Product Description

This practical book provides the concepts and code you need to develop software with Android, the open-source platform for cell phones and mobile devices that's generating enthusiasm across the industry. Based on the Linux operating system and developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance, Android has the potential to unite a fragmented mobile market. "Android Application Development" introduces this programming environment, and offers you a complete working example that demonstrates Android architectural features and APIs. With this book, you will: get a complete introduction to the Android programming environment, architecture, and tools; build a modular application, beginning with a core module that serves to launch modules added in subsequent chapters; learn the concepts and architecture of a specific feature set, including views, maps, location-based services, persistent data storage, 2D and 3D graphics, media services, telephony services, and messaging; use ready-to-run example code that implements each feature; and, delve into advanced topics, such as security, custom views, performance analysis, and internationalization. The book is a natural complement to the existing Android documentation provided by Google. Whether you want to develop a commercial application for mobile devices, or just want to create a mobile mashup for personal use, "Android Application Development" demonstrates how you can design, build, and test applications for the new mobile market.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #119118 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 334 pages

About the Author
Rick Rogers has been a professional embedded software engineer and software marketing manager for over 30 years. He has focused on mobile application software for the past 8 years, developing mobile software and strategic mobile engineering and marketing plans for companies such as Compaq, Intel, and Marvell Semiconductor.

John Lombardo has been working with Linux since version 0.9. His first book, Embedded Linux, was published in 2001. Since then he's worked on several embedded products, including phones and routers. John holds a BS in Computer Science and is working on his MBA.

Zigurd Mednieks is Chief User Interface Architect at D2 Technologies, a leading provider of IP communications technology, and is a consultant and advisor to companies in the field of embedded user interfaces. He has held senior management positions at companies making mobile games, communications equipment, and computer telephony applications, and has written and contributed to books on programming and communications technology.

Blake Meike has more than 10 years of experience with Java. He has developed applications using most of the GUI toolkits and several of the Java mobile device platforms. He likes Android a lot.

Customer Reviews

Android for the masses
The book is aimed at the beginner/intermediate Android developer.

As it can be used by the absolute beginner, it is better suited to
developers with a little foreknowledge or a mentor on the subject.

This book is well suited to a training environments as the topics have
additional information surrounding them that assist in supporting there
relevance and use in the development cycle.

The examples were well explained and easy enough to implement, I did find
that a few examples didn't work out the box but with a little common sense
and very little effort had them all working as per the book (Remember the
framework version).

PLEASE NOTE : As this book contains technical items explained from the
authors perspective some of the topic explanations seem confusing when first
read, please take the time to re-read them, as I found that once I
understood the mindset and approach of the author it was a pleasant and easy
reading from then on.

I would recommend this book to startup developers and it's material to
"Android developer course" writers (remember to get permission from the
publisher/Author).

Very disappointing
Whatever your Android programming level is, this book is a complete waste of time and definitely doesn't worth a single penny. After reading half of the book it was very clear to me that there is no leading author for this book and nobody technically reviewed the book as a whole. Except chapter 7, referring to signing and publishing Android application, the whole part one is useless. Whole Android installation process is different right now and you better check Google web site to get latest installation steps. Not to mention that there are unnecessary and very annoying repetitions on how to use Eclipse.
Even if first part was disastrous, I did finish the book. In second part there are two chapters that are worth spending your time on: chapter 10: Building a View and chapter 13: Inter-process Communication. As for the rest....utterly disappointing. The authors even prove that they don't know what application they wrote. In some chapters they use different names for same class they put in their application, this in addition to the fact that their application doesn't work at all.
If you receive this book as a present and you are completely bored you can read it, otherwise I would not spend a single penny on it.

First professional book from O'Reilly about Android
This is definitely the first book about Android that O'Reilly published.
The previous one from O'Reilly was just "nothing".

But I guess this is normal: Android is still a new and growing technology.