Can I use a Mac Mini with VS 2015 for Cross Platform Development?

Question

I am gearing up to build a Xamarin based universal app. It appears I need to have a Mac to deploy and test against an iPhone, if I am reading things correctly, as there is no emulator available. As it appears that I am using the Mac as basically a router, can I use a Mac Mini? Is the 1.4 GHz enough or do I need a 2.6+ GHz model? I really don't have the desk space for a full Mac.

Answer 1

You don't only need the Mac for access to an emulator - you also need it for the actual compilation/linking. The Apple SDK is required for producing binaries that will run on an iOS device.

Another consideration: you will need to be running either the Business or Enterprise tier of Xamarin in order to use the iOS Build Server feature.