Android App Inventor

Google have launched a handy tool for building Android Apps without requiring any programming knowledge. It’s called App Inventor and is built upon the Open Blocks platform. With it you can create mobile apps simply by dragging and dropping program ‘blocks’ in to place, similar to Lego Mindstorms. The video makes it look pretty simple.

I wouldn’t expect that apps made using App Inventor would be better (faster, more efficient) than their hand-coded equivalents, but I can see that this would be useful for quickly knocking up a demo or for scratching out ideas. It’s clear from the blabber that Google aren’t trying to put developers out of work, this is aimed squarely at educators as a platform to teach about programming concepts. A good thing in my books.

Google will be granting access to App Inventor over the coming weeks, you need to register to get an invite.