Google App Inventor is from the Internet giant Google, home of the famous search engine. Google also develops the Android operating system found on smartphones and tablet computers from many manufacturers including HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and a growing host of others.

In late breaking news as this book goes to press, Google and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have announced that App Inventor will be supported by MIT's new Center for Mobile Learning. People from MIT (such as Hal Abelson and Mitchel Resnick) who first developed App Inventor will continue to be associated with its development. More about this change at the end of this book.

Some reviews of App Inventor call it limited. This is wrong. Google App Inventor is already powerful and ready to produce complex useful and marketable apps (as I and many others have already accomplished using it). Additionally, the software's still in beta (development and testing stage) — new features and capabilities continue to be added. But, don't just take my word for how useful App Inventor is; let me show you throughout this book.

Until App Inventor was introduced, programming apps (applications) was an esoteric art form involving cryptic lines of Java code understood only by a few programmers. You were required to write line upon line of cryptic code. Now, we can just pull blocks together in easy visual programming. Can anyone do it? Yes, we can!