I am thinking about developing a game. My current iphone syncs with a windows pc for it's apps, Music etc. My question is, if I was to plug it into my mac could I use it as the developer device without having to erase all data?
Indeed you can. I do this all the time with my iPhone. Sync with my PC and use it for development with my Macs. No data lost.
Had a pc before mac and can't be bothered to go through the steps of switching other to the mac for itunes. All that downloading, Loss of game data, egghhh.!
I was set up like this for ages (syncing iTunes on my PC 'server', developing on my macbook) and it's arguably the best way to work. When you sync on your dev machine the extra time taken (for even a sync where nothing changes) between plugging your device in and being able to run/debug on that device is surprisingly annoying. Sure, you can make the device not auto-sync but that is even more annoying when you realise those apps/podcasts/songs you recently downloaded aren't on your phone because you forgot to click on 'sync'... Whatever the mac snobs say, iTunes on the mac is only infinitesimally better than the Windows version. The only valid reason I switched is for beta OSes. 4.2 for example has had a 'GM' release for two weeks or so now and until yesterday, only the mac had an iTunes that could install it.
So I make sure that when I plug my iphone in I turn auto sync of to avoid it wipping all my data off. Should I log-in on the mac in iTunes and make it "Can't remember what it was called" to allow my ipod?