This book was—so I thought—completed on August 3, 2011. Naturally, on August 5, a new update was released. To make this book as absolutely complete as possible, here it is:
Features:
Allow Player component to work with streaming URLs on Android 1.6 or greater
Added GetPixelColor, GetBackgroundPixelColor, and SetBackgroundPixelColor to Canvas. (issue #485)
Added make color and split color blocks to the Built-In/Color drawer
Bug Fixes:
Fixed issue #1750 - Web.HtmlTextDecode caused runtime error on phones older than Gingerbread
Fixed issue #1756 - App crashes when phone turned to landscape
Fixed bug where Canvas.save fails on a very large canvas
Of the previous changes, the one I find most exciting is the new make color block in the Built-In/Color drawer. Instead of those long negatives numbers we've used to set colors throughout the book, it's now possible to use standard RGB (Red, Green, Blue) designations (0-255) for each of the three.
In addition to this standard color nomenclature, an alpha channel was also added for controlling transparency. It is now possible, for example, to (using delays) fade labels in and out. Transitions! Something I've wanted a lot. I am really looking forward to playing with that.
Finally—also on August 3, just as I finished this book, Google announced it was discontinuing support of App Inventor (part of its general discontinuation of Google Labs) and releasing it to open source. You can imagine my initial reaction after all this work.
However, as seen previously, support has continued with the release of another upgrade, and App Inventor continues to progress.
So, the news is good, and I look forward to clicking blocks and creating apps for years to come.
I hope this book helps you as much as it has me in mastering App Inventor.
— Ralph Roberts, August 6, 2011