[LINK] MIT App Inventor

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

http://appinventor.mit.edu

What is App Inventor?

Creating an App Inventor app begins in your browser, where you design how 
the app will look. Then, like fitting together puzzle pieces, you set 
your app's behavior. All the while your app appears on your phone.

You can build many different types of apps with App Inventor. 

Often people begin by building games like MoleMash or games that let you 
draw pictures on your friend's faces. You can even make use of the 
phone's sensors to move a ball through a maze based on tilting the phone.

But app building is not limited to simple games. You can also build apps 
that inform and educate. You can create a quiz app to help you study for 
a test. With Android's text-to-speech capabilities, you can even have the 
phone ask the questions aloud.

To use App Inventor, you do not need to be a professional developer. This 
is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app 
looks and use blocks to specify the app's behavior.


App Inventor lets you develop applications for Android phones using a web 
browser and either a connected phone or emulator. The App Inventor 
servers store your work and help you keep track of your projects.

You build apps by working with:

* The App Inventor Designer, where you select the components for your app.

* The App Inventor Blocks Editor, where you assemble program blocks that 
specify how the components should behave. You assemble programs visually, 
fitting pieces together like pieces of a puzzle.

Your app appears on the phone step-by-step as you add pieces to it, so 
you can test your work as you build. When you're done, you can package 
your app and produce a stand-alone application to install.

If you don't have an Android phone, you can build your apps using the 
Android emulator, software that runs on your computer and behaves just 
like the phone.

The App Inventor development environment is supported for Mac OS X, 
GNU/Linux, and Windows operating systems, and several popular Android 
phone models. Applications created with App Inventor can be installed on 
any Android phone. (See system requirements.)

Before you can use App Inventor, you need to set up your computer and 
install the App Inventor Setup package on your computer ..

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Cheers, Rohan
Stephen Loosley