What you need for this book
Developing on Swift requires Xcode 6 or higher, which by itself needs to be installed on Yosemite (OS X 10.10), which can only be installed on a Mac computer. So, this is basically what you need.
A few recipes can only be tested on a physical device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod); therefore, they can only be installed if you are enrolled on the Apple Developer Program.