Android combines the ubiquity of cell phones, the excitement of open source software, and the corporate backing of Google and other Open Handset Alliance members. The result is a mobile platform you can’t afford not to learn. This book will get you started.

Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform
Code • Errata • Discussions
200 pages, Oct 2008
ISBN: 978-1-9343561-7-3

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This title is currently available in Beta. Buy it now, and you'll be able to download successive releases of the PDF as the authors add material and correct mistakes. You'll get the final PDF when the book is finished.

If you buy the combo pack (Beta PDF + Paper Book) now, you'll get the Beta PDF now and the paper book when it's released on or about October 15, 2008.

 

About this Book

Android is a new software toolkit for mobile phones, created by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. In a few years, it’s expected to be found inside millions of cell phones and other mobile devices, making Android a major platform for application developers. That could be your own program running on all those devices.

Getting started developing with Android is easy. You don’t even need access to an Android phone, just a computer where you can install the Android SDK and the phone emulator that comes with it. Within minutes, Hello, Android will get you creating your first working application: Android’s version of “Hello, World.”

From there, you’ll build up a more substantial example: an Android Sudoku game. By gradually adding features to the game throughout the course of the book, you’ll learn about many aspects of Android programming including user interfaces, multimedia, and the Android life cycle.

If you’re a busy developer who’d rather be coding than reading about coding, this book is for you. To help you find what you need to know fast, each chapter ends with “Fast forward” section. These sections provide guidance for where you should go next when you need to read the book out of order.

Contents and Extracts

  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • Quick start
    • Installing the tools
    • Creating your first program
    • Running the program
    • Fast forward >>
  • Key concepts
    • The big picture
    • It’s alive!
    • Building blocks
    • Using resources
    • Safe and secure
    • Fast forward >>
  • Android basics
  • Designing the user interface
    • Introducing the Sudoku example
    • Designing by declaration
    • Creating the opening screen
    • Implementing an About box
    • Applying a theme
    • Adding menus and options
    • Starting a new game
    • Exiting the game
    • Fast forward >>
  • Exploring 2D Graphics
  • 3D Graphics in OpenGL
    • Fast forward >>
  • Multimedia
    • Fast forward >>
  • Beyond the basics
  • Accessing and modifying data
    • Fast forward >>
  • The connected world
    • Fast forward >>
  • Location based services
    • Fast forward >>
  • Special APIs
    • Fast forward >>
  • Appendices
    • Java vs. Android language and APIs
    • Android packages

About the Author

Ed Burnette is a software industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience as a programmer, author, and speaker. His development credits include everything from commercial video games to high-performance grid computing systems. Ed is a founding member and senior researcher at the SAS Advanced Computing Lab.

Ed has authored numerous technical articles and books, including Google Web Toolkit: Taking the Pain out of Ajax and Eclipse IDE Pocket Guide. He writes the Dev Connection blog for ZDNet, and is the creator of Planet Android (http://www.planetandroid.com).

In his copious spare time, you can often find him playing video games with his two sons at their home in central North Carolina.