Is it possible to develop iPhone apps with a Hackintosh? [duplicate]

Question

The answer is yes.

To develop iPhone applications, you need the iPhone SDK, which in turn requires Mac OS X version 10.5 (Intel). If you can satisfy this requirement in your OS X installation, then you can build iPhone apps. Whether you can test them just as easily depends on USB support in your installation.

The fact that the Mac Mini is $599 is irrelevant to the question and how inexpensive it is, is relative. What is inexpensive to one may not be to another (especially since the OP states that he is not in US, where it might be much more than $599).

Yes, its possible. But, issue is that iPhone SDK gets frequent updates and requires updated version of Mac OS X - updating hackintosh is pain (you can do better development on MacMini instead of wasting time to upgrade) and you will never know when your hackintosh will be unbootable!

USB, Audio are another issues I have seen in hackintosh.

It's definitely possible, and it's not even that hard if you're buying the parts with the intention of running OS X on them.

Most of the difficulties and incompatibilities people experience are due to attempting to try out OS X on hardware they already have. They may have an AMD system which needs a Voodoo kernel, they may have a Radeon 4xxx which will only work in VESA mode without hardware acceleration. Of course these things can be made to work, and it is getting easier all the time, but it's more effort and it's where the bulk of the problems come from.

Once you do get your Hybrid Mac working (as I affectionately prefer to call them) it still won't be as perfectly painless as the ideal (note: not actual!) Mac owning experience. But still, with a little common sense you get a lot more computer for a half or less of the price.

Edit: as for running OS X in a VM on a PC, it's really not very nice at all. It's a tremendous hassle to get it to boot at all, and even then it's not very usable as an environment, often without working sound/LAN/etc. You can obtain complete VMWare images of OS X which may not even work inside different virtualised environments!

Technically: yes. Legally: no. The OSX EULA doesn't permit it.

Note that having the right tools for your job is important, and the unknowns of running OSX on non-Apple hardware could lead to problems down the road. The Mac Mini isn't that expensive at $599, assuming you've already got a keyboard, mouse and monitor.

I know it will work, if you can get the damn thing to install and your able to get usb working.

I currently own a G4 mac mini and had a 2nd gen intel IMac (had to sell it to pay the bills). I paid for my iphone developer lic., bought a 2nd gen touch, booted my mini, downloaded the iphone sdk... Oh no, you need 10.5. Bought and installed 10.5... Oh no, you need an intel mac. Forced sdk install, apps build great for the simulator, but what is this, I can't sign my code. More hacking... Oh no, provisioning error. Connected the touch, unable to mount dev partition. I now left with no job, no money and no way to release my apps to try to make some money.

Oh, yeah, I'm going to try to install hackintosh in vmware, but only because I'm flat broke. Also, I wouldn't buy a another mini knowning that my g4 mini cost $599 (back in the day) but once I was done making it usable, I spent over $1000 ($200 aftermarket 1gig ram upgrade, $99 keyboard/mouse, $150 monitor, etc). Of course it's cheaper for better hardware now, but the mini nickel and dimes you to death. Do yourself a favor and just get a macbook, that will be my next buy.

And the funny and/or worst part about all of this is, I don't even like OSX or the iphone/touch.