How to Make an iPhone App: Part One 2009-03-08 10:26:20

3. Locate the LED power connector along the front side of the tray and disconnect it.

4. Release the spring-loaded Wi-Fi antenna and remove the four hold-down screws from the corners of the black plastic drive subassembly carrier.

5. Lift the carrier and lay it upside-down along the back panel side of the tray. Don't disconnect the brown plastic ribbon cable. From this vantage point, you can extract and replace the two SDRAM sticks, hard disk drive, and optional optical drive.

6. Replace the black plastic drive subassembly carrier and secure it with one screw. Reconnect the LED power connector to the front side of the tray. Do NOT reassemble the Mac mini yet.

7. Carefully inspect the entire Mac mini system component tray. Ensure that all wiring is connected and there are no parts, screws, or wires that are out of place.

8. Test the Mac mini for proper operation. Connect the power adapter, keyboard, mouse, and monitor to the Mac mini. You are going to test your modifications before you reseal the Mac mini. Be careful! Plug the Mac's power adapter and monitor power adapter into a wall outlet and turn on your system. You must insert the Mac OS X installation disc (e.g., Disc 1) into the Mac mini optical drive immediately after powering on the system. Boot from the disc and use the DVD-based Disk Utility for configuring your new Western Digital hard drive. It is recommended that you use at least two partitions on your new drive (e.g., System & Docs, etc.). Install Mac OS X 10.5.5 Leopard on your Mac mini (Note: you might need to download a Software Update from the Apple Web site).

9. Check each new component for proper operation. Use System Profiler (e.g., the "About This Mac" menu item under the Apple menu) to verify your new memory and hard drive. Also, if you added a new SuperDrive, verify the system ID on your optical disc drive. If everything checks out OK, shut down the Mac mini, disconnect all cords, cables, and adapters, secure the three remaining screws on the black plastic drive subassembly carrier, and slowly slide the case down over the system component tray. Watch the back panel for proper alignment of the metal shielding clips.

10. Your iPhone app dev system is now ready for building the next great app.

Stay tuned! Our next episode will cover the installation and operation of the Apple iPhone SDK.