Google AppInventor Beta - still premature

In its current form, working with Google AppInventor is a exciting but frustrating beast. It's very fast and easy to put together very simple forms and calculators, but either tedious, difficult, or impossible to build something advanced or useful.

It's satisfying to see how easy it is to create using AI. Once all the parts of the pipeline are installed and configured (there are a few - java, extensions, and drivers) using a pretty straightforward process, you can immediately start slapping controls on the screen and modify them as you would expect if you had any experience with similar GUI editors. The blocks editor is fairly intuitive, and the tutorials are incredibly easy to get through and leave you feeling accomplished. Pushing changes to the phone is fast and straightforward, and packaging and deploying a permanent apk was just as easy.

Going off the tutorial path, it's pretty quick to find shortcomings. The control selection is pretty basic, missing what I would claim is the most useful of the controls you can access through java - the Webview control. Without that, you can't display web content on a form in an easy way. Related to that, there's no calling of web services, loading of web pages, or reading of rss feeds natively in the AI framework. You could theoretically use an additional java-based android app that makes those calls and returns the text, but then you'd have to process that on your own.

There's also no dynamic component creation. I was attempting to make a quick physics game, but in order to create many image sprites that react the same way, you'd have to define every one before loading the app and tediously code each one to react to stimuli the same way.

Plenty of other things would make AppInventor a more successful platform for development. Little things like the ability to rotate imagesprites, to the option of preventing the screen from reloading when the orientation changes or even flat out disabling orientation changes, or allowing the images drawn on a canvas to be saved to a file or sent via email or sms would help. Bigger things like being able to read/write sd card contents, the aforementioned web-interactivity, and better drawing and animation tools (opengl?) would be great assets for advanced development.

The Blocks Editor could use some polish too. Currently its very tedious to create even simple logic cases, since everything is based on blocks. "if var == 1" requires 4 blocks, one block alteration, and proper linking. To solve this, It would be so much more efficient if you could have the ability to change from block view to code view, where you can just type out the blocks' text and generate the same syntax.

There are also some issues with features not working until the app is packaged for the device, such as the accelerationSensor and some of the more important imagesprite features, like the collidedwith event's component parameter. And orientationSensor wasn't particularly stable no matter what I did to it.

All told, I'd say its still a pretty entertaining tool that I'm sure people with longer attention spans that mine could do some really amazing stuff with. I'm just not sure how many of those people won't just do those things in java. I'm looking forward to what comes next as the beta continues!

Totally worth the record

If you actively hold a Guinness world record, you should receive a membership card that entitles you to free Guinness wherever you go. I think this would put more incentive on people doing stupid things for records.

Unfortunately, you'd have to give up the card when some jerk beats your record.

CellulaR phone APPS are overrated

I had an argument with somebody yesterday about cell phones. His argument was that a cell phone is better if it has more applications available for it. Specifically he was arguing that an iPhone is the be-all-end-all of cellular phone God machines and that all other phone technologies are pointless by comparison.

He's an idiot.

So I don't disagree that the iPhone app store is packed full of "apps" that perform a wide variety of functions. But my point is that most of them are irrelevant if you have a device with a web browser that's actively connected to the internet.

His top 3 apps included google maps, an app for managing his task list, and one that was indispensable while looking for a house - a mortgage calculator. But why do you even need native programs for that when you have the backing of the lovable cuddly internet?

Now I'm not stupid. I understand that there are benefits to having code living on your device. Performance, graphics, and a direct interface into the device inputs/outputs are factors you're going to have much more control over in a native application that you could in a web browser, so I don't expect to see a lot of games or media players or unique tools being able to live in the browser, but I really think those are a small % of the marketplace. Looking at Apple's app's for iphone homepage, they advertise a ton of helpful little apps, but more than half of them are already done on the web, and at least if you use the web-based options, you'll have "cloud storage" and some connectivity with the full version on your full screen broadband-connected computer.

The bigger question is, if you're a developer, why are you developing software for these systems anyway? Don't waste your time learning objective C, build a better website with mobile browsers in mind and be happy that you saved a lot of effort AND can reach a wider market of customers.

Sigh-n language

Do deaf Canadians sign 'eh' at the end of their sentences?

"I can see my house from here!"

While looking at some real estate listings in my favorite aerial stalking tool, maps.bing.com, I started thinking....

People spend a lot of time and money increasing the "curb appeal" of a house they're selling, but what about the aerial appeal? Why not target the people using web sites and aerial-focused maps?

So the tip is, get out there on your roof with a can of brightly colored paint and start leaving messages for your audience!

Consideration should be made for your audience - things like "Ethernet Cabled!" and "[good brand of internet service provider] Available!" would be well targeted, while "No damn kits running on the lawn" might not fit the demographic.

Dear Spike TV...

I've noticed a few trends on tv that I think aren't quite taken full advantage of by the more male-o-cratic tv channel, Spike. One observation is that just about every cable channel has their own wedding show. Or on some channels, FORTY THOUSAND OF THEM. So why cant Spike do a wedding-related show for dudes to watch?

Platinum Bachelor Parties. This show has a clear focus on spending ridiculous amounts of money on men celebrating their waning moments of freedom. This can really show anything from Entourage-style hijinks to that episode of full house where Uncle Jessie somehow rented a plane and then got his parachute stuck in a tree.

Say Yes to the Tux. Pretty straightforward - Guy walks into a tux shop. Spends 90 seconds flipping through the catalog. Picks out what he wants. Orders it. Goes to taco bell. WIN. Bonus points if he spends more time deciding what combination of tacos to get than picking the tux.

My Faire Wedding. Medieval-themed weddings at Renaissance Faires! Awesome! "I now pronounce you king and queen. You may now chop the head."

Groomzillas. Giant grooms lay waste to Tokyo. Guest appearances by Rodan and Mothra. Matthew Broderick maybe as the host? Obviously recorded in japanese and dubbed to english.

It's Stereoscopic!

Since 3d video is all the rage these days, now is the chance to patent some brilliant 3d applications while they're still viable. So as a lead off, I think it would a good idea to have...

3D Colonoscopy cameras

Definitely not comfortable... well unless you're into that kind of thing. But think of how much more data you can get with 2 cameras in there!