In this chapter, we signed up for the free Google App Inventor account and logged on to the App Inventor website.
We viewed the requirements for installing App Inventor on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers and (if we did not already have it) obtained and installed Java.
We then downloaded and installed the part of App Inventor that runs on our local computers and checked out the emulator software (a cute but fake smartphone on your local computer for testing apps).
Next, we found (if they were not already present) the device drivers (for our phone or other Android device and configured our device) to work with App Inventor.
So, we now have a Google App Inventor account and the underlying Java environment needed to run App Inventor's blocks screen on our computer and to create apps on our phone or other device, as well as package them for use.
Time to learn the basics so that we can design and create all those powerful apps we'll explore in the course of this book. The next three chapters cover those basics. First is the chapter on components.