Macos

One of the best XCode 9 features is the ability to deploy and debug iOS app on your device over WiFi, with no need to have the device connected to you computer by a cable. The only requirement is that the device runs iOS 11.

Setting it up is really easy. Connect the device using a cable like you normally do and go to Window | Devices and Simulators. You will see a new checkbox next to your iOS 11 devices called Connect via Network (see screenshot below), so check it. Now you can disconnect the cable and debug on your device over WiFi, the device has to be on the same network as your computer of course.

When my ISP had a problem resulting in Internet outage for multiple hours and I needed to work, I wanted to tether the LTE connection from my iPhone 6S to my hackintosh running macOS Sierra. It has no Wi-Fi card so the only was was tethering over USB cable.

The whole process should be easy, just connecting the iPhone to the computer with an USB cable and turning on the Personal hotspot in the Settings. The iPhone immediately registered 1 connection, but Internet did not work on the computer, although everything looked fine in System Preferences

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words so whenever I create an issue, a pull request or write a blog post about and application or some visual stuff I include a relevant image. Sometimes an image is not enough and an animation is needed to better describe the issue, or show the content of your pull request.

There are some good tools to help you to create animations like this on both Windows and macOS.

A few months ago I decided to take part in an iOS project. The first problem I needed to solve was to be able to run macOS Sierra and XCode. I did not really want to buy an overpriced MacBook without function keys or and underpowered Mac Mini. Especially when I own a more than 3 years old desktop computer that is still usable for all my needs. A few iOS developers I know recommended I go the Hackintosh way.

Hackintosh

Hackintosh is PC that runs macOS. This configuration is not supported by Apple but it is possible if you have the right hardware since Apple has been using a fairly standard PC hardware for the last couple of years. For example you cannot us any new GeForce 10X0 (Pascal) because there are no Apple computers with those new graphic cards so there are no drivers yet (NVIDIA has released new drivers supporting all the Pascal graphic cards). But if you have an older GeForce like me or an integrated one, you will be fine. The tonymacx86.com website, basically the central hub of all the Hackintosh information, regularly publishes a buying guide that can be useful if you want to buy a new computer and install macOS on it.

If you do not wish to install macOS directly on your hardware you can run it in a virtual machine, but the performance will never be very good. Some people do it for Xamarin development when they just need to compile their project and run the simulator, so there are a few tutorial on how to do it. There is also an interesting blog post series about a virtual hackintosh. I tried running macOS in WMWare on my Thinkpad T440s but the performance was not good.

When you start using macOS after years of using Windows there are some things you expect to work in certain ways. One of those things is the ways the OS handles keyboard input and keyboard shortcuts. This is especially important if you still also use Windows and use a Windows keyboard with macOS. Here are a few things regarding the keyboard that help me when using macOS working on a side project.

Control, Option and Command keys

The fist thing you may notice when using macOS with a Windows keyboard is that the modifier keys are not in the right order. The order of the modifier keys on an Apple keyboard is Control, Option, Command but the Ctrl, Windows, Alt keys on a Windows keyboard map to Control, Command, Option by default. You can fix the order of the modifier keys in System Preferences | Keyboard | Modifier keys