There is no problem with using App Inventor to write your own apps and share them with others. The problem…

App Inventor is a "low code", visual software development tool. Such "drag and drop" programming tools enable non-programmers (and programmers)…

Yesterday, a Wordpress plug in ran "amok" and used up all available system memory, causing this and all of my…

Update December 26, 2019: The DNS has been updated (or is still in process of being updated) so that appinventor.pevest.com…

Two readers alerted me to problems downloading the source code on the Downloads page on this web site, and the…

App Inventor for iOS (iPhone and iPad) is coming ... may be released during the summer of 2019.

This web site - appinventor.pevest.com - is no longer the primary web site for our App Inventor tutorials. However, this…

Google will be discontinuing Fusion Tables at the end of 2019. If you have used the App Inventor FusionTables control,…

A reader asked a question about how to calculate square roots. While you can - and generally should - use…

There are many surveys of programming language popularity. Many of the popular surveys have problems with the survey methodology such…

Presently, https://learn2c.org is the primary web site for my App Inventor posts. This page at https://appinventor.pevest.com is the old web…

In the spring of 2017, this web site - appinventor.pevest.com - was moved to https://learn2c.org (or an alternate address https://appinventorplus.wordpress.com/) The…

Periodically, my  Nexus 5 phone's battery life is terrible. On good days, if I don't use my phone, the battery…

Part 1 showed how to reference and store user interface components as a variable. That tutorial used this method to easily…

As you may know, http is the old way to access a web site. https is the newer secure method…

App Inventor programmers routinely store values, such as numbers or text strings ("Hello!") in variables. For example, stores the numeric…

Yesterday I posted another item in a series of posts about using Bluetooth features in App Inventor. Bluetooth (together with…

Please start with "Part 1: Basic Bluetooth communications using App Inventor" to learn how to configure, set up and program…

The pedometer uses the phones motion sensors (accelerometers) to identify when the phone (or tablet) is being carried by someone…

Time to bring this blog into the modern era. The old style layout looked the same as most blogs of…

See Part 0 for a brief introduction to this series and Bluetooth LE plus our past tutorial series on classic…

Dennis Ritchie, the creator of the C programming language and co-developer of the Unix operating system passed away on October…

Wow! I just checked the web server data and the server estimate the http://appinventor.pevest.com web site is now read in…

Our prior post showed how to use user interface button components to simulate a column chart. We can apply the…

Clark Hochgraf has a blog post on using button controls as a simple way to draw a column chart. This…

Bluetooth is a standard for low power communications, over very short distances, at modest data rates. Originally, Bluetooth was intended…

A previous post introduced the experimental Firebase component in MIT App Inventor. Firebase is a cloud-based database that may be…

Saw this sign at a campground, identifying 4 separate roadway loops where people may camp. For programmers, this sign is…

MIT Professor Seymour Papert was a forward looking visionary who pioneered the adoption of computing concepts in children's education, including…

FirebaseDB provides for sharing between users all running the exact same app on their device. Read "What is FirebaseDB?" to…

That is the actual future of software development: It will become so easy and second nature, that for ordinary tasks…

Hidden at the bottom of the Designer palette, is a category labeled Experimental and within that, there is a single…

A reader recently asked how to determine the day of the week - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and so on, using…

The "Internet of Things" refers to connecting all types of products and sensors to the Internet. Sensors, microcontrollers and communications…

I have been busy with other projects. But I have a big list of ideas for more tutorials and App…

I was working on a small app that needed to round some numeric values. For example, given a number such…

This web site is now receiving 25,000 unique visitors each month! I am very pleased that these tutorials are helpful…

This tutorial introduces location services features available in App Inventor. A future tutorial will demonstrate these features applied to specific…

Students should write applications in either Scratch or MIT App Inventor and submit their entries to the contest by 31…

Last fall, I created a tutorial on adding App Inventor apps to the Google Play Store. That tutorial is still…

Readers post questions on the FB page or the blog. Sometimes I can answer them but sometimes I cannot answer…

Spammers are starting to hit this web site pretty hard - registering fake accounts, attempting to post comment spam and…

The e-book is now online and available. More information here including links to e-reader software for your Windows or Mac…

Volume 4 of my App Inventor guide books series is now available in e-book and print format. The book also…

On 28 March 2016 you may have received a "Bandwidth Limit Exceeded" error message when trying to access appinventor.pevest.com. This…

droid-at-screen is a free Java-based app that displays the content of your phone's display to your computer's display, when the…

I likely have a conflict and probably cannot go but this event may be of interest to those who can…

A reader asked  if it might be possible to "gray out" a button so that pressing it has no action,…

Thunkable is a spin off of the MIT App Inventor project. If you can program in App Inventor, you can…

Each week the past 3 weeks I thought I was going to have time to put together some new tutorials…

Facebook - Web site link Short update - my web site at http://appinventor.pevest.com was linked directly to FB so that…

In the last post, we introduced some concepts for building "creative" App Inventor user interfaces that feature visually appealing user…

In the real world, "user interfaces" look like electric light switches, push buttons or control knobs, temperature dials on ovens, volume…

How about this - a panel full of toggle switches! Tap a switch to flip the switch from On to…

The server that hosts the appinventor.pevest.com virtual server suffered an outage late on January 17th, continuing into early January 18th.…

Another way to develop apps for Android is to write apps in the Javascript program scripting language (note - Javascript…

MIT App Inventor is a "graphical programming language" in that we assemble programs by clicking and dragging symbols on screen,…

The following chart comes from Google Trends, and reflects the growing interest in App Inventor, based on searches for "MIT…

App Inventor Elsa Consulting passes this along on Facebook: Tip: Right click for download blocks as png Image! Source: App…

Overview App Inventor supports scanning of product identification "bar codes" and QR codes. Bar codes are typically found on consumer…

Some new "extension" features are available for testing in App Inventor at MIT App Inventor Extensions. The 4 extensions include vector…

I did my software engineering Masters thesis (2012) on Android power management and I learned, as part of my research,…

Download here: App Inventor Basic Text Files Cheat Sheet (PDF) High res, suitable for printing. Feel free to share with others. App…

Download here: App Inventor Location Sensor Cheat Sheet (PDF) High res, suitable for printing. Feel free to share with others. App…

I have completely rewritten and re-done my original tutorial on using TinyDB in App Inventor. You can see the all…

Early in 2015, FIRST announced that the First Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics platform would be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon…

Download here: App Inventor Bluetooth Cheat Sheet (PDF) Covers basic Bluetooth text communications with links to tutorials on sending numeric…

This web site is now cross posting to Tumblr, in addition to Facebook. Follow along using whatever is best for…

Do you need to use a "real programming language" to create useful applications? No! The history of programming begins long…

Download here: App Inventor Orientation Sensor Cheat Sheet (PDF) High res, suitable for printing. Feel free to share with others. Here…

I have created a "cheat sheet" that captures all of the App Inventor components, blocks, events, properties and procedure calls.…

An all new tutorial on this subject is available here as of May 2016! There is still some great information…

Estructurado en 8 módulos y con más de 146 clases este curso es ideal para aquellas personas que, sin tener…

After a processing delay, both e-books are now also available at Google Play Books. App Inventor 2 – Advanced Concepts…

I have set up a page to collect any corrections to my e-books. If you find issues in the books,…

App Inventor has introduced "copy and paste" of code blocks. Now you can copy blocks of code within a current…

What is an "Array"? An array is a variable data type that stores a collection of values referenced by an…

Off topic a bit but this may be helpful to others inserting images into Microsoft Word documents or trying to create…

A reader asked, "When using the 2 button Notifier dialog, how do we know which button was pressed?" The 2…

Some of my readers have asked about printed copies of my App Inventor e-books. There are services available that can…

Finding a specific programming block with in the AI2 Blocks editor can be hard for new AI programmers. You found…

For a complete description of Volume 1 (Introduction), Volume 2 (Advanced Concepts) and Volume 3 (Databases and Files), please see…

How did you discover MIT App Inventor? I discovered App Inventor just as Google was handing AI classic off to…

Volume 3 - focusing on TinyDB, TinyWebDB, Fusion Tables and text files - is now Available. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- App Inventor 2: Databases…

The Appril release of Quirky Linux includes the Android SDK (Software Development Kit), Android Studio, App Inventor, Oracle JDK (Java…

Available now: App Inventor 2: Databases and Files I have finished writing App Inventor 2: Databases and Files, a new…

MIT App Inventor introduced today their new "responsive design" features so that apps can work "better" on different sized screens.…

MIT App Inventor upgrade coming next Monday - the upgrade will support apps running on devices with different size screens,…

MIT has begun testing a new App Inventor feature that will enable developers to create their own "extension components". Extension…

I do not think there is any good way to make print outs of the App Inventor blocks code. What…

When you type a number, such as "123", computers convert the text values of "123" into an internal representation used…

Version 2.0 of my Photo Guide app for Android is now available - it is free, no ads either.  No…

I posted the following on my App Inventor Facebook page - only a fraction of readers use the FB page…

Changes between nb143i and nb144 (June 30, 2015) When a component is renamed in the designer, any related collapsed blocks…

Volume 2 of the App Inventor 2 Tutorial is now available at Amazon as an e-book via this link: App Inventor…

Volume 2 of the App Inventor 2 Tutorial will be available at Amazon and Google Play/Google books within a few…

As you know, MIT App Inventor is a graphical-based programming system, or a "visual development" system where programs are constructed…

Source: MIT App Inventor usage for 2014-2015 Academic Year As they point out, the cyclical ups and downs in usage…

I have added a new "Subscribe by email" feature to provide another way to be alerted to new posts on…

Most users are already using AI 2 and are unaffected by this change. But if you are still using AI…

Source: Official Google Blog: Picture this: A fresh approach to Photos Limitations: Maximum full resolution images to 16 MP, and…

A question from a reader: Can we make a video player in App Inventor? The short answer is, unfortunately, not…

When I had a Nexus 4 running Android 4.3 and earlier, I used an app called Juice Defender to extend…

Atmel introduced the new Arduino Zero controller board, which includes new support for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and sensors, apparently (I do…

I have added a page that has a short summary of all posts on this blog. The summary may be…

Click through for the full post at Viking Code School - as they say, the early part can be easy,…

Eric Payne has created an Apple Siri - like interface in App Inventor. You can download his App Inventor source…

How to Connect App Inventor apps to Arduino Using Bluetooth Bluetooth is a low power, short range wireless technology built…

I  have an App Inventor app running on my Nexus 5 and talking to an Arduino board via Bluetooth. I…

Some times App Inventor 2 apps stop working (well mine sometimes do this, may be your's don't!) Besides looking carefully…

App Inventor has added a new source code "Gallery" for sharing source code with others. From the My Projects list…

I wrote this in response to a question on this web site's Facebook page. Someone asked if there was perhaps…

The App Inventor TextBox control supports both single line and multi-line input; the TextBox control default to single line mode -…

Mardi Shakti has created an MIT App Inventor Study Group on Facebook. Check it out!

This webblog web server tracks the country of web site visitors and draws this map showing which countries visited this…

As you may know, you can save your App Inventor project to your local computer using the Projects | Export…

If you have questions about App Inventor or App Inventor programming, try posting your questions on the Facebook page "wall" and also…

The TimePicker and DatePicker User Interface Controls Entering the date and time are common features of business applications. We could…

Raspberry Pi 2 is a US$ 35 computer board to which you attach a monitor, keyboard, mouse and Ethernet connection.…

Press Release - January 14, 2015 | USFIRST.org. New Movie Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, George Lopez, Carlos PenaVega, and Marisa…

Blockly is the block code editor used in App Inventor. Blockly provides a way to write programs by arranging blocks…

Use a QR Code reader app, such as QR Droid, and point your camera at this image to link your…

It's free - the TOO MANY TOTES! game for Android devices - download at the Google Play Store. The app…

Last year, I presented a short tutorial on displaying web pages from inside your App Inventor apps. Now, here is…

Part 1 of this tutorial introduced Bluetooth communications and implemented a simple method of sending text data back and forth…

App Inventor is an amazing way to create Android applications. You don't need to be able to program to use…

As you develop your App Inventor program using the Blocks editor, do you find your blocks overlapping and crashing in to…

Interest in MIT App Inventor is growing rapidly, world wide. Many of the readers of this web site do not…

(Some very minor updates were made to this in November 2019). This tutorial covers basic App Inventor Bluetooth communications  code.…

MIT App Inventor - now available with Chinese or Spanish Interface - More Languages to Come | Explore MIT App…

Android phones and tablets support Bluetooth communications ("BT"). BT is a very low power, very short range communication technology used…

This is a machine generated list of App Inventor tutorial videos. I have no idea which ones are the best…

The total number of MIT App Inventor registered users has reached 2.7 million. My guess is the number went up,…

When your app needs the user to select an item from a list of choices, use the Spinner control. Suppose we…

This post is a major update to a previous post on reading and writing text files using App Inventor. This…

I previously posted a short tutorial on writing to and reading from text files stored on an Android device, using…

Android Studio 1.0 arrives - SD Times. Download Android Studio and the Android Software Development Kit (SD) here.

I just noticed the updated statistics at the appinventor.mit.edu web site: Weekly Active Users: 102K Total Registered Users: 2.5M Countries:…

From the MIT App Inventor web site: Summary: We have been having problems with storing “assets” image, sounds and other…

The Computer Science Education Week coincides with the "Hour of Code" initiative. This example lesson is based on MIT's Scratch (which…

The upcoming Jack & Jill compilers in Android | Saikoa. Most Android apps are written in the Java programming language.…

Created by a doctor in India that knew nothing about programming - but discovered App Inventor: LET ME HEAR AGAIN, An…

Chances are, if you are writing App Inventor apps for Android, you already have an Android smart phone or tablet.…

Here is an easy to read report on which programming languages are now "hot" in the market for software developers: Don't…

Thank you to those that are following these updates via Facebook. Facebook tries to automatically figure out what posts you read.…

Tip - Using Projects | Checkpoint As we develop our app code, we occassionally make changes that do not work. Sometimes our…

Back up your App Inventor projects by saving them to your computer's hard drive. To save a copy of an…

You can support this tutorial effort by purchasing a copy of the e-book from any of the following e-book vendors…

How to implement a button that continuously changes color, as demonstrated in this video example: The Designer View Create a simple user…

Blockly is intended for use by software developers (rather than children learning to code) to generate Javascript: Blockly was influenced…

My App Inventor 2: Tutorial e-book - the fast and easy way to create Android apps - is now available…

MIT App Inventor Usage Surpasses 100,000 weekly - Google Docs. Usage is climbing sharply! MIT suggests the usage trend indicates…

This tutorial covers the simple changing of the color of a button, while the app is running. You may also…

Please read the release notes: Release nb139 Pre-announce. Will also include an update to the AI Companion support app on Android…

I have made a minor change to how posts now appear on this web site. Longer posts - especially the…

You have probably run your App Inventor apps through AI Companion. The AI Companion is a great tool for quickly loading…

What the App Does This is the fifth version of 5 app versions that implement a tip calculator - and the final version…

You can change the colors of buttons (and some other components) in your App Inventor apps. Using some programming tricks,…

What the App Does This is the fourth version of 5 versions that implement a tip calculator. Each version has added improvements…

What the App Does This is a simple app to calculate the tip and total bill at a restaurant –…

I have added buttons after each post on the App Inventor Tutorial so you can quickly share these posts on…

This is not obvious but ... you can select a group of blocks and press Ctrl-C (on Windows) and then…

14-year-old wins laurels for app - The Hindu.

Please follow us on your preferred social media - like us on Facebook, add to your circles and follow on Google+,…

What the App Does This is a simple app to calculate the tip and total bill at a restaurant –…

Students will be using App Inventor: Lenovo and the National Academy Foundation (NAF) today announced 10 NAF Academies have been…

Malicious attackers find App Inventor so easy to use they can create their own nasty Android apps quickly: App Inventor…

What the App Does This is a simple app to calculate the tip and total bill at a restaurant -…

This tutorial introduces the accelerometer - at a high level - as a tool to detect the phone being shaken.…

Smart phones and tablets contain several kinds of "sensors" to sense information about their environment. For example, an accelerometer provides…

The history of App Inventor extends, in part, back to the 1980s, at least, which may sound odd. App Inventor…

In the prior tutorial, we created a sprite-based bouncing animation - which is surprisingly easy to do in App Inventor.…

I have created an online poll - see side bar at right of this post - to learn about what…

I described the basics of creating a bouncing ball animation earlier and mentioned that "image sprites" are similar to the…

A frequent search topic on this blog is how to use lists. "Lists" are a way of storing a collection…

In an earlier post, I mentioned that ImageSprites use images - and suggested I do a tutorial on images so…

This is for advanced software developers only: MIT App Inventor Sources. That's the actual source code that makes App Inventor work…

App Inventor 2 provides easy to use features for creating games. These features have proven popular for introducing programming concepts…

What is ListPicker? ListPicker is a user interface component that makes it easy to display a list of items and…

99+ MIT App Inventor Forum - Google Groups. This is the MIT App Inventor Support Forum, hosted on Google Groups.…

See nb136/nb137 release information. If your phone or tablet updates apps automatically, the new update should have been installed already (it…

Would it be neat if you could display pages from the web in your Android app? Well, you can! And…

Whether you use Windows, Linux or Mac OS X applications, when the program needs to alert the user (you!) to…

Update: When the program is run in AI2 Companion, it behaves differently than when run as a standalone "build" .apk…

App Inventor has a neat featured called "live programming". With this feature, after transferring your app from the App Inventor…

(This post was completely rewritten and updated on October 30, 2015) What is TinyDB? TinyDB is a simple "database" that…

On my phone, if I leave AI Companion running, the battery life of my phone goes down more rapidly. Consequently,…

As you already know, you can use App Inventor and the AI Companion on your phone to install apps from…

This introduction is for those completely new to App Inventor - What is it? How does it work? Why should…

In the Designer, under Storage, drag the File component to the user interface Design screen.  This adds a "non-visible component"…

Using App Inventor’s Official Documentation App Inventor programming uses graphical components to layout program functionality. But the official App Inventor…

Volume 1 of App Inventor 2: Tutorial is available at Amazon.com. Volume 2 is in development and will cover a…

"App Inventor 2: Tutorial - the Fast and Easy way to create Android apps" e-book is available for $2.99 at…

MIT App Inventor 2 is the fast and easy way to create Android apps for smart phones and tablets. App…