iOS Development

[Zonder]

This isn't ogre related I just wanted to confirm something as I don't own a mac and never really used one for development.

I have always assumed when developing on OSX it comes with some form of emulator for the iOS devices which prototyping? Also if so how reliable is it?

I won't be doing any 3D this is a business app just want to know if I need to budget now for an iphone and ipad as well as a mac.

[TheSHEEEP]

I have always assumed when developing on OSX it comes with some form of emulator for the iOS devices which prototyping?

I am not developing for iOS myself, but one of my collegues does and I can definitely confirm that there is an emulator/simulator.

Also if so how reliable is it?

You will have errors that are not in the simulator but on the actual device and the other way around.
It is (much? At least my collegue complains about that a lot) slower than the device.
So, afaik, it is useful, but can never replace regularly testing on the actual device.

I won't be doing any 3D this is a business app just want to know if I need to budget now for an iphone and ipad as well as a mac.

You should definitely budget for this. No way you can guarantee an app to run using only a simulator.
This is true for any simulator/platform relationship, though.
Unfortunately, iPhone and iPad is a difference, but the actual operating system version seems to have even more impact than that.

[Zonder]

Well when I say budget I mean would I need the hardware right now or will the simulator suffice, until further in development as it will be a while before the app is ready like 6 month away we are estimating.

But from what your saying it's the bad way round for debugging, the simulator is far to forgiving than the actual device so looks like we should be getting them as well.

[Klaim]

Last year I had an experience with the emulator. It's far more efficient than the android one. However, it becomes really slow as soon as you switch in Retina mode.

[masterfalcon]

You also can't rely on the performance in the simulator to translate to a device. It's good for starting out but at some point you'll need a device.

[PhilipLB]

Especially because there seems to be subtle differences in the behaviour of the simulator and the device. At least, I hear some serious swearing every now and then in the office about it.

[xavier]

It's far more efficient than the android one.

I just started with the Android SDK/NDK and when you run an x86 image with hardware acceleration (windows host only), the Android emulator is actually pretty snappy. I agree, though, on the ARM emulators -- they are pretty sluggish (even if you have hardware GPU accleration enabled).

[Klaim]

It's far more efficient than the android one.

I just started with the Android SDK/NDK and when you run an x86 image with hardware acceleration (windows host only), the Android emulator is actually pretty snappy. I agree, though, on the ARM emulators -- they are pretty sluggish (even if you have hardware GPU accleration enabled).

Ok let me clarify:

Last time I used it, which was 3 years ago now (time flies so fast!!!) the Android emulator was serious crap and slow and some features were not usable.
If all that is fixed, that is an excellent news!

[Zonder]

It's far more efficient than the android one.

I just started with the Android SDK/NDK and when you run an x86 image with hardware acceleration (windows host only), the Android emulator is actually pretty snappy. I agree, though, on the ARM emulators -- they are pretty sluggish (even if you have hardware GPU accleration enabled).

Ok let me clarify:

Last time I used it, which was 3 years ago now (time flies so fast!!!) the Android emulator was serious crap and slow and some features were not usable.
If all that is fixed, that is an excellent news!

Actually I used it recently. It's still slow with the older versions of android andything < 4 but 4 is fast. For some reason it won't boot a 1gb device though am presuming the process is 32bit.