>I have a 17" macbook pro, I don't think that size is made any more - it is a beast to carry around.

My notebook before current was 17", no one wanted to use it at company after me, my boss gave it to his children.

>I ran with 8gb at first, and that worked fine for iOS development and maybe one windows vm running.
>I upgraded it to 16gb and it runs several windows and linux vms without complaint.
>
>I would get 8gb as a minimum.

You say you can use one notebook for job if it has 16gb ram. I'm not sure. I use Axapta for development plus Foxpro and I'm not sure if Axapta client run good at VM... Maybe worth to try but I think so I'll not try install all of tools and backup-restore mails, sources ... again at my current notebook. I wish there is a magic tool like icloud with Windows computers but unfortunately there isn't... :)

What do you use for development with IOS? Objective C or something else? What you advice for me learn IOS development? In-class courses or any book or something else?