MY FIRST APP!!!

Today I created my very first app for Android and it's already up on the android marketplace!! YAHOO!! ...although it doesnt work yet. =)

I had no idea I would be able to actually get a full application up on the marketplace so quickly and easily. Although.... I kind of feel like I cheated. See I found a new development environment that google is creating which is meant to make it super easy to create apps for android. After playing around with it a bit and doing some research I realized just how simple it was and also how limiting it currently is. The functionality is currently very minimal and does not have many plug-ins/components that you are able to use. Hopefully Google can follow through on its claim to allow third party components to be created with Java that can be included into it for use. Until then, I will play around with what I've got.

So my first attempt at an app is called "Speech 2 Text". You can find it on the android market by searching "Speech 2 Text Rainwater" and it will come right up at the top. Funny enough, I rushed it out to the marketplace because I wanted the thrill of seeing MY app on there and to my laughter, it doesn't even do what it says it does. It worked fine in the emulator but on the actual phone it doesn't work yet. So I will have to play around with it and see what I did wrong. But hey, it's still an app and it's still on the marketplace so I'm calling this first attempt a success.

Interestingly enough, the App Inventor development environment by Google is not even set up yet to allow you to post the apps to the marketplace. I did find a workaround though. Some guy created a pc application he calls App2Market which allows you to take the apk file, decompile it, stamp it with your signature info and all required market information, recompile it, zip it, and package it back up in a format that allows it to be uploaded to the market. It's quite easy and quite genious. Here is a link to his page explaining how to do it...http://amerkashi.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/automating-conversion-of-app-inventor-apk-to-google-market/

Onward we go! I suppose now I should try and fix my new app so it actually works before I get bad ratings huh.  =)