We have some good news for anyone interested in the world of app development. App Inventor has returned! For anyone who remembers, App Inventor was a way for your average person to learn about development while creating simple apps using a drag-and-drop concept. A year and many cat apps later, App Inventor was discontinued by Google and open-sourced for anyone looking to further its development. Being an educational tool, it wasn’t surprising when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) decided to scoop it up and continue the work Google started. Fast-forward to today, and the first beta-version of MIT App Inventor is ready for download to anyone with a Google account.
At this year’s Mobile World Congress, Google all but confirmed that Android’s next iteration would be named Jelly Bean. Of course it’s still unofficial, but even Benson Lin, Asus’ Corporate Vice President, is talking about it and has every intention of being the first on the upgrade list.
At this year’s Mobile World Congress, HTC unveiled their future One series lineup of smartphones boasting some impressive camera specs. HTC improved every part of the camera from lens to software, and even went as far as to integrate their own custom HTC ImageChip. With a new f/2.0 lens, HDR technology and their new ImageSense camera suite, HTC set out to create a smartphone camera that could quickly capture any moment, in any condition, with superb results. The claims were grand, the results… well, see for yourself.
The latest ruling to come out of the ridiculous patent game comes in favor of Apple and awards them an injunction on Motorola Android products found to infringe on an Apple patent regarding scrolling behavior in the photo gallery application. What does this ruling actually mean for German users? Nothing really. Motorola will simply push an update to change the scrolling behavior and that will be the end of that. Will German Motorola users notice the change? Most likely not. So what was the point? The same point of everything that involves lawyers — money.
Google and the Android team have been working hard to provide all the necessary tools for developers to create beautiful looking Android apps to fit the new Android 4.0 theme. That’s the reason they created Android Design, a central location for developers to go for UI tools and tips. After its launch, the Android team began to receive numerous requests for Ice Cream Sandwich stencils. Being the amazing Android team that they are, they have made these stencils available and they can be downloaded now by heading over to the Android Design site.
