From PC Mag: Apple has always ensured that if you want to use its software, apps, and services, then purchasing Apple hardware is the best, and in most cases, the only option. However, Amazon is now offering a way to bypass a purchase and rent a Mac in the cloud instead.
As TechCrunch reports, today Amazon kicked off its AWS re:Invent virtual conference by announcing it now offers Mac instances, which will be called EC2 Mac instances. These aren't virtual servers, though. Amazon is actually installing Mac minis in its data centers allowing full access to a complete Mac in the cloud.
"Our customers tell us they would love to have their Apple build environment integrated with AWS services,” said David Brown, Vice President of EC2, at AWS. “With EC2 Mac instances, developers can now provision and access on-demand macOS compute environments in AWS for the first time ever, so they can focus on creating groundbreaking apps for Apple’s industry-leading platforms, rather than procuring and managing the underlying infrastructure."
Clearly the focus is on offering a service to developers who want to build and test iOS and macOS apps. And they are going to pay quite a high price for using these remote Macs. Access is billed by the second and charged by the hour, but you have to pre-pay for 24 hours at least. It works out to $26 for the first 24 hours and then $1.083 per hour after that. In return, you gain full access to a Core i7 Mac mini with 32GB of RAM. Amazon is promising to start offering the new M1 Mac mini, but they won't reach the AWS data centers until the first half of 2021.
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