USB vs. WiFi for Live Development

App Inventor Classic • App Inventor Classic • FOR APP INVENTOR 2 CLICK HERE• App Inventor Classic • App Inventor Classic

You can connect your Android device to the computer over wifi. This is the simplest method and should work in most situations. It may run into trouble when the local wireless network does not have enough capacity to support many connections (two per student: one for the computer and one for the device). Such a situation might happen in a school lab where there are many students and limited wireless capacity. Another might be in a conference hotel, where wireless connections are sometimes restricted and can time out. A USB cable connection won't have these problems -- but you need to set it up. This is not much of an issue for Mac or GNU/Linux. On Windows, however, you'll need to install Windows driver software, and each device manufacturer typically requires a different driver. That would be tolerable in a school lab where most of the computers and devices are the same, and you have time to set things up for the duration of the semester. But if there are many different devices and you need to set them up quickly, you'd be better off with wifi.

Ready to Continue?