Google Releases App Inventor Developing Tool for Android
Google released App Inventor, a new tool that makes it easy for anyone - programmers and non-programmers, professionals and students - to create mobile applications for ndroid-powered devices.
Starting from today, the App Inventor is available to general public.
App Inventor for Android gives everyone, regardless of programming experience, the opportunity to control and reshape their communication experience.
With App Inventor, users can begin building games like WhackAMole or games that let them draw funny pictures on their friend's faces. Users can even make use of the phone's sensors to move a ball through a maze based on tilting the phone.
Users can also build apps that inform and educate, such as a quiz app that takes advantage of Android's text-to-speech capabilities allowing users to can even have the phone ask the questions aloud.
App Inventor requires no programming knowledge. This is because instead of writing code, users visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app's behavior. The App Inventor team has created blocks for just about everything users can do with an Android phone, as well as blocks for doing "programming-like" stuff-- blocks to store information, blocks for repeating actions, and blocks to perform actions under certain conditions. There are even blocks to talk to services like Twitter.
Apps can even store data created by users in a database, so users can create a make-a-quiz app in which the teachers can save questions in a quiz for their students to answer.
Because App Inventor provides access to a GPS-location sensor, users can also build apps that know where they are. For example, users can build an app to help them remember where they parked their car or an app that shows the location of their friends or colleagues.
For the past year, Google has been testing App Inventor in classrooms around the United States. The company claims that the tool opens up the world of computer programming to students in new and powerful ways.
The tool is available to everyone after applying for an invitation. Interested user can fill out this form.
App Inventor for Android gives everyone, regardless of programming experience, the opportunity to control and reshape their communication experience.
With App Inventor, users can begin building games like WhackAMole or games that let them draw funny pictures on their friend's faces. Users can even make use of the phone's sensors to move a ball through a maze based on tilting the phone.
Users can also build apps that inform and educate, such as a quiz app that takes advantage of Android's text-to-speech capabilities allowing users to can even have the phone ask the questions aloud.
App Inventor requires no programming knowledge. This is because instead of writing code, users visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app's behavior. The App Inventor team has created blocks for just about everything users can do with an Android phone, as well as blocks for doing "programming-like" stuff-- blocks to store information, blocks for repeating actions, and blocks to perform actions under certain conditions. There are even blocks to talk to services like Twitter.
Apps can even store data created by users in a database, so users can create a make-a-quiz app in which the teachers can save questions in a quiz for their students to answer.
Because App Inventor provides access to a GPS-location sensor, users can also build apps that know where they are. For example, users can build an app to help them remember where they parked their car or an app that shows the location of their friends or colleagues.
For the past year, Google has been testing App Inventor in classrooms around the United States. The company claims that the tool opens up the world of computer programming to students in new and powerful ways.
The tool is available to everyone after applying for an invitation. Interested user can fill out this form.
