- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
Want a NOOK? Explore Now
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.
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.
Introduction
1) Introducing Android
2) Your Android Development Environment
3) Writing Your First Android Application
4) Understanding the Anatomy of an Android
5) Managing Application Resources
6) Exploring User Interface Screen Elements
7) Designing Android User Interfaces with Layouts
8) Drawing and Working with Animation in Android
9) Using Android Data and Storage APIs
10) Using Android Networking APIs
11) Using Location-Based Services (LBS) APIs
12) Using Android Multimedia APIs
13) Using Android Telephony APIs
14) Using Android 3D Graphics with OpenGL ES
15) Using Android’s Optional Hardware APIs
16 ) Working with Notifications
17) Working with Services
18) The Mobile Software Development Process
19) Developing and Testing Bulletproof Android
20) Selling Your Android Application
A) The Android Emulator Quick-Start Guide
B) The Android DDMS Quick-Start Guide
C) The Android Debug Bridge Quick-Start Guide
D) The SQLite Quick-Start Guide
Index
DrPaulT
Posted August 7, 2011
To begin with the title, I was immediately confused by the use of the word "wireless." In fact, this book does not specialise in the radio circuitry of Android handsets but instead covers pretty much every known topic related to Android application development. So you don't just get a primer on the Android application frameworks, but there is also help on setting up Eclipse, the most commonly-used IDE, a discussion of waterfall project planning versus agile iterative methods and how to set up your Market account and deploy your applications. Now, this book has the best part of 800 pages and they are pretty jammed with descriptions of most sections of the Android frameworks with many example program snippets. There is a lot of information here but Android is a very big subject, and this leads to many sections being a bit light on detail. So the value in this book is that the authors have chosen quite carefully which bits of documentation to include in order to provide an overview of Android development to a newcomer. It is largely defect-free (which just makes the dreadful typo on page 122 stand out even more :-) ), but because many topics receive brief treatment it can be quite heavy-going sometimes, jumping around without a strong narrative. Some of the example programs are lifted (with attribution) straight from Google's online documentation so the book does have the feel of an efficient production and a harsh critic might call this a flaw, as the motivation behind why particular software patterns are used in Android is generally not discussed. I feel there is a deeper understanding which, due to space constraints, is not often communicated. Froyo is the version of Android described here, which is a good starting point, but obviously a bit dated now that we have Gingerbread and Honeycomb. It should also be noted that the book assumes at least a working knowledge of Java, which is the programming language used to write software for Android. If you don't know what an unhandled exception is, for example, it would be best to read this book in tandem with a beginner's book on Java. Although I've criticised this for being a bit dry, a by-the-numbers publication, it has been completed competently by authors who understand the subject matter. It is a bit too much for a novice programmer, but if you are coming to Android from another Java platform or maybe from the iPhone then this book should get you up to speed quickly. In this respect I think it is reasonably priced given the volume of information contained. There is also a bundled CD in this special edition to get you started straight away, so overall I give it a thumbs-up. Paul.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.MartynHaigh
Posted August 7, 2011
As a seasoned Android developer it's easy to forget the steps necessary in getting up and going with the platform - Conder and Darcey do a very good job of explaining the basics, with a small taster of the more complex stuff, with plenty of code examples to help along the way and just enough levity to keep the experience engaging (I also want to call my pet Null!) For someone new to the platform this is definitely a book you can read the first third of without skipping any, and then refer back to as a reference guide as and when needed. The middle parts of the book, where the more complex ideas come in, aren't full enough to be of any real use - the OpenGL and NDK sections could have multiple books written about each. I'm stuck between wondering if they are a nice, but brief, introduction which people will find useful to whet the pallet, or short enough, and not detailed enough, to be of no real use and to warrant not being included in the first place. The latter parts of the book include some useful guides for testing and selling you Android app, as well as some short but useful sections on Eclipse; the emulator; SQLite and ADB. I found there were a few items I would have liked to have seen some more info about (i.e. broadcast receivers receive very little attention), and there were a few small coding mistakes throughout the book. The order of the sections in the latter half of the book also looked like they could have had a little more thought applied to them. Overall this is a solid book for getting up to speed with Android development and the negative points are small enough so as to not distract from the overall learning experience. It's not a book you are going to keep forever as once you learn the basics you'll want to move on to other fuller, and more detailed, sources.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Bphouse
Posted August 1, 2011
As an iOS developer, this book has tons of information to absorb. Almost 800 pages with CD. Even if you don't have an Android device, this book will lead you through the steps of using the desktop emulator. This is what I had to do to make my first android app. If youre already a mobile developer, this book will definitely help you transition to the Android platform.
Note: This is not a beginner book though, some previous experience with programming (specifically Java) is expected.
Anonymous
Posted November 8, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted February 14, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted February 6, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted September 3, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted November 12, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted May 26, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted April 30, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted August 13, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted February 23, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
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 ...