This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

The start-to-finish guide to Android development–from concept to market!

Android Wireless Application Development combines all the reliable information, sample code, and best practices you need to build, distribute, and market successful Android mobile applications. Drawing on their extensive experience with mobile and wireless development, Shane Conder and Lauren Darcey cover everything you need to execute a successful Android project: from concept and design through coding, testing, packaging, and delivery.

Conder and Darcey explain how mobile development differs from conventional development, how Android differs from other mobile platforms, and how to take full advantage of Android’s unique features and capabilities. They present detailed, code-rich coverage of Android’s most important APIs, expert techniques for organizing development teams and managing Android projects, and dozens of time-saving tricks and pitfalls to avoid.

• Master the latest Android development tools and Android SDK 1.5

• Use the Eclipse Development Environment for Java to develop and debug Android applications

• Design Android applications that are more efficient, reliable, and easier to use and offer better performance

• Work with Android’s optional hardware-specific APIs

• Use Android’s APIs for data, storage, networking, telephony, Location-Based Services (LBS), multimedia, and 3D graphics

• Leverage advanced Android capabilities such as Notifications and Services

• Ensure quality through solid test planning, efficient testing, and comprehensive defect tracking

• Make more money from your Android applications

This book is an indispensable resource for every member of the Android development team: software developers with all levels of mobile experience, team leaders and project managers, testers and QA specialists, software architects, and even marketers.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 2 Ratings

Exactly what I look for in a development book! - 2009-10-20
Reviewer Rating:
As I have used Android more and more my developer sense started to tingle and I wanted to create my own Android app. I looked at a couple of development books but they all just seemed to be the same: how to install the development environment and then all about how great the Android is to develop for. Nothing I could find actually moved past walking you through your first app on the code side. So when I was emailed about a new book by authors Shane Conder and Lauren Darcey all about Android Application Development I jumped at the chance to review it!

Android Wireless Application Development is a hefty book, weighing in at 573 pages with appendices and a CD, it is chock full of wonderful little tidbits of information that make Android so much fun to develop for. I was never a fan of Java in my programming classes but now that I see it in another light I'm slowly coming around to it. Of course the book starts you off by getting you to install Eclipse (Win/Mac/Linux) and all the tools necessary to create that app that's going to make you rich in the end, then you are walked through how to write your first app, run it on the virtual Android phone, and then how to install it on a device to test. The book follows that with introductions in design, interface essentials, common Android APIs, 3D graphics, and finally how to deploy and sell your marvelous app through the Marketplace.

I found the book a marvellous teaching tool, it keeps your attention and has plenty of screenshots, images, and code snippets to satisfy even a beginner (like myself). I was so excited in the intro app when I was able to get my app to play a media file from the web with a small bit of code. The authors have the perfect balance of teaching and explaining that this is one book you will not get bored reading, you will definitely be ready to use what you've learned to make a new app as soon as you are done reading about it.

I'll be looking for YOUR app in the marketplace soon!

A detailed inventory of Android features - 2009-11-02
Reviewer Rating:
Gee, there are SO MANY THINGS in Android - that was the lingering feeling after having read the book. Because the authors' strong intention is not to make compromises. They methodically go through every feature of the Android API, including 1.5 features. Have you heard about AppWidgets before? Or LiveFolders? I admit that I have not but now I know about them because the book mentioned it.

The enormous breadth of the discussion comes with a cost, however. Even though everything (or almost everything) is mentioned, very few topics are discussed in depth. For example I checked the most popular topics of my blog - unit tests, adapters. The Android unit testing framework is discussed as a bulleted list (no code examples) and the ArrayAdapter example uses Strings as backing data which causes so many problems for developers.

It is best to handle this book as an inventory of Android features and as such, it is very valuable. Such an inventory takes 573 pages, as of version 1.5. I wonder what that number will be in 3 years time.

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