Beginning BlackBerry Development (Books for Professionals by Professionals) [Paperback]

Anthony Rizk (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1430272252 | ISBN-13: 978-1430272250 | Publication Date: November 4, 2009 | Edition: 1

The BlackBerry platform has been around for a while, but with record numbers of devices sold, and the launch of RIM’s application store - App World - there has never been a more exciting time to get into BlackBerry development.

Assuming only some background in Java, C# or a related language, this book starts with the basics, walking you through the process of downloading and installing RIM’s JDE for BlackBerry – or, optionally RIM’s JDE Plug-in for the Eclipse platform – and stepping through the creation of your first BlackBerry application. From there you’ll master everything you need to produce and effectively distribute world-class BlackBerry applications.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Anthony Rizk has been developing for BlackBerry since the very first models appeared in 2001. He is a cofounder of several mobile software companies, including Rove and Zeebu, and has consulted extensively in the BlackBerry application industry.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (November 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430272252
• ISBN-13: 978-1430272250
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #481,389 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but emphasis on the "beginning" part, May 17, 2010

By 

Joshua Davies (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beginning BlackBerry Development (Books for Professionals by Professionals) (Paperback)

Since most everything worth programming for is already covered by online tutorials, many available directly from the vendor (for those platforms that have a vendor, anyway), I'm always interested in how programming books stack up against the free material - unfortunately, many don't. I will say that this book, however, is better than the tutorials from Blackberry. Not head and shoulders better, but at least worth the cost of the book and time spent reading it. One thing I really appreciated, that I was never able to find anywhere else, was the chapter on advance UI development. The author discusses how to implement custom widgets, containers and screens - even if you don't expect to find yourself doing any of that, the built-in UI components make a lot more sense once you see how they're developed.

The parts of the API that you're most likely to use were well covered, but that was about it. Some of the more "exotic" and fun stuff like the "Plazmic" media engine, PIM or phone integration, and sound APIs weren't even mentioned. You're expected to know Java cold before starting this book - the author doesn't make any attempt to explain any of the Java features used (even the more arcane features like anonymous inner classes that tend to trip people up). I don't consider that a downside - but beware if you're thinking about reading this book but are still sort of new to Java programming.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great intro to BlackBerry Java development, November 29, 2009

By 

S. Bard (Boise, ID, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beginning BlackBerry Development (Books for Professionals by Professionals) (Paperback)

This book does a good job explaining the basics of BlackBerry Java development. It's easy to read and discusses plenty of coding examples. It won't make you an expert. But if you're a beginner, it will save you hours of searching the BlackBerry Web site or developer blogs on how to code user interfaces, connect to the Internet, use BlackBerry maps, and other topics.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Beginner Book, January 20, 2010

By 

T. Copling "Mr. Book Worm" (Burlington, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beginning BlackBerry Development (Books for Professionals by Professionals) (Paperback)

If you are interested in Blackberry development then this is the book for you. I thoroughly enjoyed the is book. The author takes you through a step-by-step process in creating some basic blackberry apps. Keep in mind that this is a beginners book and doesn't really cover any advanced topics but it does cover the basics to get you started.