App Inventor for Android

[aquaboy1976]

App Inventor

I thought this was interesting. This basically allows you to create apps for the android with no programming knowledge.

 

[remmus2k]

Im very excited about this, im in school to learn computer science however this lets me make apps now while im studying.

Im actually going to make a small development team and a website. PM me if interested.

 

[AJFSTORM]

I'm wondering if it will only work with the stock Android OS or if you can also use it on phones that have HTC Sense or Moto Blur.

 

[jdposhkus]

Here's hoping this doesn't open up the flood gates for thousands of (cr)apps....

 

[iJason#WN]

Im very excited about this, im in school to learn computer science however this lets me make apps now while im studying.

Im actually going to make a small development team and a website. PM me if interested.

Just sent you a PM

 

[eye4ni]

This is quite ironic that this news surfaced this week. Just last week I was researching where to start learning to program to create apps, found out that I was looking at a long and hard road, starting with learning Java.

I am still going to pursue my education in programming, but having this capability become available right now is really cool. I can (hopefully) start making my own (cr)apps right away.

The one thing that I have not seen mentioned yet about the app inventor is whether or not it will also include tools for implementing ads into the apps (this is very important). Even if I can make a few cool simple apps with this, I want them to be free in the market and still provide a way for me to make money from them through ads....

I am a graphic designer with just a little bit of web programming knowledge, so I am thinking that I would love to tinker around with this for the sake of creating really nice UI's in my apps.... Though instinct tells me that if you want a really great, unique, functional app, you are still going to need programming knowledge... As mentioned by others, the WYSIWYG web design tools made it easy for someone to throw together a crap website in 5 minutes, but we all know that if you want something truly unique, and functional, you will need to know how to make the software do what you want with lines of code.... no easy way around this, just hard work.

I am still very excited to see what comes of this, seems like a really great move on Google's part!

 

[88 FLUX]

I'm excited about this so that I can flood the App Market with tons of crapps and then spoon feed each and every one of you tons of soundboards, "girls in bikinis" web links, iOS virtual shrines, and even a vuvuzela background sound that starts at startup.

Kiiiiiiiiiiidding. But I am curious/excited (although admittedly a lil scared) to see what this will bring.

 

[GenericMessage]

I think it can be great! I would prefer to keep the apps made with this program to be kept in a separate part of the market though

 

[AJFSTORM]

I think it can be great! I would prefer to keep the apps made with this program to be kept in a separate part of the market though

That would be an interesting way to implement this. I wonder if there will at least be some way of telling whether an app was made using Inventor or true programming.

 

[Nebilim]

sounds like it defeats the purpose of being a developer...dont need any more cr apps in the market then there already is

 

[Kyle Gibb]

sounds like it defeats the purpose of being a developer...dont need any more cr apps in the market then there already is

I think the purpose is to get more people interested in android development. App Inventor is not going to give you the same amount of power and flexibility writing an app in Java using the SDK. Their intent is probably to get kids and first-time programers into it and then they can use the SDK once they have some basics down.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

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

 

[BluePLanetMan]

This has been tried in the past many times. Personally, I think it will be some time until we can replace real programming with "connect the dots", after all, the program you create can only be as good as the features the creation software allows, whereas with real programming you are limited only by the API and your skills.

 

[TheMobileWorx]

Blueplanetman is correct. There is no way this can possibly have the power to replace developers... there is always a delicate balance between ease of use and power/options given to a user whether it is car or a development environment for software. I am excited to see it, I just hope that google has some way to flag these in the market so that we know whether we are downloading real apps or quick and dirty apps... that is not to say that some of the apps already out there are not quick and dirty!

 

[Tre Lawrence]

Will be interesting...