Getting Started With App Inventor

• App Inventor Home Page
  The App Inventor Website is your starting point to create an account and begin your journey into the creation of apps for Android mobile phones. After your have created your own account, this page will take you to your current App Inventor projects page. Make sure you have downloaded the Google Chrome browser to use with App Inventor at http://chrome.google.com
• App Inventor Setup Page
  If you didn't get to this page from the App Inventor home page, then follow this link to set up your Windows or Mac computer to work with the App Inventor system. You'll be downloading a component for your operating system (requires installation privileges on your computer). You'll also be able to get an up-to-date Java installation on your computer so you can run the Block Editor programming environment. Make sure you have downloaded the Google Chrome browser to use with App Inventor at http://chrome.google.com
• An Introduction to App Inventor (7-min. YouTube video) to see what it looks like
  Before running App Inventor, it may be helpful to get a visual overview of the system from this tutorial by Jason Tyler, author of the the Google App Inventor for Android book.

Step-by-Step Tutorials for App Inventor

• Build Your First Simple App with the Emulator
  Do this tutorial first because it guides your through the interface and terminology, making sure that your installation is working. All following tutorials assume you have completed this one. If you have an Android phone, follow the link on above page to go to the directions-for-phone.
• Google's App Inventor Tutorials: the official list
  Try these tutorials after completing the introductory cat Purr tutorial. The tutorials cover a range of apps from animation, creative drawing, and quiz making to automatically responding to messages and even a where-did-I-leave-my-car app! This is currently the core list of tutorials for App Inventor.
• The Jason Tyler Tutorials Page has links to all of his videos
  Author Jason Tyler has places all of his tutorial links on one page for your convenience. Some are being updated from his earlier works, but they are some of the best resources available at this time.
• YouTube Videos on App Inventor
  There are many YouTube tutorials to teach you elements of programming with App Inventor. The link above will give you a list of videos that also include videos about App Inventor and how it is being used.

App Inventor Examples

Book Resources and Technical Extensions (the books are published between February and May, 2011)

• Google App Inventor for Android: No Experience Required by Jason Tyler
• App Inventor: Create Your Own Android Apps by Wolber, Abelson, Spertus & Looney
  note that Hal Abelson was one of the key developers and researchers at MIT into easy-to-use programming systems.
• Tech Empowerment: Android App Inventor by Eric Hamilton
• Installing a .APK app file into Android Emulator (for Windows)
  You can install apps created by others into Android's Emulator. The directions guide you thorugh the process for Windows computers. Macs and Linux systems would probably be similar but not exactly the same.

 

We're confronted by insurmountable opportunity!
-- Pogo (Walt Kelly)

About App Inventor

Description: Google's App Inventor for Android can create live apps for your Android phone. For those who don't have Android phones, an emulator is provided to run the app on Windows or Mac computers. The program is still in its infancy (still a beta version), so it is likely that App Inventor will be expanded in the future to create apps for Android tablets. The system requires a download of one component to your computer, the main App Inventor interface is through the Google Chrome browser using the App Inventor Website, and a Java applet is downloaded through which to program the app. Yet another component is the Android phone emulator. The system is cumbersome and slow, but it can be used to easily program your app. One of the secrets to its success is the graphical programming environment that Google licensed from MIT (the one used in Scratch). Apps created in App Inventor can be uploaded to the App store in Google where the rest of the world can download (and pay) for your creations!

App Inventor is free for unlimited use on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. Since App Inventor uses the Scratch programming metaphor, students can prototype code in Scratch where it can be run, tested, and revised more quickly. In many ways, Scratch is more fully featured to support animation and game levels, so the two systems seem ideally suited to learn together.

~BrownDroid by Chuck.falzone

 

~photo by Silenus81