11 ms·

Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

• Roritharr 15y ago
  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.
  • srainier 15y ago
    That's a great question. I imagine you wouldn't be able debug on a device with Xcode, and that could be a hindrance to development. But you could use a service like TestFlight to deploy builds to your iOS device. Ultimately I think this would work for trying out iOS/Mac development, and if you decide you like it after a few months you'd get a Mac for more permanent development.
  • wgx 15y ago
    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..."
    • w33ble 15y ago
      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?
      • aninteger 15y ago
        Why wouldn't it be like unix where each user has their stuff in their home directory. OSX already has this concept with user switching. This just allows you to login as multiple users on an OSX machine at the same time.
  • delinka 15y ago
    "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) or you Work Harder rather than Working Smarter (bend the wire until it breaks/shoehorn OS X onto a Hackintosh.)
    • theBobMcCormick 15y ago
      Wire cutters cost a couple bucks. A decent Mac you could use for development is a bit more expensive.
      • delinka 15y ago
        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.
        • Wilya 15y ago
          I don't see how the fact that I don't want to pay for a specific set of tools (a mac machine) prevents me from being interested in alternative tools.
          • delinka 15y ago
            In the case of iOS development, alternative tools have their own cost: effort to set up and maintain. Akin to how most operating systems besides Windows take additional effort to set up on that new Dell. If you can afford this extra effort (i.e. have the patience to work through the quirks), then you're welcome to it. Complaining about needing to obtain a Mac to gain the convenience of Apple's development environment is pointless.
  • delackner 15y ago
    Then buy up the oldest Core 2 Duo mini you can find. Probably $200-$300. You can download Xcode for free. Used iPod touch 3rd gen maybe $100-$150 if you don't have an iPhone. Back when OS 10.1 came out I took a look at Cocoa documentation and some sample code, read up on Interface Builder, and felt intensely that this was the clean, user AND developer-friendly well-packaged Unix platform I had been dreaming of. I had to learn it, despite having a pure Unix background (Vim was my editor for many years at this point). I paid more than $3000 for a mac desktop. That was more money than I had spent on anything in my life. It also opened the doors to my next job, and my job after that. Invest in your future.
  • w1ntermute 15y ago
    I just pirated a copy of OS X and installed it in a VM under my Linux/Windows dual boot (the VirtualBox VM file can be opened in either Linux or Windows). I don't know about laptops, but with a decent desktop (probably cost me ~$1000 to build it ~6 months ago with components from Newegg and Amazon, but $500 would be sufficient), you can virtualize OS X without any problems.
• keeran 15y ago
  Cool for people who want to try things out / test on macs, but complicated pricing and hassle of key management would put me off using this as a real dev platform.
• Khao 15y ago
  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.
  • mootothemax 15y ago
    It's ridiculous that this service has plans that allows you to "log in from 9am to 5pm, max 5 hours per day" To be fair, they offer "Anytime" plans which cost more, but let you log in any time you like :)
  • techsupporter 15y ago
    It doesn't appear to be due to server reboots, instead it's to spread the load. If you're an after-hours coder--doing things as a side project after your day job is finished, or just like being up at night--the 9a-5p plan isn't for you. As someone who is up all night (basically 9p-5a), I appreciate the ability to pay less because I'm never going to use the "peak time."
  • estel 15y ago
    Are there any guards against using the cheaper "early morning" plan against a fake timezone to make it a "daytime" plan?
• robjohnson 15y ago
  What a novel idea. I have many friends without Macs who would be interested in this. (I am a little curious about the logistics though.)
• deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
• huhtenberg 15y ago
  Anyone tried them? What the interaction lag/jitter is like? (edit) Also, it seems there might be an issue with using their Macs for developing commercial software. Who knows where the contents of these Macs will end up being copied or backed up.
• jefflinwood 15y ago
  This might be a good missing link for PhoneGap Build - https://build.phonegap.com/ https://build.phonegap.com/ - which requires that you have a Mac for your certificates. I've seen a few people complain about not being able to use PhoneGap to build an iOS app because they don't have a Mac and don't want to buy one.
  • k-mcgrady 15y ago
    I'm not sure that this would solve the certificate problem. With the standard iOS dev program you can only use 1 machine to develop on. If you want to move to another machine you have to invalidate all your old certificates. If you are working off the same part of the server every time it might work but otherwise it would still be problematic. Also it might not be very secure for the company to allow you access to Keychain.
• RexRollman 15y ago
  Interesting idea. I wonder how the UI would feel, though, given the considering amount of compositing that Mac OS X uses.
  • delinka 15y ago
    It's going to composite everything into a buffer on the Mac just as quickly as normal. Transmitting that buffer across the Internet is going to run into lag. It will be anything from a minor annoying delay to a completely unusable lag. You probably aren't going to do gaming or videos (or Quartz Composer, etc) on your remote Mac.
• brador 15y ago
  Conceptually awesome. Poorly delivered. Someone do this right and you will be making money. What I'd like: Personal files/certs etc. on my local HD, then I log in to my cloud mac and it uses my local HD files as an external hard drive of sorts. or even uses dropbox for my files. Is this possible?
  • quux 15y ago
    If you scroll down to the "Where can I save my files?" section they do mention support for dropbox and other cloud based file storage systems.
  • stevensanderson 15y ago
    I was going to try it out, but once you've registered, you have to raise a support ticket to ask them to put a free trial on your account. > Step 2 - Experience a Free Trial After registering your MacinCloud website account, please log in and create a new Support Ticket under Help > Support > New Support Ticket. Click New Support Ticket -> MacinCloud Trial -> Sales, and request for a trial. Please attach a note and let us know if you have any specific needs. Um, no, sorry. I don't have that much patience. Honestly this could be a great service for Windows-based web developers who just need a few hours on a Mac now and then for testing, but the signup process needs to be instant.
• johnmurch 15y ago
  Interesting concept/idea but a business model? Really theres a demand?
• roadnottaken 15y ago
  What kind of Mac developer wouldn't just get a mac?
  • ams6110 15y ago
    Someone who doesn't have $1,500? Edit: Well a Mac Mini is $600 (with no monitor), but still... if you could rent a virtual Mac for $20/month that's still over two years before you're money ahead.
    • alpb 15y ago
      I believe lots of iOS/OSX app developers want to make money out of the apps they are planning to develop. So why would someone just not invest money on a computer (which is a really good and hi-quality) machine imho) that is going to make them earn money?
      • wladimir 15y ago
        I suppose it's primarily useful for people that develop cross-platform applications and want to test/develop on a Mac as well. Sure, if the Mac is your primary platform then it makes little sense not to buy one.
      • notatoad 15y ago
        have you not been reading? not everybody is an ios/osx dev. web devs need to test on macs sometimes.
    • cygwin98 15y ago
      You can buy used imac or mac mini at around $300. Even 5 year old late 2006 imac, which I got from one of my friends for free, can install Lion and be used for iPhone app development.
    • munchhausen 15y ago
      Also, someone who lives in a country that is not loved by Apple. Here in central Europe, a Mac Mini goes for 1200$ 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 appealing, especially if you need it just as a testbed.
• ltamake 15y ago
  Gonna be brutally honest here, those pricing plans are shit. Allow me to log in for an unlimited amount of time and lower the price a bit, and we'll talk.
  • heelhook 15y ago
    While you are at it, get me a cup of coffee... Aren't you asking for a bit too much (specially on the "lower the price" bit.
    • aninteger 15y ago
      I really don't think it's asking to much. Maybe they could charge a smaller amount for command line/shell only access. The premium you're paying here seems like it's just to stream the OSX GUI over the RDP protocol.
    • ltamake 15y ago
      Paying $30 a month for 5 hours of use is really stupid.
• bambax 15y ago
  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.
  • tghw 15y ago
    iOS or OS X?
    • seclorum 15y ago
      This conflation is happening all over the place .. people don't understand that iOS and OSX are different, it seems. I wonder if this is going to, at some point, work in Apples favour .. ?
      • grecy 15y ago
        > I wonder if this is going to, at some point, work in Apples favour .. ? Many people have speculated about the changes in 10.7 that made it much more like iOS, with the exact idea that one day iOS and OSX will be essentially the same thing (at least from the user perspective anyway). I certainly see them heading in this direction...
        • seclorum 15y ago
          Me too. I imagine the next iteration of Macbooks will basically be an iPad-formfactor device, albeit with Macbook-scale screen sizes, and a removable/attachable keyboard/trackpad combination, with some variation in the onboard OS that allows either 'iOS'-style touch interaction, or traditional OSX WIMP-style interaction for those that need it. I'd certainly buy an iMacBook-thingy that was a 17" iPad'ish thing, that could work in both modes. Going to be interesting times .. I suppose I have to hold onto my aging 2007 MBP another year or two and then upgrade on the next generational bump.
    • bambax 15y ago
• geoffc 15y ago
  Nicely done! We have just launched a similar concept for Windows desktops at leostreamdesktops.com. I think the growth of tablets is really going to drive the cloud desktop market as people switch to tablets as their primary access device.
• pieter 15y ago
  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.
  • de90 15y ago
    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..
    • estel 15y ago
      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?
      • davux 15y ago
        It says "Total Login Hour Options (Limited Time Discount!)" for the anytime access--so it seems that it normally costs more. Still a pretty complex pricing model, wonder what they're doing on the backend to swap sessions around.
  • mjschultz 15y ago
    Indeed, my first thought on seeing all the options was: how could I game this? For example, if I live on the east coast (UTC-5) and select the lowest-cost option (3 hours of use from 1am until 9am for $20), but claim my timezone is the Alaska (UTC-9) I believe I could actually use the service from 5am until 1pm in the east coast. I don't know if that's how it would actually work, but it certainly is confusing. That said, if you look at the academic pricing plans the presentation is much clearer and easier to understand.
  • joezydeco 15y ago
    What is a "3 hour minimum"? Do I have to log in for that amount of time each day?
• hockeybias 15y ago
  Too complex...
• OoTheNigerian 15y ago
  Good idea but there is just so much text in there. It makes it seem too complex. Just have a look at the "getting started page" http://www.macincloud.com/getting-started http://www.macincloud.com/getting-started
• toblender 15y ago
  Neat. This will allow my team in India to develop without using logmein.
  • huhtenberg 15y ago
    Logemin is free though, isn't it?
• conductr 15y ago
  Awesome service. Way to complex pricing. Make the user choose between two choices. Plan A: limited to X hours/day, Plan B: unlimited usage. Price each accordingly to achieve the desired outcome. My bet is, the actual usage of "unlimited" users will be similar to users of the limited plan, with a few outliers.
  • heelhook 15y ago
    A simple "help me choose a plan" type of wizard would definitely help strip the complexity of the pricing to the buying process.
• hussam 15y ago
  meh
• sdafssd 15y ago
  Should offer a boot CD iso that works in recent x86 devices with as many NICs and wireless adapters as possible, and support all inputs on almost all x86 PCs, and most display adapters, then I might use it as a virtual Hackintosh on my underpowered x100e netbook.
• ilaksh 15y ago
  This is the least expensive service of its kind, and yeah there are a few too many options for times, but it is a great idea to limit it to X hours and provide a cheaper monthly rate. The closest competitor is much, much more expensive. I don't have the money to buy a decent Mac, and I really need to set my new web software system up to run on OSX.
• mjs00 15y ago
  I have an overseas developer (with a mac), but that wants to test xcode/ios simulator and have the location services work in the US as it does for a US-based developer. Are the servers in the US, or is this configured such that the ios simulator thinks its in the US (and if so, what location?)
  • coob 15y ago
    If your developer needs to be somewhere physically to test location services, he's not very good at researching alternative solutions: https://github.com/futuretap/FTLocationSimulator https://github.com/futuretap/FTLocationSimulator
    • mjs00 15y ago
      Thanks coob. This was my requirement on a testing scenario to ensure my app is working correctly with Core Location, and my app is U.S. locations only right now. He's in Europe and he used a different 'fake location' work around (BTW, thanks on your link!), which is nice generally speaking to test app, except when the point of the test is to make sure everything OK with Core Location against my U.S. service data. While he can remotely use a mac on my network for this test, my question is to explore if this is viable option in place of that.
• civilian 15y ago
  The pay system should be "pay as you go". Obviously, the daytime hours are going to be more expensive, and they can easily chart it out. Kind of like how toll bridges scale their cost based on traffic: http://wstc.wa.gov/highwaytolling/SR520Bridge.htm http://wstc.wa.gov/highwaytolling/SR520Bridge.htm
• mc32 15y ago
  So how did they work this out, licensing-wise? AFAIK, MOSX is only allowed to run on Apple HW to be license compliant. Did they develop their own VM or are they using something like ESXi 5 for the virtualization on Apple HW?
  • gchucky 15y ago
    It's a real Mac. From their FAQ: > Am I renting a real Mac? > Absolutely! We use only authentic Mac computers made by Apple. We do not use any virtualization or sandbox technology to synthesize the Mac experience.
    • mc32 15y ago
      Thanks for that.
• aninteger 15y ago
  Check out a company called Aqua Connect for a similar concept. Except that you purchase the server software for your Mac. Also uses RDP. Edit: I do not work for this company and have not used their product.
• aninteger 15y ago
  Does it seem weird to anyone else that it requires a connection speed of 1 megabyte (not megabit) per second? Also no contact information? No mailing address? Edit: By requiring 1 megabyte per second you're technically requiring the same data rate that you would need to stream dvd video. Requiring that data rate seems more consistent with the VNC protocol and not RDP.
• rboyd 15y ago
  I'm looking for a good solution for continuous integration of OS X/iOS builds. By the looks of these comments, this isn't it. Does anyone have more worthy suggestions?
  • bad_user 15y ago
    Buy a Mac Mini.
  • cheald 15y ago
    Mac Mini off of Craigslist is a good bet.
  • vgrichina 15y ago
    I'm launching such specific solution – http://hosted-ci.com/ http://hosted-ci.com/
• dreamdu5t 15y ago
  So what kind of "developer" can't afford a computer of their own?
  • darkstar999 15y ago
    I am a developer, I can't afford a Mac (and thus have never learned iOS). Are you suggesting that I should be able to afford any sort of computer?
• spacehaven 15y ago
  Timeshares!
• heelhook 15y ago
  Really? I need to submit a ticket after registering to give it a try? Ok, cool, thanks but, too much work to try it out. Would make more sense to queue me in and limit sessions to 5 minutes or something like that, but that much interaction is a deal breaker.
  • trunghlt 15y ago
    +1
• vtail 15y ago
  So let's see who your potential customer is: - Someone who owns a computer, with a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse (of course) - Someone with a decent internet access - Someone who has either invested or going to invested 100's of hours to properly learn the iOS/Mac frameworks - Someone who is hoping to either make a living off his Mac development or threats this as in important hobby - Someone who will be able to afford to pay $20+/monthly = $240+/yearly - And finally, someone who is either unable to afford an older mac mini ($200-300 as noted in other comments) OR someone who has no cheap way to deliver older mac hardware to his home country. From all the above, the potential market size seems too small to me to be an interesting business. Am I missing something?
  • aespinoza 15y ago
    That is indeed right. But we just read this and in my office 6 people are already looking into it. We are all Linux/Windows Devs. But we are interested in the iOS ecosystem. This service would allows to enter without many barriers. Also it would allows to interact and be part of team developing iOS. I think idea rocks. We could at last port some of our apps to MonoTouch.(We are using MonoDroid already).
    • vtail 15y ago
      It certainly is a valid point. However, your assumption seems to be that the biggest barrier to entry would be hardware? If so, I disagree, with all due respect. I spent best parts of the summer learning iOS - it's not extremely hard, but it has many non-obvious corner cases that you'll need to spend some time to discover. So with almost any reasonable hourly rate (even at the minimal wage) I've invested much, much more in the learning of the framework that I would spend on a minimal hardware that will allow me to develop for iOS. Let's face it - if you're serious about porting your apps to iOS, you would buy a mac at some point.
      • aespinoza 15y ago
        It is hardware and software, it is the Mac ecosystem; at least for me. My core business is the Web and we are getting into Android. I already spent several thousand dollars in Hardware. If I want to develop in Mac I need a Mac. It is not as easy as Linux. I could of course built my own Mac, but still it gets pretty expensive. Specially since iOS is not our core market. Now, if iOS ends up being big for us, then yeah, we would stop using the service and buy our own machines. But then the service served its purpose. I guess what I am trying to say is that this kind of service has a market and is not that small. But I do agree with you 100%. If you are serious about iOS development, you need to get your Mac.
• Skywing 15y ago
  Has this been done before? If not, then why not? With all of the available services like this for Windows and Linux, why not Mac? Is there some sort of license fee or restriction that makes this type of service difficult to profit from? I'm just trying to figure out why I have not seen more of this type of service for Mac, especially with the large number of responses to this that seem to be really interested in it.
  • amccloud 15y ago
    Licensing I think. IIRC, Previous versions of os x did not allow virtualization. Lion does not have this restriction.
• izak30 15y ago
  With the way that apple computers hold their value, I'm surprised that there aren't physical leasing systems from third parties. $30/mo on a mini, $45 on a low-end air seems doable.
• feydr 15y ago
  I don't own a mac (never have probably never will) but I find this service to be awesome! I don't even need to sign up for a year - rent one for a couple of months is all I'd need.
• dpcan 15y ago
  I saw this service before I purchased my Mac Mini for iOS development. I opted out because tho it was more affordable and would probably fit my needs, I just didn't want my code on someone else's mac somewhere in the world. So, tho this seems pretty suitable for development, there are probably a lot of developers like me who like to keep their code in their own hands.
  • dotBen 15y ago
    I appreciate the notion, but the massive success of github's private repositories (which of course are stored on their servers) would suggest otherwise.
• neebz 15y ago
  Has anybody been able to register? I signed up with my email/password and now it says to use username to login , which wasn't even in the registration form :/
• J3L2404 15y ago
  You can even develop on an older PowerPC which is what I did years ago when I wasn't sure I was going to like Xcode. It is an amazingly simple change to the installer script and simulator settings. I paid short money for an 04 iBook, did some coding and eventually upgraded. My girl inherited the iBook and its still runs like a champ. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/695558/development-for-iphone-on-ppc-based-computer http://stackoverflow.com/questions/695558/development-for-ip...
• alexwolfe 15y ago
  Very interesting technology. The problem I see with this is that the product is directly competing with Macs. For instance, at the high end of Rent-a-Mac you will be paying $49 a month or around $600 a year. In this case it would make more sense to buy a mac mini for $600 which will no doubt perform much better than a virtualization. I think there is probably a pricing model for this type of service, however I'm guessing it would be geared toward large groups (companies) that don't want to invest in buying 20-50 new Macs. It would need to be much much cheaper than the current model or most companies will choose to just buy new Macs especially because they can get a tax write off for new equipment.
• tluyben2 15y ago
  Ah finally. I was wondering why not more people would come with this. I need this so often. Thanks guys :)
• rorrr 15y ago
  And then you could rent another max from that mac. How deep can you go?
• rufugee 15y ago
  Too bad they don't support Linux as a client. Wonder if they're using VNC?
• AndrewWarner 15y ago
  I've been considering something like this for outsources who don't have access to macs.
• shaggyfrog 15y ago
  Your screenshots show an out-of-date version of Xcode. Hopefully that's not the only version you're providing. What is the "2-Hour Daily Minimum" on the weekly plan or the "3-Hour Daily Minimum" on the monthly plan? Does the customer not have it for the full week or month?
• kin 15y ago
  Personally, I would use it. I don't feel like shelling $600 for a Mac, I but I would shell $20/month for 6 months and get some work done. Time value of money is worth a lot. The pricing turns me off however. Keep it simple with free month trial and simple monthly dues after that based off of hours/day. Why do I have to pick a specific time zone? Why do I have to pick a specific time to develop? I understand the need to scale I suppose but, really, forcing users into one time zone doesn't quite help scale if they all pick the same one.
• metafour 15y ago
  If you buy a used mac and end up not liking iOS/Mac development you can most likely sell it for the same amount that you bought it for. If you're renting time on a mac like it's AOL back in the '90s you're almost certainly losing out in both the short and long terms.
• deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
• deleted 15y ago
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• pullo 15y ago
  The customer base seems to be people who do not own a mac , but would like to spend some time on one. this is truly a fleeting and shrinking population. Think about this...on a macro scale, if mac's marketshare goes up, your user base goes down. if the share goes down, then your service is irrelevant. there are plenty of virtualization/remote solutions out there. some as a resource addendum ( aws) and some for variable platforms ( deviceanywhere-for phones). aws - cause an individual developer cannot own such resources ;deviceanywhere-cause the phones and their os platforms change at a rapid pace. where does your service fit in this landscape? i can see your product being used by offshore dev teams , but still paid for by US companies. that again is an even smaller market.
• ctdonath 15y ago
  Arguments for/against this service miss one other notable point: development anywhere anytime. Pull out your iPhone or iPad (heck, even a $200 iPod Touch given open WiFi) and work away.
• rguzman 15y ago
  you should fix the free trial flow. i just signed up to try it out. the first obvious thing is that you ask for my email but the login form asks for a "username", which is my email, but it is confusing. the important bit, though: after signing up i have to open a support ticket to get started? that's where you lost me.
• kgen 15y ago
  How exactly do you try the app that you built on the device if it's running in a remote VM? Does it somehow remote-map the usb port?
• Groxx 15y ago
  Hopefully this includes alternate versions of OSX for testing purposes? Then I can really see this being useful. Running a bunch of versions is hard / expensive.
• its_so_on 15y ago
  hahaha, the existence of this service... are macs expensive? How expensive are they really? "Yo a desktop mac is so expensive there's this service to give DEVELOPERS (knowledge workers) access to one on TIMESHARE." Like real estate.
• deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
• sumukh1 15y ago
  As an iOS Developer, what I could see the value in was getting access to older development version of Xcode/iOS SDK for short periods of time. 30-60 minutes at most. I'd pay a small amount for that. Another opportunity is for academic classes to teach iOS Development. It's cost prohibitive right now, but it's something to look into to. The problem is that I don't see the business being one that has long term clients. If anyone is developing for more than 4 months, they'd probably have obtained a machine by then.
• thomasfl 15y ago
  Is there a similar WinInCloud, where you're able to easily rent a windows pc in the cloud? Needs backup, automatic upgrades and web interface. I know WMWare and others do this for enterprise customers all the time, but I am a private customers.