Programming Android [Paperback]

Zigurd Mednieks (Author), Laird Dornin (Author), G. Blake Meike (Author), Masumi Nakamura (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 5, 2011 | ISBN-10: 1449389694 | ISBN-13: 978-1449389697 | Edition: 1

Thank you for making Programming Android a huge success! This edition has been superseded by the second edition, ISBN 1449316646, also sold here on Amazon.com.

What does it take to build well-engineered Android applications? Explore Android's core building blocks and APIs in depth with this authoritative guide, and learn how to create compelling apps that work on a full range of Android devices. You'll work with proven approaches to app design and implementation--including application frameworks that you can use as a starting point for your own projects.
Delve into sensors, native development, 3D graphics, and many other topics, and discover how to build apps on the platform of your choice. If you're an intermediate to advanced programmer, you'll learn how to make great Android apps.

• Learn how to use the Android SDK with the Eclipse IDE
• Apply advanced Java concepts regardless of your experience with the language
• Create an Android user interface that's captivating and easy to navigate
• Use the Fragment API for tablet user interfaces
• Make your application compatible with Honeycomb and earlier versions
• Understand Android's unique database design issues and the role of SQLite
• Use sensors and gestures to expand your app's input beyond just tapping and scrolling
• Explore Android APIs for multimedia, location, communication, NFC, and other applications

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

We set out to write a book that goes beyond the basics - that doesn't just tell you "what" but also "why" and how best to make use of your knowledge to create rich, compelling Android apps.

This book at aimed at people with some programming experience. It will tell you how to turn your knowledge of Java, iOS programming, and other experience into productive results in Android.

Android is new and different, and the best Android software takes advantage of how Android enables you to store data, communicate between processes and applications, and how Android applications interact with the Android operating system. This book will help you build those advantages into your apps.

From the Inside Flap

"Finally! A book that goes into deail! Hooray!" -Perry J. Nally, FeetDog.com

"Great work... couldn't put it down" -Wenjing Dai, developer

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 504 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (August 5, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1449389694
• ISBN-13: 978-1449389697
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #365,145 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good as Both Intro to Android and Guide to Advanced Topics August 11, 2011

By eric j larson

Format:Paperback

I had a need for using Android in a research setting for advanced
mobile networking. Though I have a strong Java and mobile programming
background, I have no familiarity with Android. I needed to get up
to speed quickly, and thought I would go with an OReilly book, usually
a good bet.

I ended up using the intro to quickly
get started with eclipse, and then moved into the view section to put
together an interface without much trouble (useful examples),
and am looking at the
advanced sections to learn about Android's NFC feature. The 3rd
section is enlightening, saving me from some design mistakes that I was
sure to make. I did, however, feel that some of the information in the
later chapters was over
my head, targeted at an audience with more outside knowledge.

Overall, the book is both good at introducing the basics of Android,
and covering the more advanced topics.

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars A rarely disapointing book from O'Reilly December 16, 2011

By Jason Geng

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have bought dozen of IT books from O'Reilly and never got disappointed until I got this one. The authors try to cover everything but turn out covering nothing deep enough to be helpful in practice.

Taking Chapter 10 "Handling and Persisting Data" for example, the book first comes with an overview of relational database, which is good. Then it comes to a piece of code introducing SQLiteOpenHelper, a key component for handling Android data persistence. Just when I am expecting a section to continue on how to actually use this SQLiteOpenHelper to do real work, it stops there suddenly and comes out with another totally unrelated social networking code. I really can't see the point why it's composed in this way.

Similar things happen for other chapters. I am doing an Android project right now. In the beginning, when I needed to understand a specific technical usage, my first action was to reference this book (from reliable Oreilly). More often than not it failed to satisfy me. Android Documentation site and StackOverflow become the only way that can answer my question.

My overall opinion is that the book failed to handle a large and diverse topic like Android programming. Not recommended.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read in a new generation of Android books. August 8, 2011

By A. Jaokar

Format:Paperback

This book goes past the basics and provides a deeper level of understading of every topic it touches. It has a particular focus on how Android's data archiecture provides a model for apps that use a Web service, improving apperent
performance and presentation of data.

It is also the first in-depth book to cover Fragment and related classes that go into making Android tablet user interfaces. Additionally, it covers the compatibility library that enables running Fragment-based UIs on pre-Honeycomb versions of Android.