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Google App Inventor

Tangent

Android Enthusiast
Jun 20, 2010
515
91
I just read a story about a new Google tool that looks like it's going to lead to loads more apps for us. App Inventor lets you create apps without having to know any code at all. On the downside we're probably going to see a bunch more crappy apps, but it'll let us create our own too. I don't know about you, but I'm definitely going to be playing around with this! Looks like you need to sign up for access, but hopefully it won't be too hard to get it.

Google App Inventor Will Lead to an App Explosion

App Inventor Beta
 
According to this column, these apps won't be published in the market:

To be clear, App Inventor isn't about to replace or even threaten the traditional developer model -- far from it. Apps built with Google's new tool will be less robust and advanced than what any professional developer could create; we're talking about two entirely different leagues of programs. In fact, despite what you may have read elsewhere, apps created with App Inventor won't even be published to the Android Market as of now.

Five Android apps we desperately need | Adventures in IT - InfoWorld
 
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Hopefully the $25 app submission fee would help deter this?

Hope so... though it didn't stop the developers of the trash in the market now... ;)

I read somewhere that apps created with this will NOT be allowed into the Market at all... who knows...

I suppose you're okay with getting tons of SPAM too. Just don't read it, right? :rolleyes:

LOL.
 
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Hope so... though it didn't stop the developers of the trash in the market now... ;)

I read somewhere that apps created with this will NOT be allowed into the Market at all... who knows...



LOL.


That does not make sense... They WANT the apps in the Market. They are competing with Apple on this. This will surely bump the app count. Most of the apps may not be good, just as in Apple's Market, but this will make Android more interesting to a more diverse audience. I mean, now you can install a ton of apps AND create your own apps! Isn't that a great selling point? For me it kills 2 or even 3 birds with a single shot...

On my side, I cant wait for this tool to come out. I started programming in Java for my phone, but I just dont have the time to learn another language... But I got a lot of ideas I want to get out of my head. Some of them are stupid ideas that will render apps that will not probably be good for your taste. Some are just too technical (I'm a mech engineer...) I mean, if I can create a good app that generates me a couple of bucks a month... imagine what someone with a good imagination (but little programming skills will be able to do). This tool have a great potential for both us and Android...
 
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This is like a perfect world.. :p
PaintPotTouchHandler.png

I'm going through the tutorials and already feel like capable of doing my app!
 
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Got my access approval earlier. I made the example app (pet the kitty) - it was dead easy. I code, but not Java, so I've not done anything with Android yet.

With an hour of playing around with App Inventor, I feel like I could replicate about 25% of the Market Apps (and iPhone Apps) with a few clicks :)

50% if you learned all of the features deeply.

You watch the app build on your phone as you build it on your computer, it updates in real time, and when you're done you package it up it shows up as an installed app.

There is also an option to download the package to your computer. I have not run it yet, I presume it makes a .apk for you.
 
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I suppose you're okay with getting tons of SPAM too. Just don't read it, right? :rolleyes:

Except spam is sent to me, at my cost, arriving in my inbox mixed in with all the other e-mails that I do care about.

This is more like a simple HTML editor. Sure if you know what you're doing you can create a Facebook, but for every CNN.COM there are a million amateur web sites created with a graphical HTML builder. I only go to those sites if they have something of interest to me on them (and Google, or someone else, find that). I don't consider those millions of web pages spam because they're not pages I choose to visit every day.
 
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