MIT opens App Inventor Beta Preview to the public

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has opened its web-based App Inventor service for testing by the general public. MIT originally acquired the App Inventor source code from Google when the company terminated the project in December 2011.

App Inventor allows users with minimal programming knowledge to create Android applications through a drag-and-drop interface. The MIT Center for Mobile Learning, which was created to develop the application and educational materials around it, says that App Inventor is now "suitable for any use, including running classes" but that users should be aware of the fact that it has not been tested on its servers under production load yet. Users are advised to maintain backup copies of applications developed with the service at all times.

According to the release announcement, a first stable release of the software should be expected within the first quarter of this year. The Center is currently working on improving the general performance of the service and has said it will also concentrate on developing resources to make the programme more useful as a learning tool.

The App Inventor source code is available from the project's Google Code site and is published under the Apache Licence 2.0. Ready compiled versions for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux can also be downloaded from the site.

See also:

• Google donates App Inventor to MIT's new Center for Mobile Learning, a report from The H.

(fab)