Library or other place where I can use a Mac?

[Caldus]

From what I've heard, Android users typically don't pay for apps as much as iPhone users. So Android app developers have to rely more on ads. I was reading very recent articles about this stuff too. I understand Android is catching up though so maybe I will try that path out first. So it's either buy a Mac or an Android phone.

[MannheimMadman]

That's very true Caldus. The iPhone serves more of a premium market, and the barrier to entry is fairly high. I got an Android 2.2 phone on virgin mobile for $130 and pay $25 a month. I don't ever pay for apps.

That should tell you everything right there.

[Mr Downtown]

I'll give you a G4 tower if you're willing to come get it at my Loop office. PM me. However, it's a "mirror-door" that uses the PowerPC chip and might not run the software you want to load.

[grapico]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

I'll give you a G4 tower if you're willing to come get it at my Loop office. PM me. However, it's a "mirror-door" that uses the PowerPC chip and might not run the software you want to load.

A mirror door G4 should be able to run up to 10.5.8 if it the chip is over 867Mhz. Which is still good, but I have a feeling it might become obsolete when Lion comes out. I still use that setup as a guest box. However, Xcode 4 requires 10.6.6. So while you maybe able to play around for awhile to get the hang of it, if you wanted to write full scale applications with the latest testing/debugging and iOS SDK, you would need an intel based Mac.
Caldus, I think it would be a good move for you, I held out from the Mac world for the longest time, but I really enjoy the aqua interface, spaces, expose, having a native terminal, xorg (x11), native apache, php, python, etc. and the ability to compile linux/unix applications on it with Fink. It just makes it much more enjoyable, and I think the cost is worth it. I got tired of always trying to tweak stuff in linux or have a few things not working, which is normally fine, but if you are doing it as a profession, time is money and I just want things to work right every time. For me linux is great for servers, completely optimized with no GUI. But definitely like Mac for client, windows is just "backwards" and hate working on it anymore. You are paying for the privilege to use the Operating system... so don't think ohhh windows or linux would be cheaper... blah blah blah. Just think of it like how Sun used to be, or IBM. I have to say, you pay for what you get. Aqua really kills it with the user interface also, once you start working on it, you'll see why people like it, it really speeds up my workflow and is certainly more slick than win7/gnome/kde. Lot's of developers have been switching over to mac the last 4-5 years. I say, take the plunge.
If you are testing live, don't bother with an iphone, just get an ipod touch 8gb $229, I'd actually recommend the 299 version with 32gb, better investment.

[Caldus]

grapico, I already have an iPhone 4. Unless you were talking about getting an iPod touch for testing on that as well.