This practical book provides the concepts and code you need to develop software with Android, the open-source platform for cell phones and mobile devices that's generating enthusiasm across the industry. Based on the Linux operating system and developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance, Android has the potential to unite a fragmented mobile market. Android Application Development introduces this programming environment, and offers you a complete working example that demonstrates Android architectural features and APIs. With this book, you will:

• Get a complete introduction to the Android programming environment, architecture, and tools

• Build a modular application, beginning with a core module that serves to launch modules added in subsequent chapters

• Learn the concepts and architecture of a specific feature set, including views, maps, location-based services, persistent data storage, 2D and 3D graphics, media services, telephony services, and messaging

• Use ready-to-run example code that implements each feature

• Delve into advanced topics, such as security, custom views, performance analysis, and internationalization

The book is a natural complement to the existing Android documentation provided by Google. Whether you want to develop a commercial application for mobile devices, or just want to create a mobile mashup for personal use, Android Application Development demonstrates how you can design, build, and test applications for the new mobile market.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 13 Ratings

Good Android foundations book. - 2009-07-04
Reviewer Rating:
I've recently started deep-diving into Java-based mobile application development environments heads-first - without air-tanks. I'm also a happy Android user.

For one of the environments, Blackberry, I took the "All-Google-All-The-Time-Search" approach. While I am getting an application developed out of it, there was no reference points to figure out what basic search terms were actually useful. I'm still learning how much more of that onion remains to be peeled in order to get to the truly useful search terms and the resulting information, creating a lot of tears in the process.

For upcoming Android development, I find myself "done" with the above approach. Towards this end, this book is very helpful in understanding what capabilities there are for Android and the differences in putting the different capabilities together to create a mobile app, such as persistence, inter-process communications, and other gotchas between environments. This is also extremely useful for porting between different mobile devices, which is also becoming extremely useful. The actual collating of the examples and the presentations in this book on how to think "Android development" are invaluable to orientating and honing in the future search terms for picking up the rest of the reference-type details.

I do agree with some of the other reviews that adding an overview of 1.5 might have been helpful. However, many of us are used to this lag in printed books, which does not detract from this book's value. For example, I and other professionals bought books about Spring 1 when Spring 2 was the current released version. The key point is that the vast majority of the information in this book still applies.

All in all, a worthy addition to the Android developer toolkit!

Extremely well written book - 2009-07-06
Reviewer Rating:
Except for the fact that this book lacks an overview of Android 1.5, which I suspect will be in the next addition; I do not understand the bad reviews of this book.

Whenever I read a technical book on a new language or new platform, there are five specific things I look for:

1. Does the book contain a short, clear introduction that gives a little bit of history on the subject matter and states the purpose and intent of the book?
2. Does the book quickly present me with the ubiquitous "Hello World" example so that I'm immediately gratified, producing my first working program?
3. Does each chapter contain a summary? I like to read the summary first so that I know what knowledge I will gain from the chapter.
4. Does the content and knowledge contained in each chapter build on the content and knowledge gained from previous chapters?
5. Is the attention to detail in each chapter sufficient enough that I have truly gained some information that will allow me to be immediately productive in the subject matter?

If you look for these things in this book, you will find them in spades.

If you're looking for a book that will help you thoroughly understand the ins and outs of the android platform, you will want this book in your arsenal.

If one takes the time to read this book in its entirety, you will most likely become very proficient and comfortable writing android applications. This book will then become an excellent reference manual that you may refer to often.

O'Reilly does not disappoint - 2009-07-08
Reviewer Rating:
If you are trying to jump on the Android bandwagon, this is the book you want to have. As always O'Reilly does not disappoint as this book reinforces the reason why it has become the defacto standard for learning a new technology. The topics are explained very well and the examples are practical. Although the book is not for the rookie developer as it assumes experience with Java, XML, SQL, etc., it does assume you have zero experience developing for Android.

The first part of the book will cover the fundamentals of the architecture and walk you through the SDK. It even starts you off with the classic "hello world" program. Although there are a couple of other examples, the rest of the text builds around a principle and more complex example called MicroJobs.

The authors do a very good job of laying out MicroJobs project. This interesting program covered throughout the book serves to teach you by example the use of databases, mapping, graphics, inter-process communication, telephony, and the use of Androids libraries. The larger example is a practical way to prepare you for real world application development. Not to mention that the application is a Job Finder, a befitting example in todays world. Best of all, unlike some of the books put out there you can spend most of your time learning instead of having to waste time retyping the example code since O'Reilly actually makes them available for download. You should be building your own Android apps, signed and ready for public distribution in no time!

Of course the book is not perfect, but no book is. It would seem like some reviewers found too much setup for the project, while others found too little, and as I noted I found the book well put together in that regard. What I would have liked is to see a bit more text about using the camera and definitely a section on bluetooth. If it had those I would of gave it 5 stars, but all in all a very useful book.

As an adjunct to Android's documentation, it's a winner - 2009-10-13
Reviewer Rating:
Rick Rogers, et.al.'s ANDROID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT provides an in-depth book on the concepts and code needed to build smartphone applications with the Android program. Android lies at the heart of core functions available for modern mobile devices, and this provides a specific guide for programmers seeking to use Android's UI elements and take advantage of provided code to implement special features. As an adjunct to Android's documentation, it's a winner.

not up to the usual o'reilly standard - 2009-08-23
Reviewer Rating:
Not a terrible book - in fact some sections are well done. But it is written around an application, and so:
- isn't as useful if you don't have a computer handy, to look at the downloaded application code
- misses some parts of android, because the application doesn't happen to use them. e.g. menus are dealt with in passing as part of a map application, and preferences are not mentioned (at all - not even in the index)
The Manning book - for a change - is better than the O'Reilly, and cheaper. But I refer to both regularly, and don't regret buying either.

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