Google Introduces App Inventor for Android Users Date:   Tuesday , August 03, 2010 Google offers a free software called Google App Inventor for Android, which will make it easier for users to write applications for its Android smartphones. The software has been under development for over a year. The reasoning is that if young people develop applications to fulfill their own needs and install them on their own phones, they will more likely use the phones more often, or switch to the Android OS if they are not already using a phone that runs the system. The new app has been tested in schools and universities that were not from computer science stream. This is a move to make users capable to make applications on their own. “The goal is to enable people to become creators, not just consumers, in this mobile world,” says Harold Abelson, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who led the project. Google wants to give it the upper hand in the smartphone software market by opening up its technology to all kinds of developers. “We could only have done this because Android’s architecture is so open,” Abelson added. The menu-driven user interface contains fill-in-the-blank forms, and as the users drags and drops their desired elements, the software generates the code. The application has endless possibilities for work and entertainment. The Google project intends to provide users a simple tool to let them explore with smartphone software. The latest application tool allows users to drag and drop blocks of code represented as graphic images and different smartphone capabilities. “These aren’t the slickest applications in the world. But they are ones the ordinary people can make, often in a matter of minutes,” says Abelson. The Google tool works only for phones running Android software and a sign up with Google Gmail account is required. The Web based tool is automatically in sync with the programs created on a personal computer, connected to the application inventor website with an android smartphone.