Lesson 2 · Part 0. Start here · 10 min

Set up your Mac

Goal. Install and check the tools the course needs, and know how to fix the common setup problems.

This lesson takes about 10 minutes to read and about 30 minutes to install the tools. You do not need the phones yet. Install the Mac tools now and add the phone tools when you reach their parts.

Hardware

Item	What we used	Notes
Mac	Apple Silicon Mac	16 GB RAM or more is best. 8 GB works for the 1B models in Part 1.
Android phone	Pixel 6, 7.8 GB RAM	A real phone. Emulators do not give you the GPU path for language models. We used an emulator only for one accuracy check of the round-2 models.
iPhone	iPhone 17	Needs Apple Intelligence if you want to try Apple's built-in model.
USB cable	One that carries data	For adb and for Xcode.

Warning Use real phones for every speed measurement. An emulator or simulator gives numbers that do not match real devices. In our test the emulator ran a different runtime on a laptop CPU, and it was about 5 times slower than the iPhone.

Software

Tool	Version we used	What it is for
Ollama	Current release	Run models on the Mac with one command. Used in Part 1.
Python	3.14	Training and testing scripts on the Mac.
mlx-lm	0.32	Apple's library to fine-tune and run models on a Mac.
Xcode	27.0	Build the iOS app.
Android Studio	Current release, with JDK 21	Build the Android app.
adb	Comes with Android Studio	Copy files to the phone and run commands on it.
Hugging Face account	Free	Download model files. Most of our models need no login.

Note Versions in this field change fast. Treat each version number as a starting point. If a command fails, read the error and check the tool's own documentation.

Do it: check your setup

Run each command in Terminal. Each one prints a version number if the tool is installed.

python3 --version

You should see Python 3.14 or a later number.

adb --version

You should see Android Debug Bridge version followed by a number.

xcodebuild -version

You should see Xcode followed by a number.

Install Ollama from ollama.com. Then check it:

ollama --version

You should see a version number. If you see "command not found", open the Ollama app once and try again.

Common setup problems

Symptom	Cause	Fix
`python3 --version` shows an older version	The Mac still uses an older Python first on the path	Install Python 3.14 and call it by full name, for example `python3.14`.
`adb: command not found`	The Android platform tools are not on your path	Add the `platform-tools` folder from the Android SDK to your `PATH`.
`adb devices` shows no device	USB debugging is off, or the cable carries power only	Turn on USB debugging in Developer options. Try another cable.
`ollama: command not found`	The command line tool is not installed yet	Open the Ollama app once, then open a new Terminal window.
Xcode cannot sign the iOS app	No development team is set	Open the project in Xcode and choose your team under Signing.

Check yourself

Why do we use real phones to measure speed?

`ollama: command not found` appears right after installing. What do you try first?

`adb devices` lists no phone. Which is a likely cause?

Recap

You need an Apple Silicon Mac, a real Android phone and a real iPhone. The Mac is enough for Part 1 and Part 2.
Install Ollama, Python 3.14, Xcode, Android Studio (adb comes with it) and a free Hugging Face account.
Check each tool with its version command before you go on.
Next lesson: what a language model is.