Best Mac for app development: getting an Apple Mac to create iPhone and iPad apps

Which Apple Mac should you get to begin app development? With Xcode 6 and Apple Swift ready to hit the mainstream, it's going to get a lot easier to developer iPhone and iPad apps. This is the Mac you should get.

Many Mac owners are interested in developing their own apps, and Apple makes it incredibly easy to create and build (and sell) apps for both the Mac OS X and iOS platform. In this feature we look at which Mac users should buy to develop apps.

Apple is gearing up to release a whole new programing language called Swift, which will make it even easier to develop apps for both Mac, iPad and iPhone. Thanks to Swift and the popularity of the Mac platform we could be looking at a fresh new wave of exciting app development. If you're keen on learning app development this article will also give you some pointers as to what you need to develop apps, and what features are less relevant.

Best Apple Mac for app development: balancing power

Choosing the right Mac for development can be a challenge. Apple creates a whole range of Mac laptops and desktop computers. All Apple Macs are great computers but some are better suited to app development than others.

Apple has recently refreshed most of its Mac range, and introduced lower prices for its MacBook and iMac computers.

With this in mind we’ve created this guide to buying the right Mac for app development. In this article we take a look at what a computer requires to be truly great for creating apps, and the features you pay more for. We then look closely at the range of Mac computers available, and the custom built to order options available that make sense for developers.

Finally we will look at some of the accessories, software and learning resources available that will help keen developers get started.

Developing apps on a Mac: how do you create a program on a Mac

Apple goes to great lengths to make it easy to develop apps (or small programs) for both Mac OS X and iOS. The development environment used to create apps for both is called Xcode, and this is a free download from the Mac App Store.

With Xcode you can build apps using two programming languages, the old Objective-C language, and the new Swift programming language.

The latest edition is called Xcode 6. At the time of writing Xcode 6 is currently only available in Beta form to developers signed up to the Apple Developer Connection. It is expected to be released alongside the Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite update in September. Xcode 5 is available for free from the App Store.

Uploading and selling Apps via iTunes requires a yearly subscription to the Apple Developer connection, but it's good value at $99 per year (approx £60). You only need this to upload and distribute apps via the Mac and iOS App Stores however, you don't need to pay this fee just to test and create apps.

You do need a Mac to develop apps for the iPhone and iPad. You can't code the programs using a Windows or Linux PC. But once you've got a Mac, any current model, you are pretty much good to start.

Developing apps on a Mac: how much power do you need?

Software development scales up depending on the size and complexity of the program you are making. Macs vary in power from the entry-level MacBook Air right up to the new Mac Pro.

If all you want to do is start to learn development and get a regular app onto the app store then you can use any Mac you want.

If you're an independent developer, creating a small iOS app then you can use just about any Mac (it doesn't even need to be a particularly recent model). Unlike creating video or music; creating code doesn't use up huge amounts of hard drive space. And if you're creating iOS apps you don't need a lightning fast processor, or a high-end graphics card.

In short: any Mac will probably do. So then it becomes a question of how much money you want to spend, and which will provide the best coding environment.

Apple’s Mac range for developers: what do you really need to program

Because coding is a high-end and complicated task, you may be tempted to veer towards Apple's pro line-up. You don't need the fast innards of the Mac Pro or MacBook Pro to develop apps.

What is useful for software development, however, is screen estate. Coding is a complex task that sometimes requires intense focus, but more often it requires research and tracking. Coders often need to have several programs and windows open at once: the Xcode developer environment, web browser, and perhaps a separate text editor, SQL Database editor, and much more. Development seems to be one of a task that requires everything Mac OS X has to offer.

So you need a Mac with a big screen, or you need to attach a big screen to your Mac. With this in mind we're going to rule out all of Apple's MacBook range. Let’s be clear: if you value a notebook and portability is important to you, then a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro with Retina display will do just fine for app development, and you can attach a monitor to these models for larger screen estate. But with a MacBook Air or Pro you pay a lot extra for a small screen that will feel cramped when programming.

Apple’s Mac range for developers: Mac mini is best value

The Mac Pro is overkill for most developers so the choice is between an iMac or Mac mini with separate display.

At £499 the Mac mini is the best value Mac, and it offers more than enough power and storage for app development. What it doesn't come with is a display, so you'll need to source one separately.

Normally the idea with the Mac mini is that you attach an old display, keyboard and mouse and it represents top-flight Apple computing at a fraction of the cost. However, for app development we suggest that you get a large display, so you might want to consider Apple's 27-inch Thunderbolt Display. Then again, at £899 you might want to shop around.

A good alternative would be this AOC Q2770PQU widescreen display. At around £425 it's half the price of the Apple Thunderbolt display, and has a 27-inch display with the same resolution of the Apple Thunderbolt display.

There is now a huge range of sub-£200 monitors that offer 27-inch displays. Some developers suggest picking up two 24-inch displays and placing them side-by-side.

Apple iMac: Best Mac for large-screen app development environment

If you are looking for a powerful Mac with a big display then Apple has you covered in the form of the iMac. You should get a model with a 27inch display, which starts at £1,449. It's not as cheap as the Mac mini but you do get a lot of extra for your money. The 27-inch iMac is a veritable powerhouse: a 3.2Ghz Intel i5 processor, 1TB hard drive, discrete NVIDIA graphics card with 1GB video memory, and of course that massive 27-inch IPS display. If you’re looking for a large-screen Mac that also has enough power for gaming then this is the one to go for.

Which Mac to get for App development?

We'd advise most new developers to go for the Mac mini with the AOC display. The Mac mini is a cheaper option than the iMac and the extra cash can be put towards software or training courses.

The 27-inch iMac is a better Apple Mac and you get a lot of extra features: such as the fast processor, large 1TB hard drive and NVIDIA graphics card. They're nice features, for sure, but they offer little towards developing apps. Mind you, if you’re also planning to use a Mac for gaming and general all purpose computing you might appreciate the extra power.

Apple Mac accessories and software for developers

Developers don't need as many accessories as other Mac users. A good Mac, a decent sized display and a good reference library and you're good to go. The only exception we'd make is to invest in a good backup system in case there are any problems. Apple's own Time Capsule is a great solution. Alternatively invest in a good USB external hard drive and use Apple's Time Machine software to perform regular backups.

There is also wealth of software that's good for developers. Here are some recommendations:

• Acorn: A powerful image editor that's a fraction of the cost of Photoshop
• BBEdit: Industry favourite text editor
• CodeRunner: Great alternative to Xcode for light programming tasks.
• Dev Color Picker: Makes getting colours out of programs and into your apps a breeze.
• Dropbox: Great for syncing files for remote access.
• Evernote: Perfect place to store programming notes.
• Little Snapper: Ability the take detailed screen grabs of programs and websites.

App development for Mac: learning Xcode and Swift

If you are planning to start App development for Mac or iOS, then you will need to learn Apple’s new programming language Swift. There is a range of new courses becoming available, and you will be able to quickly get up and running with Swift.

How to set up an out of office message in Mail on a Mac

Going away for a few days? Let people know you when you'll be back by adding this simple rule

If you have a corporate email account at work, the chances are you'll also have some kind of setting that enables you to tell people when you're on holiday or out on the office on business. But what if you don't? Or just want to set up an email auto reply on your Mac at home?

If you're using Mail, you may be surprised to learn that there are no settings or preferences that can enable you to setup an auto-reply like you would on a corporate email system. And there are no preferences for it on iCloud either (hint hint, Apple). The only thing you can do to get around this problem is to setup an Auto Reply rule in Mail. And that's what we're going to show you how to do.

Step 1: Open Mail Preferences

Open Mail and choose Mail > Preferences from the top menu bar or type 'CMD,' then select Rules from the toolbar (it's on the far right).

Step 2: Add a rule

You should now see a list or Rules with buttons on the right site that enables you to add, edit, duplicate and remove them. By default you should have a News From Apple rule setup already. Click the Add Rule button.

You should now see a drop-down sheet that enables you to create a rule that you can apply to your incoming and outgoing emails in Mail. You can create and apply as many different rules as you like, but here we're going to setup an Auto Reply.

Step 3: Name your rule

The first thing to do here is to create a unique Rule name and add it in the Description field. You can call the rule anything you like, but it makes sense to call either something general like 'Auto Reply' - so you can use the same rule again and again -- or name it something specific if it's a one off.

Step 4: Set your rule conditions

Now we're going to decide who our Auto Reply rule is going to apply to. This could be everyone that emails you while you're away or you can break the rule down into specific groups of people.

You could send up one Rule for friends and family and another Rule for work colleagues, for example, or even set up different rules for different email accounts. It's up to you.

For this tutorial we're going to keep it simple.

So underneath where it says “If any of the following conditions are met”.

Change “any recipient” to “To”.

Leave “contains” as it is.

And then add your email address to the empty box to the right.

Under “Perform the following actions”

Click “Move Message” and choose “Reply to Message” from the drop-down menu that appears.

Then click on Reply message text...

Step 5: Add your Auto-reply

A pop-up window will now appear which enables to write your out of office message. When you're happy with the result, click “OK” and the pop-up window will now disappear.

Step 6: Activate your Auto Reply rule

If you're ready to make the Rule live, now's the time to make it happen. Click “OK” again on the Rules window. A drop-down sheet will appear asking if you want to apply your rules to messages in selected mailboxes. Make sure you click “Don't apply” otherwise Mail will try to reply to every email you've ever received. And you don't want that to happen!.

You Auto Reply / out of office rule is now live. You can see whether it works by sending a test email to yourself.

Step 7: Turn it off

When you come back from your holiday or whatever, make sure you remember to switch off your Auto Reply otherwise people will think you're still away.

To do that, simply go to Mail > Preferences > Rules again and uncheck the Auto-reply rule you created previously.

How to select and copy text from Quick Look previews in OS X

You can banish the need to launch large apps each time you want to quickly copy anything within documents on your Mac by using Quick Look, Apple's nimble preview feature. We'll show you how to make this little gem even more useful by adding copy and paste capabilities.

Since it’s introduction in OS X Leopard, Quick Look has been one of our favourite everyday tools. It’s an incredibly useful way to quickly preview documents, music, and photos, without having to load up the application that would normally run them. If you’ve ever wanted to check how an MP3 sounds, but find the frustration boiling when iTunes suddenly launches after you’ve selected the file, or wanted to take a glance at a Pages document without waiting for the iWorks app to load, then Quick Look will be your new best friend. 

Sadly the feature is often overlooked, as many users are simply unaware of its presence, but once you’ve started using Quick Look you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. As the feature is built into the operating system it’s always available in the Finder. Just select the file you want to examine and then press the space-bar. This will bring up a window that allows you to look at the file.

If you want to increase the view to full screen then you can click on the arrows symbol in the top right hand corner, you can also launch the relevant app or share the file by clicking on the buttons to the left of the arrows.

It’s not just documents and photos that can utilise this tool, MP3 files are also available, with the ability to play the music directly in the window.

One feature that isn’t turned on by default though is the ability to highlight text within the preview so that you can copy and paste it into another document. Thankfully it is quite easy to enable, although it does require a little bit of typing in the Terminal application. Don’t worry, you won’t be there long and we’re here to guide you through the harrowing world of command line programming.

First of all you’ll need to launch the Terminal interface. To do this go to Finder and click on Applications>Utilities>Terminal.

The small window will open up, awaiting your commands. Simply copy the following text (you can cut and paste it to save typing) into the Terminal window, then press return.

defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE; killall Finder

Finder will refresh and nothing else will seem to have happened. This is fine, just close the Terminal app and use Finder to locate a text based document (Word, PDF, Pages, etc.). Click the file once to select it, then press Space-bar to bring up the Quick Look preview. Now when you highlight a section in the document you will be able to copy the text just like you would if it was running in a word processor.

You might find that you won’t be able to edit all documents. This could be due to protection within some files, but on the whole it’s a great way to speed up your workflow with only a few clicks.

Set up Photo Stream on your Mac, iPad, and iPhone and see your photos on all your Apple devices

Step 1 of 9: Create an iCloud account on your Mac or iOS device

For Photo Stream to work you’ll need to have an active iCloud account.

Usually you’ll create this when setting up a new machine, but if you skipped that part it’s easy and free to open one now on your Mac or iOS device.

On your Mac click on the System Preferences icon in the Dock, then select iCloud and simply enter your Apple ID. You’ll be given a few settings to enable, just make sure that you click on the options button next to Photos and that the My Photo Stream box is ticked.

To create an account on an iOS device go to Settings, iCloud, and enter your Apple ID.

Step 2 of 9: Enable iCloud in iPhoto

Now that your account is created you’ll need to give applications permission to use it before any photos will be able to download.

Again this is very simple. Launch iPhoto on your Mac and look in the left hand column where you’ll find the Library, Recent, and Sharing categories.

Under the latter is iCloud, click on this and then select the Use iCloud option.

Your account is now ready to receive any images you create, so it’s time to enable that feature on your iOS devices.

Step 3 of 9: Enable Photo Stream on your iPhone

As the iPhone is likely to be the device you use most for photography, having a working Photo Stream is very important.

To do so you’ll need to go to Settings, then iCloud and ensure that the My Photo Stream button is enabled.

Depending on which iPhone you have you may also see the Upload Burst Photos option, which will transfer only your favourite photos from Burst mode if you enable it.

This is good as otherwise your photo library would be swamped with duplicates of essentially the same image.

Step 4 of 9: Enable Photostream on your iPad

As the iPad is running the same software as the iPhone the setup is pretty much identical.

The one omission is the Upload Burst Photos option is missing from the iPad as the cameras are not quite as powerful as those of its smaller sibling.

So to enable Photo Stream go to Settings, scroll down until you find iCloud, tap on Photos, then ensure that the My Photo Stream button is slid to the right and coloured green.

Step 5 of 9: Take a picture to see how it works

Now that all your devices are in sync its time to see just how easy Photo Stream is to use.

With your iPhone or iPad take a picture of something. It needn’t be high art, just a quick shot to test that everything is working properly.

Once the picture is taken go to the iPhoto library on your Mac, or to the Photos app on your iPad, and (as long as you are connected to WiFi) you should see the photo arrive shortly after you snapped it on your iOS device.

It’s that simple. As you continue to capture moments, the photos will now sync quickly and quietly in the background.

Step 6 of 9: How many pictures can Photo Stream store?

While Photo Stream is very easy to use, understanding how the storage works can be a little more challenging.

Essentially you are entitled to one thousand photos, which is a large amount, and none of these count against your iCloud storage.

One thing to note though is that the photos are only held on the iCloud servers for thirty days. This means that if you buy a new iPhone or iPad and setup Photo Stream, you’ll only see photos from the last four weeks.

Existing devices will hold all one thousand as they’ve already synced them from the servers before they were deleted.

Step 7 of 9: Sharing your Stream - Creating a folder

Along with your own devices, it’s also possible to share your photo streams with friends and family. To do this you’ll need to create a new stream folder.

First off you’ll also need to check that Photo Sharing is enabled by navigating to Settings>iCloud>Photos. Then go to the Photos app on your iOS device and tap the Shared icon at the bottom of the screen.

After the library has updated you’ll see the option Create New Stream. Tap this, name the Stream, and then add the contacts you wish to share your photos with.

Bear in in mind that the recipients will need to have Apple IDs and iCloud accounts to access the Stream.

Now tap Create and your Stream is ready. You can create multiple Streams, and add different photos in each. We’ll do that next.

Step 8 of 9: Sharing your Stream - adding photos

Tap on the Stream name you’ve created and you’ll see the folder is empty. To remedy this tap the plus box in the top left corner then select the photos you wish to share in the Stream.

You can do this individually or tap on the Select option on the right which will highlight all the images in that particular group.

When you’re happy tap Done, add a note if you want to, and the Stream is now accessible to those you invited.

Step 9 of 9: Photo Stream in iOS 8 and Yosemite

With iOS 8 on the Horizon, and new changes set to take place in OS X Yosemite, Apple is set to update these features to even better ones in the near future.

Come the autumn, Apple’s 1000-photo iCloud sync limit will be history, to be replaced by an all-encompassing, some-storage-required iCloud Photo Library.

iOS 8 you’ll have two choices: Keep your photos on the phone locally and use Photo Stream to wirelessly sync them to your other iCloud-enabled devices, as you have in the past; or use Apple’s new iCloud Photo Library.

If you enable the library, and any photo or video you shoot or import will automatically upload to iCloud. That content will be stored at its full resolution and in its original format (e.g. JPG, PNG, Raw.)

All of those images will be viewable on any iOS device or on the web; and from the beginning of 2015, you’ll be able to upload and view photos from your Mac, too.

Unfortunately you will have to start paying for the storage you use, unlike Photo Stream, but it’s going to be cheap. Apple says you will get 5GB for free as part of your iCloud account, and you’ll be able to buy 20GB of storage space for just $1/month—or 200GB for $4/month. We expect that UK pricing will be around 79p - £3.49 a month (in line with prices on the iOS App Store).

Having your library synced and backed up to iCloud should be a great way to keep your pictures backed up and easily accessible. We hope that you will be able to manage your storage space by only downloading the photos that you want, rather than filling up your devices with every image you’ve ever taken, which could eat up a lot of storage on a 16GB iPhone.