| | |  | Software Engineering | Home » » » Professional Android Application Development (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) | | | | | | | Description: | | A hands-on guide to building mobile applications, Professional Android Application Development features concise and compelling examples that show you how to quickly construct real-world mobile applications for Android phones. Fully up-to-date for version 1.0 of the Android software development kit, it covers all the essential features, and explores the advanced capabilities of Android (including GPS, accelerometers, and background Services) to help you construct increasingly complex, useful, and innovative mobile applications for Android phones.What this book includes - An introduction to mobile development, Android, and how to get started.
- An in-depth look at Android applications and their life cycle, the application manifest, Intents, and using external resources.
- Details for creating complex and compelling user interfaces by using, extending, and creating your own layouts and Views and using Menus.
- A detailed look at data storage, retrieval, and sharing using preferences, files, databases, and Content Providers.
- Instructions for making the most of mobile portability by creating rich map-based applications as well as using location-based services and the geocoder.
- A look at the power of background Services, using threads, and a detailed look at Notifications.
- Coverage of Android's communication abilities including SMS, the telephony APIs, network management, and a guide to using Internet resources
- Details for using Android hardware, including media recording and playback, using the camera, accelerometers, and compass sensors.
- Advanced development topics including security, IPC, advanced 2D / 3D graphics techniques, and user–hardware interaction.
Who this book is for
This book is for anyone interested in creating applications for the Android mobile phone platform. It includes information that will be valuable whether you're an experienced mobile developer or making your first foray, via Android, into writing mobile applications. It will give the grounding and knowledge you need to write applications using the current SDK, along with the flexibility to quickly adapt to future enhancements. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Reto Meier | | Paperback:
| 432 pages | | Publisher:
| Wrox | | Publication Date:
| November 24, 2008 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0470344717 | | Package Length:
| 9.0 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.3 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.1 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.4 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 29 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 29 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 40 found the following review helpful:
 Dense and organized like spaghettiSep 06, 2009
By Dream a little
This book was clearly written for seasoned developers. However, other books in this series are far more understandable. I'm really not sure why I did not like this book at all. I'll try to narrow it down. First, the writing style is not very engaging. It's also full of jargon that is never defined. For example, he uses the term URI, which has several component parts that he never defines. Worse, most of the code that he gives you to follow is never explained, at all. Not annotating code and using terms that you have never defined are a very bad trait. Third, alot of the material is a paraphrase of the android development documents, and there is really no new insight here. I think the core issue here is that we look for books not to sound like esoteric, terse documents, but this is what this book is. You will not learn how to program from this book. The code snippets jump all around and he tries to include everything about Android in this book which makes it seem just too much with incomplete treatment of many topics. I actually found the android tutorials less confusing.
Here is a typical example:
SimpleCursorAdapter
The SimpleCursorAdapter binds Views to cursors returned from
Content Provider queries. You specify an XML layout de'nition and then bind the value within
each column in the result set, to a View in that layout.
Upon re-reading it slowly and thoughtfully, this explanation does make sense. But we have not gone over content providers yet, and he has not talked about SQL queries with SQLLite in Android yet. Nowhere does he mention this, and again it's more like it's lifted from the android documentation without any explanation. This is an example of the style of writing that you'll be seeing. It's abstract, dense, and drab.
An example of the odd chapter organization is Chapter 5: Intents, broadcast receivers, adapters, and the internet. So we talk about intents and broadcast receivers, then view-related database interaction (which is what ch. 6 is all about), and then network communication (as opposed to putting it in its own chapter). It is like I am learning everything out of order with constant references back and forth (like a to do list example followed by an earthquake example, then going back to a to do list example). This is why I said it's dense and organized like spaghetti with no clear beginning and end.
22 of 23 found the following review helpful:
 Excellent introduction for new Android developersDec 14, 2008
By Jeffrey Smith
The author clearly and concisely explains the fundamental aspects of Android programming. The coverage of Android topics is pretty comprehensive and the depth of coverage was just right for my needs. Mr. Meier provides some background information about mobile programming platforms in general, so the only real prerequisite for this book is familiarity with Java programming. The examples are also very informative and build new features incrementally, which keeps the focus on the most recently covered material, and reflects modern incremental development practices. This book, in conjunction with the excellent materials available online from Google, anddev.org and elsewhere, provide an effective staring point for developers looking to get started quickly on the Android platform.
20 of 22 found the following review helpful:
 Probably worth reading, just isn't fantasticJan 08, 2009
By Brian Williammee
At its worst, this book is a copy and paste of the android docs already available online. At its best, it is a paraphrase of the android docs already available online, with additional insight and code samples.
The extra insight is enough for me to be glad I bought it - it occasionally gave just enough additional perspective beyond the android web docs to make things "click" that I had not yet fully grokked. The code samples are useful, but the author himself says that they are sprinkled with bad habits, and I agree. He explains that it was for the sake of simplicity. I think it's more likely that he wrote the code, then wrote the section on best practices, and then realized that the code was suboptimal but had to meet a deadline.
In summary, worth my money and my time, but not truly impressed.
15 of 17 found the following review helpful:
Required Entry ReadingDec 17, 2008
By Richard Cupryjak
"Phillipe"
I was struggling with Android documentation (there is a lot of it but can be improved a lot, although the Notepad examples are very good) trying to understand the programming concepts for G1. So I got this book on pre-order and it was worth waiting for. Plenty of examples, code snippets, very good and clean explanations. I like author's approach of taking an application (Earthquake) through a series of improvements, so you can learn it gradually, from simple to more complex (and sophisticated) approach.
It is hard to cover a massive SDK in 400 pages but it is enough to learn basics and then start digging with some understanding and confidence into the on-line documentation. I am recommending this book to anybody who wants to learn the principles of G1 platform programming. Great job Reto!
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
O.k., but has some gapsFeb 08, 2009
By A bookworm
It seems the book was written before the first release of Android was actually finished - it contains numerous references to nonexistent/changed Java entities (although the author does identify and point these out).
I would recommend this book for the absolute beginner, but for more experienced Java programmers you can probably get even better information freely by searching Android online forums and by also looking through Google's Android code samples on the Android project homepage.
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