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. Ebook version now updated to Android 1.5, “Cupcake”.

Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform
Code • Errata • Discussions
200 pages, Dec 2008
ISBN: 978-1-93435-617-3

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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. You’ll learn about many aspects of Android programming, such as creating user interfaces (including touch, D-pad, and keyboard input), building location-based services (including GPS and cell-tower triangulation), and working with sensors (accelerometer, compass). You’ll also see how to build in multimedia audio and video, add graphics using 2D and 3D OpenGL, network with web pages and web services, and store data with SQLite. You’ll get a full overview of the Android application life cycle.

If you’re a 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.

SPECIAL NOTE: The print version of this book covers Android 1.0. The ebook versions are being updated to cover 1.5. Owners of the PDF will receive these updates free of charge.

Contents and Extracts

  • Full Table of Contents
  • Preface
  • Introducing Android
    • Quick start
    • Key concepts
  • Android basics
    • Designing the user interface extract
    • Exploring 2D Graphics exract
    • Multimedia
    • Storing Local Data
  • Beyond the Basics
    • The Connected World
    • Locating and Sensing
    • Putting SQL to Work
    • 3D Graphics in OpenGL
  • Appendixes
    • Java vs. the Android Language and APIs
    • Creating a Widget
    • Publishing to the Android Market

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.