My First Android Apps

Shiny vision for the future?

With websites like KhanAcademy, it is now easier than ever to learn how to program.  Still, it's nice to be able to make something that goes beyond the computer screen, and maybe instead...exists on a phone screen?

I learned how to make and test my own apps on an Android phone in just a few hours.  Here's my progress so far: 

Pictures of apps I made using MIT's App Inventor 2 for Android: 

"Talk_To_Me" [1]

"Gravitas" [2]

Pretty simple.  App descriptions at the end of this post. 

Dropbox link to download them to your phone: 
My Android Apps
You can test the apps out by downloading the .apk file of your choice to an Android phone. 

Instructions to run the apps: 
http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/support/packaging-apps.html#download
Basically, when I tested the games on my Android phone, this is what I did: 

1. I enabled developer apps on my Android phone (Settings > Applications > checkmark Unknown Sources (Allow installation of non-Market applications),
2. I emailed myself the app (if you're seeing this on an Android phone you can go straight to step 4),
3. I opened the email on the Android phone,
4. I downloaded and installed the .apk file (one step when the pop-up showed on my phone), and finally, 
5. I ran the app.

You can make your own Android apps for free using App Inventor 2:
Go to appinventor.mit.edu/explore
...and hit the big orange button on the top right that says "Create!" 

You can test and edit apps on the fly, with the app updating/running in real-time on an Android phone, or using an emulator on your computer screen. 

This is the lego block-like programming interface.  Reminds me of Scratch.

[1] The first one, "Talk_To_Me", is based off of a tutorial.  Two buttons.  One button plays a recording.  The other button lets you take a photo to use as the background.  Swipe the bouncing dot and you can change the direction/speed while drawing lines (a sound plays if you actually affected the dot).  If you shake the phone, then the lines disappear, and a counter on the top right counts up, which I guess could be used as a step counter, but it depends on your phone's senstivity settings. 

[2] The second one, "Gravitas", is a crude gravity-like simulation.  Just like for "Talk_To_Me" you can change the direction that the dots are moving by swiping (although it takes some skill to figure out the timing...or spamming). 
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