Unlocking Android (Paperback)

by Frank Ableson (Author), Charlie Collins (Author), Robi Sen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Android is a free, open source, Java-based mobile platform developed by Google. Unlocking Android prepares the reader to embrace the Android mobile platform in easy-to-understand language and builds on this foundation with reusable Java code examples. It's ideal for corporate developers and hobbyists who have an interest, or a mandate, to deliver mobile software.

The book first covers the big picture so the reader can get comfortable with the Android approach to the mobile applications. Then the reader learns to apply Android by following the many practical examples. The book concludes with two deep and hands-on examples.

Unlocking Android addresses the Android application framework, its graphical capabilities and media support, data storage, communications capabilities, phone interactions, and notifications.

Unlocking Android covers Android SDK 1.x

About the Author
Frank Ableson is active in the mobile software marketplace, working with leading mobile companies including Handango, Airtime Management, and UnwiredTools.

Charlie Collins is a JEE developer with over 10 years of experience. Charlie is currently a contributor to the Android-Maven project, the GWT-Maven project, the Gwittir GWT framework, and the FeedPod text-to-speech podcasting system.

Robi Sen is a Managing Partner at Twin Technologies LLC, where he spends most of his time helping deliver next-generation Rich Internet Applications to Twin Technologies customers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications (May 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933988673
• ISBN-13: 978-1933988672
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,847 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Have for Android Developers, June 10, 2009

By	Michael Galpin "Michael" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a must have book for anybody doing Android development. It is definitely targeted at developers who are new to Android -- which describes most Android developers out there given what a new platform it is. However, the level of depth on many topics and the clarity provided behind many key concepts in Android are so well done that this book will benefit anyone working on Android applications.

The book is divided into three sections. The first section is called "What is Android? -- The Big Picture." I have to admit, I thought this might be fluff, but it is definitely not. The overview is good, but what the real value is the explanation on getting your development environment setup. This is something that many books fail to mention at all, as it can be a tricky topic to illustrate in a book. It is well done here, and can definitely be a big time save for new developers. More of this kind of "how to" material is also presented in the appendices.

The second part is called "Exercising the Android SDK" and is the real meat of the book. It takes a very practical, top-down approach to Android application development. It starts off by explaining UI concepts, then intents and services. It then dives into excellent detail on some of the key aspects of mobile application development: working with data, using the Internet, telephony, notifications, graphics, multimedia, and GPS. I would recommend that you immediately read the chapters 3-6 (UI, intents, services, data management, Internet) as these are really the building blocks of any mobile app that is not a game. The other chapters are great too, but you can probably read them as needed. Maybe you don't need GPS today, but need it three months from now. Just read chapter 11 at that time, and you will have no problem. The chapters are self-contained enough for this, while there is still a nice flow of thought between them as well.

The last part of the book is called "Android Applications." It starts off with a very nice example of creating a very "full" application. It really drives in all of the previous material, and is a veritable cookbook of sample code. There are a lot of clever little things you might want to do in your application that you can find an easy to follow sample of in this chapter. I found myself thinking "oh I'm going to rip this off and re-do some part of an existing app." The last chapter is title "Hacking Android" and is all about writing an application in C to run "closer to the metal" on Android. This is probably not that useful to most developers, but I imagine it would be invaluable if you actually did need to do something like this. If nothing else, it is a good read and reveals fascinating aspects of Android's internals. It certainly demonstrates the technical mastery of the authors.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice, June 9, 2009

By	W. York (TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As late to the game as this book was, I was a little disappointed that there was no examples of the latest build ("Cupcake"). A good book overall. A good book to have on the shelf

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great overview of Android Development, May 18, 2009

By	Robert Cooper (Atlanta) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book covers almost everything you need to get up and running with Android development. While I don't have a basis for comparing it to other Android books, I would say it easily outpaces Googling around for information, and hits most of the high points you need to get started.