App Tuesday: 10 new apps in the Google Apps Marketplace

While many IT departments spend the second Tuesday of the month patching the operating systems on their servers, Google Apps customers running their business in the cloud have some free time to evaluate and roll-out new applications. Lucky for them, today there are 10 new apps available today in the Google Apps Marketplace.

Several of the new applications help you manage communications more effectively, from tracking contact with customers and partners to de-cluttering your inbox:

• Bantam Live: Bantam Live provides easy CRM and team collaboration to track contacts, prospects, deals and organize projects, tasks and events. It integrates with Google Apps and social networks to import and aggregate contacts.
• Etacts: This application and Gmail contextual gadget enable you to instantly find out who you talk to the most and who you’ve neglected.
• Organizer by OtherInbox: Organizer automatically organizes low priority email out of the way, leaving your inbox much smaller so it's easy to find the important messages from real people.

For a complete list of all 10 applications launching on the Google Apps Marketplace today, read our post on the Google Enterprise Blog. If you’ve #gonegoogle and tried the #appsmarketplace, let others know what you recommend via Twitter or Google Buzz, and submit your suggestions for additional apps.

Posted by Ryan Boyd, Google Apps Marketplace team

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App Inventor for Android

App Inventor is a new tool in Google Labs that makes it easy for anyone—programmers and non-programmers, professionals and students—to create mobile applications for Android-powered devices. And today, we’re extending invitations to the general public.

For many people, their mobile phone—and access to the Internet—is always within reach. App Inventor for Android gives everyone, regardless of programming experience, the opportunity to control and reshape their communication experience. We’ve observed people take pride in becoming creators of mobile technology and not just consumers of it.

For the past year, we’ve been testing App Inventor in classrooms around the United States, and we’ve found that it opens up the world of computer programming to students in new and powerful ways. David Wolber, professor of computer science at the University of San Francisco and part of the initial pilot program, says “students traditionally intimidated by technology are motivated and excited to program with App Inventor.” One student from Professor Wolber’s class told us: “I used to think that no one could program except CS people. Now, I've made dozens of applications for the Android phone!” Another student, who struggles with dyslexia, was inspired by App Inventor to take more computer science classes and is now learning Python. Check out this video to hear more about App Inventor for Android at University of San Francisco.

Visit our site to learn more about App Inventor and see sample apps. To request an invitation, fill out this form and you’ll soon be on your way to building mobile applications. And check out the video below to see how it works. We can’t wait to see what you create!



Posted by Mark Friedman, Google Engineer

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