| Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform (Pragmatic Programmers) |  | Author: Ed Burnette
Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf
Category: Book
Buy New: $40.05
as of 9/6/2010 03:12 MDT details
New (8) Used (8) from $29.09
Seller: Stork Media
Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 240,691
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Pages: 250
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 7.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 1934356492
Dewey Decimal Number: 004
EAN: 9781934356494
ASIN: 1934356492
Publication Date: October 23, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
Getting started developing with Android is easy. You don't even need access to an Android phone, just a computer where you can install the Android SDK and the phone emulator that comes with it. Within minutes, "Hello, Android" will get you 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 throughout the course of the book, you'll learn about many aspects of Android programming including user interfaces, multimedia, and the Android life cycle.
This second edition has been completely revised for Android 1.5 (Cupcake) and Android 1.6 (Donut). Every page and example was reviewed and updated for compatibility with the new version. In addition, two new appendixes show you how to create Widgets for the Home screen and publish your application to the Android Market.
If you're a busy developer who'd rather be coding than reading about coding, this book is for you. To help you find what you need to know fast, each chapter ends with a "Fast-Forward" section. These sections provide guidance for where you should go next when you need to read the book out of order.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 29
 The best way to get started with Android September 6, 2010
Unoti
You can get through the book in a weekend. I took a couple of cross-country flights, read the book on the way there and on the way back. After getting home, had my first android app running within an afternoon. The book won't be the end of your journey on figuring out how to do things, but it's a tremendously good place to start.
The book is introductory, really. It merely touches on a lot of areas. If you get serious about developing on Android, you'll need to do a lot more research. But the book is designed to just get you started, and hold your hand over the hardest part: getting basic control of what you're doing and getting started. It does this wonderfully, and so for that I give it 5 stars.
This is for version 1.5, and today we're at version 2.2. I wouldn't worry about this too much. This book is all about getting you up and running quickly, and it does that. It will give you what you need to get running and figure out for yourself what's different in later versions. Also keep in mind that many devices out there are still on version 1.5 (for a while longer anyway), so you may want to be developing back to this version anyway.
If you expect it to be the last book you'll ever need and your one stop shop for all things Android, you'll be disappointed. But to do that, the book would have to be overwhelmingly large. So get this book and take it for what it is: the perfect way to get started with developing on Android.
Essential Android September 6, 2010
John Jacobson (Riverside CA USA)
This is the third of a beginning text on developing for the Android platform. It includes updated instructions on dealing with versions 1.5 through 2.2.
The book is written for beginning programmers, though some experience in Java is useful. There are some differences between Java and Android programming environment, and the experienced Java programmer will have to make some adjustments to effectively use Android.
The book starts with the usual "Hello World" program, and adds a short puzzle implementation of Sudoku. It goes on to teach dealing with audio and video, then storing information locally. SQLite and OpenGL graphics are introduced, and the programming portion ends with a discussion of multi-touch in its current implementation on Android. Final chapters deal with debugging and program publishing in the Android Market.
The book is well supported, the code examples used in the book are available online, and there is a strong Android user community. Highly recommended for the beginning and early mid level programmer.
 Decent and Aggravating September 1, 2010
ubertaoist
At first glance this is a really good book on Android programming. The first two chapters set you up with the most basic knowledge you will need to get ready to program. The following 4 or 5 chapters are wholly frustrating. These chapters deal with making a Sudoku game. The author leaves many things unsaid. He will purposefully have you build your program so that it will have errors. Once to show your your mistake, once he just leaves an error in there for like 9 pages. The author will just throw random components out there that have nothing to add to what you are currently doing. At one point you are creating an "About" activity and the author randomly starts talking about themes. Maybe we should finish the program before we make it look pretty? Maybe we should finish our current concept before starting another one?
Aside from the beginning project, the rest of this book is quite good. Many topics are covered, including making widgets, 2D programming, 3D programming, live wallpapers, using SQL, publishing your apps and games, and more.
If you are a beginner to Java, get an intro to Java book first/too, the author assumes fairly competent knowledge of Java syntax, keywords, and the like. All and all not the worst book, but not the greatest. I, personally, would not recommend this book.
 Good book but not very clear August 26, 2010
Juan J. Mendez (Chicago, IL United States)
I think this book would have made it better if they wouldn't go into the sudoku example which was going back and forth creating an application whose logic was to me obscure. i think this book is good to get an idea about android applications and move to another book. that was my case. I found other examples such as sound, video and storing video much more practical, but the chapters covering the sudoku game made it really a lot to read and trying to see where was the game going and being clear what i needed to know in order to do android apps. Look into the book Professional Android 2, that book is a lot thicker but gives a lot more juice to how to make android apps.
Extremely Readable Android Book, A Sure Hit August 23, 2010
Daniel McKinnon (Tewksbury, MA USA)
Pragmatic makes some computing books, and 'Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform' is more of the same goodness that is to be expected from this line. I really like this book a lot. The writing is very easy to follow and the book hits the sweet spot of 250-300 pages that should be the goal for nearly any book that is written. Not too long, not to short, but juuust right. 14 chapters of content are what is in store for the reader, covering the basics to UI to multimedia to database work to... lets just say there is a lot of good stuff here!!
There aren't a lot of books about Android on the market, so as a new developer you owe it to yourself to read them all, and there is a reason this is now in its 3rd Edition. I wish the book had some color as this is a personal sticking point for me with ALL books, but I rarely fault the publishers and I won't fault them here.
Great book for all!!
***** RECOMMENDED
Showing reviews 1-5 of 29
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