App Inventor News, General, Uncategorized

December 8-14 is Computer Science Education Week

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The Computer Science Education Week coincides with the “Hour of Code” initiative. This example lesson is based on MIT’s Scratch (which is similar to App Inventor).

There are 33 introductory tutorials available for the “Hour of Code” project (teachers may optionally create their own as well).

One of the official tutorial opportunities is based on App Inventor.

Use caution in interpreting the hype over “Hour of Code”. It’s a primitive introduction to some limited programming concepts; many of the tutorials have limited association with computer science. If your expectations are set appropriately, its fine.

General, History, Software, Uncategorized

Google expected to introduce new Java compiler

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The upcoming Jack & Jill compilers in Android | Saikoa.

Most Android apps are written in the Java programming language. Google’s Android software development system converts “source code” (a text file) written in Java, into the code that runs on the Android device.

In many programming language systems, source code is converted into the “machine instructions” of the processor. The processor does not speak “Java” but speaks its own language. A program called a “compiler” converts the original program source code into the “machine language” of the processor.

Many programs for Windows, for example, have been converted into the individual instructions that are processed by an Intel or AMD processor. The “compiler” converts the program source code into a .exe file that contains the machine language instructions of the Intel and AMD processor.

But what if you wanted your program to run on a hardware device that has a Qualcomm or ARM processor?

Continue reading Google expected to introduce new Java compiler →

Products, Uncategorized

Inexpensive Android tablet and smart phone available

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Chances are, if you are writing App Inventor apps for Android, you already have an Android smart phone or tablet. If not, Amazon has slashed prices on their Amazon Fire Phone, 32GB (Unlocked GSM) and their Amazon Fire HD 7 tablet (but do see NOTE below!):

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NOTE – the Fire HD runs Android but its not a fully open Android tablet. However, there are some work arounds; more info on that here. Here is a CNet web page that shows specifically how to load other apps – there are some limitations so read the whole link. I do not own this tablet and have not tested it with App Inventor. Appears to be the same issue with the Fire Phone – Amazon restricts it but its just a matter of setting some options in Settings to open it up. Would be interesting to hear from others if they have App Inventor apps running on this tablet or phone. Seems like they should work!

Another excellent tablet option is the ASUS Google Nexus 7 Android Tablet (16gb) which is also available in 32 GB:  Nexus 7 from Google (7-Inch, 32 GB, Black) by ASUS (2013) Tablet. I have the ASUS Nexus 7 and really like it a lot.

Continue reading Inexpensive Android tablet and smart phone available →

App Inventor News, General, History, Software, Uncategorized

What are the hot programming languages for today

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Here is an easy to read report on which programming languages are now “hot” in the market for software developers: Don’t Rely On Salary Data To Pick A Programming Language To Learn – ReadWrite.

The pace of change in software development is rapid – popular languages today may already be fading.  Pay scales for some niche languages are very high (such as Ruby)- but the market opportunity might not be large or lengthy.

Web applications and mobile applications are the “hot” categories. Within those categories, there are a variety of currently popular software development tools:

Continue reading What are the hot programming languages for today →

General, Uncategorized

Facebook followers: Click on “Get Notifications” to stay up to date

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Thank you to those that are following these updates via Facebook.

Facebook tries to automatically figure out what posts you read. But if you do not “like”, “click on”, share or comment on pages that you have “Liked”, Facebook removes those pages from your daily “newsfeed”!  And that means pages like the App Inventor 2 Tutorial gradually disappear from your FB newsfeed!

There are two ways to fix this defect in Facebook.

1.  To insure that updates are posted to your newsfeed, click on “Like” on the App Inventor 2 FB page and then click on “Get Notifications” in the drop down menu:

GetNotifications

You can change this setting at any time by visiting the App Inventor 2 page.

Continue reading Facebook followers: Click on “Get Notifications” to stay up to date →

Uncategorized

Use Projects | Checkpoint to save a “Snap shot” of your App Inventor project

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Tip – Using Projects | Checkpoint

As we develop our app code, we occassionally make changes that do not work. Sometimes our programming breaks a working app! When that occurs, we wish we had saved an copy of the file so that we can return to the original code before we messed it up.

There are several ways to save a copy:

Continue reading Use Projects | Checkpoint to save a “Snap shot” of your App Inventor project →

General, Tips, Uncategorized

Saving your App Inventor projects to your computer

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Back up your App Inventor projects by saving them to your computer’s hard drive.

To save a copy of an individual App Inventor project, open the project and select Projects | Export selected project (.aia) to my computer.

ExportSelected

Continue reading Saving your App Inventor projects to your computer →

App Inventor News, General, Uncategorized

App Inventor Tutorial ebook now also available from Nook Books + others

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You can support this tutorial effort by purchasing a copy of the e-book from any of the following e-book vendors – thank you for your help!

Sorry for the “spam” – this is to update the earlier post with the news that the ebook is now available from Nook Press. It took longer than expected for that version of the book to go live.

Just USD $2.99! Instant e-book delivery!

Available from

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Components, Programming Method, Uncategorized

Changing an App Inventor button’s color continuously

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How to implement a button that continuously changes color, as demonstrated in this video example:

The Designer View

Create a simple user interface with two buttons – one to start the color change and the other to stop the color changes. In the button properties, set the button shape to “oval”.

ButtonChangeColors3-Designer

 

Drag a clock component into the Designer – the Clock will appear as a non-visible component at the bottom of the Viewer.

Blocks Code

Continue reading Changing an App Inventor button’s color continuously →

The quick and easy way to write Android Apps