The arrival

At last the Mac Mini lands on my door step, well the post man handed to me over the door step at least.

So eager to get it out the box and set it up was I that I almost forgot I'd have to wait until my son was put down for his morning nap.

Once my son was sleeping I setup the Mac mini to see what I'd been missing in the world of Mackintosh computing. As I've come from a total Windows based computing world, the Mac OS X was a little daunting at first - though yes they are similarities, it was the navigating to what i needed that was new to me.

The Mac detected my old optical USB mouse no problem and though I received a message at first stating it didn't recognise the format of the USB keyboard, after a brief message a couple of mouse clicks and one key press on the keyboard, it actually set it up no problem and I was ready to begin playing with my new purchase.

I'm going to give myself a few days of playing with if and finding out where everything is before I start to download the 4Gb of development software I need to to develop mobile apps.

Right now the Mac is connected to my Router, no problems, and a click on the Apple icon on the top menu bar revealed the Software Update option (I like to keep everything as upto date as possible), and it's downloading the latest updates.

I'll come back soon when I've had a good play and begin downloading the development software.


- N.A.D.

Cheap Tesco USB keyboard

I purchased a USB keyboard from Tesco. Nice and cheap for £6.99.

I'm not quite sure if it will work, it should do - it's USB, so we will see when the mac turns up.

The keyboard is standard layout but has the windows logo keys. Will be interesting to test it, I'll get a nicer looking one at a later date but, as money is tight, for now this one will suffice.


- N.A.D.

All paid for.

At last, finally, I've managed to sort out my Paypal account. A very frustrating thing to happen, try not to be alarmed if it happens to you, as long as they can verify who you are then it shouldn't take long. It's just annoying.

As soon as my Paypal account was unblocked I paid the seller, apologising once again for paypals delay. I like to keep everyone involved updated when things are going awry.

So now I'm just waiting for the Mac mini to arrive. As it's coming from Greece I hope it won't take too long. I just need a USB keyboard now ( as I have a USB mouse) , then I'm ready to get familiar with the Mac OS X and then onto starting developing apps.

Once it turns up I'll post an update.

I'm very excited now and look forward to playing with the Mac OS as I've never used it (except on the iPod and iPhones iOS).

- N.A.D.

Mac found and bought

At last, after weeks of searching through eBay, reading item descriptions for the correct spec MacMini, sending countless messages to sellers asking to end the auction and sell to me direct - only to be either mocked or told no or just plain ignored, I HAVE BOUGHT A MAC MINI. It's a pretty decent one at that too.

2Ghz dual core intel processor, 4Gb Ram, 120Gb hard drive. Way over the minimum you need to develop apps on iOS. I'm very pleased with this find. I only have one slight problem.

PayPal, in there infinite wisdom, have decided for security reasons to temporarily hold my PayPal account from making purchases. My and my spouse do use it a lot though. So now I have to call PayPal on the phone to sort this out, which I can't do until Monday late afternoon.

So, now i have to send a message to the seller explaining this and hopefully they won't be too angry that I've won the bid but not paid straight away. It's Saturday now , so a payment late by 2 days is a lot really. Though it's not my fault, I do have to money to pay for it and I'm eager to get my hands on the machine, there's just nothing I can do at this point.

I'll see what Paypal have to say on Monday and what the sellers response was.

I'll update soon.

- N.A.D.

So it begins

So, I've decided to try my novice hand developing applications and games for mobile phones.

It's an idea I've had for some time but never thought I'd actually follow it through. I've basic knowledge of computer programming, mainly altering other people's code to see different outcomes and creating small basic games, but never anything on a large scale have I created.

I always thought in my life I'd create something. I wasn't sure what it would be and I'm still not sure this is it but, hey, it could be and it's worth a shot, right?

I like my iPhone, it's the best phone I've ever had (not counting my indestructible Nokia 3210) I decided to purchase one after owning a iPod Touch and realising I'd be lost without it's great selection of useful, entertaining apps and games. So, to me, it was a sound decision.

Having said all the above and taking it all into account, I've decided to try my hand at developing apps and games for the iOS (the iPhone and iPads Operating System - such like 'Windows' is to the PC).

So, where to start, what should I need for this new endeavour and will it cost me a lot of money?
All these questions, and more, I asked myself. After some research on my Windows 7 based PC, it became apparent to me that, without messing about a lot and possibly buying new PC components, I'd need to purchase a Apple Macintosh computer. I've never used a "Mac" before so I wasn't sure at first what I was looking for, yet alone if I could find one for a reasonable price!

I proceeded with some digging through Mac forums and reading the apple developers website (which was free to sign up for). I found out that I need a Mac with a Intel Dual Core processor and possibly running the Macs operating system and version called Mac OS X, Snow Leopard. This required a purchase but I just couldn't afford a brand new Apple Mac. So, not being too fussy if I'm using new or used tech, I opted to search eBay for a used Mac.

During my research up to this point, people had recommended to me that the Apple Mac Mini was a good option for development and, if I looked for one that was released from early 2006 to 2008, I could even upgrade it - even the processor, so I wouldn't initially need to spend a fortune on the latest, state of the art version. Nice!

Searching on eBay is never a easy thing when looking for something so specific that you end up wading through countless items related to your product but not exactly what you want to see. I found a few that had the minimum requirements to develop on, Intel dual core with at least 1Gb of ram. But most of them ended out if my price range. I even attempted to contact numerous sellers pleading my case, that I'd had enough of my crashing Windows based PC and wanted to move to Macs (which by this time was actually true). Some people where understanding but unable to help, some just didn't bother to reply at all and others just mocked me or seemed to laugh and think I was joking with my price offer.

This wasn't going well so far. I'd found items for sale I wanted, at minimum spec but as the weeks passed while I tried to save more money for this purchase, the ending auction prices seemed to be getting higher.

You know, sometimes I could swear blind that I was on some thing like The Trueman Show (funny movie staring Jim Carry, were hidden cameras are watching his oblivious, every move since childhood, for the millions of viewing watchers - BigBrother anyone?).

So reluctantly I decided to sell my PC too. This was not an easy decision to make as I knew I'd be with out a computer until I finally purchased the Mac.

Now, here us were I am at currently with my little adventure, supported by my spouse who is all for me to do this and to see if it turns out nicely.

The reason I created this blog was to share with you (if anyone decides to follow my adventure) from the beginning to the release of my first app and possibly beyond. Hopefully it will inspire others to try there hand at creating apps or, if anything, it may make for an interesting read at least. :-)

Next step is to find a decent Mac Mini that I can develop on for £250. I may have to sell more things, the way prices seems to keep going up. Crazy!

Keep checking back for updates on my progress.

- N.A.D.