Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform
[[[Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform]]]
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Android is a software toolkit for mobile phones, created by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. It's 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.
Within minutes, Hello, Android will get you started 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. By gradually adding features to the game, you'll learn the basics of Android programming. You'll also see how to build in audio and video support, add graphics using 2D and 3D OpenGL, network with web pages and web services, and store data with SQLite. You'll also learn how to publish your applications to the Android Market.
The #1 book for learning Android is now in its third edition. Every page and example was reviewed and updated for compatibility with the latest versions. Freshly added material covers installing applications to the SD card, supporting multi-touch, and creating live wallpaper. You'll also find plenty of real-world advice on how to support all the Android versions in use today-everything from Donut (Android 1.5) to FroYo (Android 2.2) and beyond.
If you'd rather be coding than reading about coding, this book is for you.
More review coming soon.
Regarding books, one of the things I appreciate the most is an honest relationship between title and contents. Unfortunately it's quite common to find books out there promising things they don't fullfill.
"Hello, Android" meets perfectly the commitment of its title. Don't buy it expecting a reference manual of Android because it' just an introduction to this platform, and I must admit that it does the work gracefully. It's quick and brief so it tells you the essential and gives you resources for further research such as the sample projects that can be free downloaded from the book website. A nice aspect to highlight is the hands-on approach, throughout the book concepts are illustrated with lots of code. Furthermore a Sudoku game is parcially developed during a couple of chapters.
So I basically recommend this book for beginners mainly for two reasons:
1. Starts from the Scratch: Nothing is assumed so it's a good point to start out as Android developer.
2. Brevity: I don't have time for an eight-hundred-pages book to start to develop. I'll deal with the ins and outs as I go, not before.
Of course, like any book about Android, Java (or C++, C#, etc) basic understanding is recommended.
If you're new to programming, don't buy because it will confuse more than guide you. If you're an experienced programmer, then you'll not find anything useful here; you probably can find much more online. The book topics are fragmented, lacking in content and explanation. I don't even believe the author has a grasp on the topic, nor understand Android thoroughly. That's why 1 start because it's a waste of time and money.
The code examples are clean and compile correctly but it's mostly a mindless routine of plug in the code, compile, see how it works. There's not enough meat to the how's and why's, not enough technical background and you'll just end up at [...] anyway to fill in a lot of blanks, where you'll find overall better documentation anyway.
And I have to take another star off just to make me a sudoku game code as the primary example of the code through the whole book. Gag.
Buy Here (for discount) Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform
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