Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform (Pragmatic Programmers) |  | Author: Burnette Ed
Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf
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Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Pages: 250
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Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 7.4 x 1
ISBN: 1934356492
Dewey Decimal Number: 004
EAN: 9781934356494
ASIN: 1934356492
Publication Date: November 10, 2009 (New: Last 30 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 11
 Learn Android in a Weekend October 23, 2009
Steve K. Oliver II
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've read several books on Android from cover to cover, and skimmed several others, and "Hello, Android" is hands-down the best introduction to Android development.
Here's why I say that --
You really can get through the book in a day or two. The explanations are clear, the topics focus on what's relevant to getting started in Android development, and when you're done you have the skills to dive into the SDK to continue learning.
There is a consistent example project that is developed throughout the book. I found this very helpful, because it showed me how all the different parts fit together. For example, launching activities from an existing activity, using multiple classes in your project, adding preferences, etc.
There are very few (if any) "gotchas" in this book. I followed the examples step by step without any problem. I think some people have used the book's online forum to ask about which packages to import, but when I used Eclipse it was done automatically for me. (By the way, all the files are also online.)
Even after having many months of Android development under my belt, I find that I still refer back to this book from time to time. That's saying something for a book that sets out to be an introduction.
Remember, this book is a great introduction. If you already know Android and are looking for a deep-dive, look elsewhere. But if you are curious about all the excitement around Android and have a few hours to spare, spend them with this book and find out what developing in Android is all about.
Best First Book for Android October 22, 2009
Eric M. Burke (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The title, "Hello, Android", is perfect, because this is an introduction to Android. This is not designed as an exhaustive reference, nor should it be. Instead, it is the perfect length for quickly coming up to speed on the basics.
I am an experienced Java developer, and this book helped me learn Android quickly. It does not waste time explaining how to use Java, so if you are an absolute newbie, this might not be for you.
Android is rapidly evolving, and Ed is doing a great job keeping up with changes to Android. You can also get the PDF version, and Pragmatic Bookshelf lets you download beta chapters as they are updated.
 Didn't work for me October 16, 2009
David S. Lamb
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Update: Changed my rating from 3 to 2 stars. I was going through the location chapter and stopped at this paragraph - "The code for the remaining methods of LocationTest--log( ), dumpProviders(), and dumpLocation( )--is not very interesting, so I won't bore you with it here. You can find it all in the downloadable samples on the book's website." This book is way to dependent on you going to the website. It presumes an internet connection, which might not be available wherever I might want to read this book (e.g. coffee shops) or might just be down. So I could just be stuck with incomplete code. I had a read through Pro Android and found that book to be excellent, only missing a section on SensorManager unfortunately. I would go with that one over Hello Android. Rest of my unchanged review is here:
I still rate this book with 3 stars despite how irritating I'm finding it. I figure it is irritating because of my learning style. It covers a wide range of topics, so it might still be worth having around.
It started out fine, and was able to breeze through, even though I had some problems with the initial Sudoku problem. Why I find this book so irritating is the order of the code. The author creates classes and methods that will eventually reference other classes and methods while never saying how the components all fit together. In the case of the Sudoku game, the game logic actually comes at the end of the one of the chapters, whereas for me it would make more sense to place this at the beginning of the chapter to get an understanding of how the game works and then build the xml interfaces on top of this as needed, allowing me to understand how all the components work together. It is obvious the author is just giving the code as he created it rather than going through how to create an Android app. This could just be the way I like to learn programming though. In between the code examples there is little in way of explanation either. I skipped ahead to another chapter to get away from the Sudoku example, and found it similar with poor-ordering and limited explanations.
Do visit the website as there is more help and corrections available.
 just not working for me, returning it June 8, 2009
Travis Highley
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
this book seemed to be leaving stuff out, even early on with the "hello, world" example. screen shots didn't match up. and the publisher's website offers a free upgrade if you purchased the electronic version. i guess i am screwed since i bought a printed one.
i did like how in the first part of the sudoku example the book had you program a little, then publish out and see the result. then a little more, and then see the result. but when you get to chapter 4, that practice is dropped. at that point on, there are just pages of code to muscle through. there is some explanation as you go along, but i really need to see the result of what i am doing in order to understand it. how about a little pay off every few pages?
i found myself eventually just copying the code from the publisher's site and going to the sdk for explanation. then i started to wonder why i paid for this book, if i was just going to be referencing the sdk online for free.
i had already ordered Professional Android Application Development (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) but picked this one up at a local store because i was too excited to wait. i guess i should have. "Professional Android Application Development" seems like it might be more helpful. we will see.
Good title for beginners, doesn't offer a lot of insight for experienced users. May 4, 2009
Joel Smith (Southern California)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The title basically says it all. I picked up this book for work to catch up on Android since we had a few projects dealing with it. Overall it's a great way to start teaching yourself, but it tries to force the xml way of handling all of your ui elements and resources, which was not a feasible option for our projects. This limited the book's usefulness for me, but I continued on and found it entirely readable, easy to follow, and I suspect for someone working on a purely android project a lot of useful information would be found in the book, but I think most professional programmers won't like this approach.
I rated this four stars for:
* easiness to read (doesn't bore you to sleep!)
* straight forward examples
* useful jumping off point.
Downsides were:
* it's scope (limited to a particular way of doing things, mostly)
* it's breadth (doesn't cover all the topics you want, just the big points).
I would cautiously recommend this book. Probably more of a 3.5 star book, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt. If you don't know anything about mobile development and are having a hard time working through the android example on google's dev site (or have completed it and want to know what's next), this might be a good book for you. If you're a seasoned professional, probably best to look/wait for another book or just start trying things out (and check out the SDK).
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
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