Google has come up with a new tool for developing applications for Android-based devices. The eye works called "App Inventor" and is now available in a beta version of Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
It is not about an ordinary programming tool, but a solution where non-programmers to easily create custom applications by dragging and putting together different functionality blocks.
- The results are not the smoothest in the world applications, but applications that ordinary people can create, often within minutes, "says Harold Abelson to NYTimes.com. Abelson is a Informatik at MIT who has a sabbatical at Google, where he is leading the project.
The video below shows how a simple application can be made in less than a minute, but it is of course possible to make far more extensive projects.
Google stresses in particular that the user of the App Inventor access to the various sensors that day smartphones like features, including GPS receiver and accelerometer.
The installation of applications to make occurs without involving the Android Market. But you must open the phone that it can be installed applications from other sources.
App Inventor is Java based and is based in part on Java Library Open Blocks. Together with the program follows a series of instructional articles on how to make different applications and games.
