just starting out, and are curious about how to go about making iOS apps?

It's a real disappointment that anyone would think attaching a $1,000 price tag to programming is a good thing.

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