Beginning Android 4

by Grant Allen

<p><br> <em>Beginning Android 4</em> is an update to <em>Beginning Android 3</em>, originally written by Mark Murphy. It is your first step on the path to creating marketable apps for the burgeoning Android Market, Amazon's Android Appstore, and more. Google’s Android operating-system has taken the industry by storm, going from its humble beginnings as a smartphone operating system to its current status as a platform for apps that run across a gamut of devices from phones to tablets to netbooks to televisions, and the list is sure to grow. <br /> <br /> Smart developers are not sitting idly by in the stands, but are jumping into the game of creating innovative and salable applications for this fast-growing, mobile- and consumer-device platform. If you’re not in the game yet, now is your chance! <br /> <br /> <em>Beginning Android 4</em> is fresh with details on the latest iteration of the Android platform. Begin at the beginning by installing the tools and compiling a skeleton app. Move through creating layouts, employing widgets, taking user input, and giving back results. Soon you’ll be creating innovative applications involving multi-touch, multi-tasking, location-based feature sets using GPS. <br /> <br /> You’ll be drawing data live from the Internet using web services and delighting your customers with life-enhancing apps. Not since the PC era first began has there been this much opportunity for the common developer. What are you waiting for? Grab your copy of <em>Beginning Android 4</em> and get started! <br /> <h3>What you’ll learn</h3><ul> <li>Develop Java-based mobile applications and games for a wide range of phones and devices. </li> <li>Create user interfaces using WebKit and the Android widget framework. </li> <li>Build location- and map-based applications drawing on live feeds over the Internet. </li> <li>Incorporate activities, services, content providers, and broadcast receivers into your applications. </li> <li>Support multiple Android versions, multiple screen sizes, and other device-specific characteristics. </li> <li>Build and experience the array of new WebM video and other multimedia APIs for Android and more. </li> </ul> <h3>Who this book is for</h3><em>Beginning Android 4</em> is aimed at programmers new to Android application development who desire to create marketable applications for the burgeoning market of smartphone, tablet, and other Android device users. <br> </p>

948 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 21, 2011

Reviews

[Alex Moskalyuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives a good understanding of components of an Android app, current state of development ecosystem (e.g., how half-baked Fragments are, when you try to use them with MapView or other fragment-related activities), and provides a good overview of decisions behind those components (why use data providers, why rely on asynchronous services, how to write properly updating Internet-connected applications).

All chapters (and there are 49 of them) follow pretty much the same pattern - introduction into the problem, explanation of how the problem can be resolved in Android, as well as sample app that solves that specific problem. This makes the book more of a reference title, as chapters could be read out of sequence (although if you're new to Android, it makes sense to cover the first few parts in sequence).

Both Java and XML are pretty verbose, so author makes a decent attempt to cut down on the boilerplate code and concentrate on what matters.

[Tomasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite interesting. Too detailed in some places. It was worth reading.