Just a quick note to say that this blog is now going back to concentrate on things relating to my day-to-day life and music-making. It’s no longer going to be about my elearning day job.
What I have learned today
By Tim Blackburn. My stuff and and e-learning stuff. If want to read about my music, please visit mistrustmusic.co.uk/blog
I’ve learned to make an Android App
Yes, I’ve learned to make a Google Android App, using the Googlelabs App Inventor (beta)….
I’ve made my very first app for my Android phone! It’s not an all-singing, all-dancing program, but it’s an app, all the same. Why make an app? I’ve always wondered how to make an Android application for a while, and also wanted a way of making our College library induction leaflet available to more students, and making it instantly available and updatable. I recently found a couple of websites that you can pay to have an app developed for you, or make an app from an RSS feed fro free, but I wanted one where I could add content myself. I came across App Inventor for Android (beta), which is one of the gadgets on Google Labs. It looked just the thing I needed to make my own app.
The blurb on the website says:
Creating an App Inventor app begins in your browser, where you design how the app will look. Then, like fitting together puzzle pieces, you set your app’s behavior. All the while, through a live connection between your computer and your phone, your app appears on your phone
(screenshot of the Blocks Editor)
The basic app that I made uses text-based lists and a basic navigation system to provide the content, and it’s even got a button that lets you dial the library’s phone number! I’ve so far added things like opening times and how many books you can borrow, but it’s a start. The App Inventor lets you add all sorts of complex programming, using drag and drop blocks that interlink, and updates the output via either an online phone emulator, or your own phone linked to the computer. It’s a great little program, and it’s got enough scope and complexity for me to add links to (and play) online induction videos, external content, and send updates to users’ phones, all using the same application.
One shortcoming of the Google Android App Inventor, is that you can’t, at the moment, add your self-made app to the Android market. You can, however, download it and share it with your friends and students.
(screenshot of the completed app).
This post was first made by me on Posterous.
QR Codes
I’ve just created a QR code to point people to another website…. you’ll have to have a QR code reader on your mobile phone to find out where it points to! Just open your QR reader and point your mobile phone at the code:
I generated the code at QRDroid, as the one I’d orginally done at Kaywa’s QR Code Generator kept on disappearing. You can get a free code reader for Android phones at QR droid.
If you can’t wait, just click the image here to take you to the page….
Changes
After acumulating so many blogs on wordpress.com – for my music-making, for personal stuff, e-learning stuff, etc., I’ve decided to start posting anything non-”mistrust music” related on here. So, that means anything I want to talk about, things I come across and want to share, e-learning stuff, will appear on here.
Henceforth this blog will be known as “What I have learned today”.
I’m not closing down my other blogs just yet. Just starting from now, all my “stuff” will go on here, except music-making “stuff”. I’m just going to keep the mistrust music blog for things I’m doing with my remixes and other bits of what I’m upto music-wise.
So, if you’ve come here looking for a “mistrust remix” or info about “Half Past One”, hop on over to mistrustmusic.co.uk/blog
If not, say hello!
