Blog 1 - First Impressions

What were your first impressions of App Inventor? 
I found the App Inventor interface to be really easy to follow and understand. The blocks editor also looked really simple, very much like scratch where the entire program was dragged and dropped into puzzle pieces. I found the App Inventor to be really slow. When opening up the blocks editor, it would take about a minute and when opening up the emulator, it would take 2-3 minutes which is quite a long time for opening a small program.

Explain what App Inventor is, how easy or hard it is to learn, and what kinds of things you expect you can do with it. 
App Inventor is a program which allows anyone (non-professional programmers) to create apps for the android phones. This is done by first creating a screen or interface where the user can interact and where the creator makes the design of the app. Then a blocks editor is opened to create the program behind the app and finally the app is connected to the phone where it can be tested/used. With app inventor, almost any basic app as well as some advanced apps can be created easily.

I think that app inventor is very simple to learn. Its all about dragging things to create an image and dragging "blocks" to create the code. I expect to be able to make simple games (such as pac-man & mazes)  and other simple programs (such as modifying pictures).

Useful Links
http://appinventor.mit.edu/
- gives basic information and explains the concept behind app inventor
http://www.appinventor.org/
- gives ideas on apps that can be created with app inventor
http://appinventorblog.com/
- blog explaining useful things about app inventor such as its pro's and con's compared to scratch and links to other useful websites for learning about app inventor