I Have Access to AppInventor!

I am excited to report that I have (after quite a few weeks) been granted access to AppInventor. As far as I understand, access to AppInventor is restricted to educators at this time. I imagine, however, that it will not be long before Google opens it up to all who are interested very soon. For those of you who cannot play with it, I will take you through some of the abilities it offers!

There are two parts to developing with AppInventor: the web-based layout editor and a locally run code editor. As I stated in my recent post, you do not actually have to know how to write software (using Java) to make applications. This is the neatest part of this product. All of the "programming" is handled using a drag-and-drop editor! No Java experience required.

Screenshot of the web-based layout editor (http://appinventor.googlelabs.com)

Screenshot of the locally-run drag-and-drop code editor

The AppInventor software is projected-based. Probably the coolest part of this entire setup is that if you have an actual device, say a Motorola Droid X, and set it up correctly, you can actually see the changes you make in the layout editor and code editor take effect in near real-time! If you do not have a physical device, there is still a way for you to test out your project. Just follow the directions on how to install the SDK and the emulator. Happy mobile software development!

Read the official blog post for AppInventor's release.