Pro Android 3

by Satya Komatineni, Dave MacLean, Sayed Hashimi

Pro Android 3 starts with the basics, giving you a firm foundation in Android development. It then builds on this foundation to teach you how to build real-world and fun mobile applications using the new Android 3.0 SDK. This book covers advanced concepts in detail including maps, geocoding, services, live folders, drag and drop, touchscreens, and the new Android 3.0 features: fragments and ActionBar. Pro Android 3 is uniquely comprehensive: it covers sensors, text to speech, OpenGL, live widgets, search, and the audio and video APIs.

Using the code-heavy tutorials and expert advice, you’ll quickly be able to build cool mobile apps and run them on dozens of Android-based smartphones. You’ll explore and use the Android APIs, including those for media, sensors, and long-running services. And you’ll check out what’s new with Android 3.0, including the improved UI across all Android platforms, drag and drop, fragment dialogs, and more, giving you the knowledge to create stunning, cutting-edge apps, while keeping you agile enough to respond to changes in the future.

What you�ll learn How to use Android to build Java-based mobile applications for Google phones with a touch screen or keyboard How to design and implement irresistible user interfaces for touch screens with Views and layouts How to populate your application with data from data sources, using Content Providers How Android works on the inside, so you better understand how to design great mobile apps How to create 3D graphics with OpenGL and custom components How to build multimedia apps using Android’s Media APIs How to use Android’s location-based services, network-based services, and security How to use new Android 3.0 features, such as fragments and the ActionBar Who this book is for This book is for professional software engineers/programmers looking to move their ideas and applications into the mobile space with Android. It assumes a passable understanding of Java, including how to write classes and handle basic inheritance structures.

Genres: Programming, Technology, Reference

1201 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 15, 2010

Reviews

[Dave MacLean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm somewhat biased, since I wrote it. I think we did a very good job explaining a ton of Android features. We not only described how to use everything, we dug into the details you don't easily find anywhere else. Writing this was a huge effort, researching all over the web, and often digging into the Android source code to figure things out. We wrote 31 chapters and over 1100 pages, with dozens of sample applications to show how it works, and all of the source code is easily downloaded and importable into Eclipse.

We'd love to get feedback on this book, especially as we're already at work on Pro Android 4, and want to know what people still want to see in a book on developing for Android.

[Alessandro Pellizzari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forse vuole essere troppo completo. Copre una miriade di argomenti, e per forza non puó coprirli tutti in "sole" 1200 pagine.
Potrebbe essere un buon cookbook, da tenere sulla scrivania per consultazione, ma le spiegazioni e gli esempi non sono tra i migliori.
Spesso crea situazioni arzigogolate, componenti inutili ai fini depla spiegazione, strutture complesse, costringendo a capire cosa stia cercando di costruire piú che il componente in esame.
Troppa teoria, troppe basi prime degli esempi di codice (potrei leggere la doc ufficiale gratuita, non serve ripeterla) e spiegazioni non chiarissime.
Le novità di Android 3 sono appena comprensibili.

[Matt Norby]

It's now one version behind (there is a Pro Android 4), but it's still a good, comprehensive introduction to virtually all things Android.

[Pedro Veloso · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the time I found it to be a superb book, that taught me a lot about in a time where the official documentation was lacking.