Google has announced that it will shut down its App Inventor for Android at the end of the year as part of its move to close Google labs and focus on core products and services.
Google App Inventor is a tool that allows anyone to create apps for Android without learning how to use a traditional programming language. Basically you can use drag-and-drop tools to create a variety of apps by adding buttons, pictures, backgrounds, and other graphics and choosing from a variety of actions.
The service launched in private beta last summer and opened to the public in December. But it hasn’t progressed very much since last year. It’s still fairly difficult to create complex Android apps using the Inventor. While you don’t have to learn to code Java, C++, or another programming language, you do have to sort of train yourself to think like a programmer to use the service — and the functions it offers are pretty limited so you’re going to have a hard time using App Inventor to make a really polished app.
That said, the service was probably a good training ground for those looking to understand how apps are created, and Google says it’s been popular among educators.
While Google is ending official support for App Inventor, the company is looking for ways to keep the service alive as an open source project.
via Hacked Education
Hey Brad, Quick edit for you. No such thing as “C+”. You either meant C++ or C# (c sharp). Thanks for the heads up re app inventor.