With the release of Google App Inventor, Google will be opening up it’s Android platform to non-developers with a friendly WYSIWYG-like tool that allows people to create applications without writing code. Apparently, Google has been testing this tool in school and kids are pumping out real, working Android applications!

I love the spirt of this, and can see how Google wants to promote their platform, and get people excited about creating applications for their app store – going right up against Apple.

The comparisons?

Apple iPhone

• closed environment
• app approval process for getting applications into it’s Store
• arguably complex programming language (Cocoa) – not trivial to learn to develop for (even for seasoned programmers)

Google Android

• open environment
• no app approval process for app store
• Android is based on Java – possibly the most popular programming language in the world

So, basically complete opposite approaches. There’s a lot more to say here, but this is the high level comparison and certainly paints an interesting picture.

Which is better?

While I love the sprit of Google’s open-ness, and I tend to disagree the closed approaches that Apple follows, I do worry about t over-saturation and dilution that could happen in the Google world – particularly now when anyone with an “App Inventor Kit” can throw together any app and give it away to the world. Again, the openness is cool, but it does come at a cost: quality. This is something Apple, with all their rigidness, refuses to let go of – and for good reason.

Perhaps, in the end, it could play out similar to how it happened in the 80s: Apple comes out first, with an amazing, inspiring product (the Mac), but refuses to open it up (in that case, refusing to allow the software to run on other hardware). Microsoft came along and created a cheaper product (Windows) that could run on any (lower cost) hardware, and they owned the market. As they say: “only time will tell.” With such totally opposite approaches to challenges that have already played-out in history, you’d think there’d be some kind of “magical” middle road to chose from.

 And now there is a real name: Revue (code name “KA”). I’ve been waiting to see this! Now, I want one even more. Looking forward to seeing one in person, and looking even more forward to creating some apps for this thing! Note the use of iPhone for remote! The incorporation of Logitech’s whole Harmony remote, where a single device (in this case, an iPhone) could control all the devices in your entertainment system. This is pretty cool as it moves us in the direction of owning the whole digitally conntected living room!

Google just got fresher and faster with the release of their new indexing system,  Caffeine. In short, old Google indexing = built with layers that would get refreshed at varying frequencies and result in content often not updated for days or weeks. New Google indexing (Caffeine) = analyzes smaller chunks of the web and updates continuously; so content is much fresher!

Hot off the presses: Introducing Google TV! I’m really excited about this. Google is creating the software (Google TV) and partnering with Logitech and Sony, who are supplying the hardware. In addition, and what is most exciting to me, is the ability for 3rd party developers to create applications for this new platform. The applications can take two forms: Native (Android) and Web (web technologies including Flash!) Just think of the potential for mashing up all of this rich, powerful content driven by the power of Google services. The inclusion of Flash is a big one and by having Shantanu  (Adobe CEO) up on stage next to Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, to announce this sends a pretty clear message about where Google stands on Flash support.