Android for Programmers

Reviews / Votes

"I really love what you're doing with the book. It has the potential to become the best Android book on the market. It's impressive to see so many well-explained useful examples of Android patterns." -Dan Galpin, Android Advocate and author of Intro to Android Application Development

"I wish this book had been around when I started developing on Android. I haven't seen any other books cover app publishing so well and the links provided throughout are an impressive collection. You get full applications that show multiple parts of the APIs working together." -Douglas Jones, Senior Software Engineer, Fullpower Technologies



"By far, this is the quickest way to get comfortable writing applications for the #1 mobile operating system. I really enjoy the book. While the target of Android for Programmers is people with some development experience, even novices will find this book an interesting read and it will speed their immersion into Android development. The book starts by describing the Android development environment. Then each chapter introduces a core aspect of the Android platform by briefly explaining the topic, then illustrating the capability with working code. The sample apps demonstrate the topics of each chapter, which easily can be applied to your own projects." -Eric J. Bowden, COO, Safe Driving Systems, LLC



"Teaches you the Android SDK through actual use. Shows you how to write an app in every chapter, explaining each aspect of the SDK as it's encountered. Whether you've never touched Android or you have some apps under your belt already, this book is definitely worth picking up." -Ian G. Clifton, Independent Contractor and Android App Developer



"The updates in the second edition truly add value. The authors captured the right mix of Android enhancements and masterfully wove them into solid, practical apps. Great job!" -Chuck Lasky, Northern Virginia Community College



"An excellent book for someone who has done Java development and wants to learn Android through examples-developers can quickly pick up Android development skills. The app-driven approach is unique-at the end of each chapter, you have a well-designed and functioning app! The technical depth is excellent." -Arijit Sengupta, Wright State University



"The 'Characteristics of Great Apps' table is excellent. The authors present the goals of each app and provide an opportunity to test-drive it before describing its implementation." -Jesus Ubaldo Quevedo-Torrero, University of Wisconsin-Parkside



"Addresses a compelling set of topics in a fun and instructive way. Creates UI/layouts with a depth I've not seen elsewhere. The Flag Quiz app is enjoyable-View animation adds a professional touch; clear description of key UI elements. The Address Book chapter is a good introduction to CRUD-type apps." -Sebastian Nykopp, Chief Architect, Reaktor



"The Welcome app looks solid; great to see the integration of the layout editor. The Tip Calculator app is pretty cool; I love the deeper coverage of the lifecycle. The Favorite Twitter Searches app is a good way to demonstrate ScrollView. The Flag Quiz app is one of my favorites, covering delayed events, View animations and string arrays; I like the use of the AssetManager for the flags. The XML declaration and explanation of the tweened flag-shake animation are nicely done. Nice job of keeping the database queries out of the UI thread in the Address Book app." -Dan Galpin, Android Advocate and author of Intro to Android Application Development



"Great job illustrating the Visual Layout Editor; I liked the approach of creating a project then building visual components without code; this makes it easy to experiment with other properties to customize the look of the app. The line-by-line explanations of the code are extremely valuable; this is a solid introduction to how Android works. Favorite Twitter Searches taught me things I didn't know. The Flag Quiz app is a great chapter. The Cannon Game app is a nice introduction to animation. The Doodlz app chapter uses great examples to illustrate the different concepts. The Address Book app is a good introduction to database access on the Android platform that presents the structures required for SQLite databases."-Eric J. Bowden, COO, Safe Driving Systems, LLC



"The Technologies Overviews are particularly nice. The Intro chapter gives a solid overview of Android. The Welcome app chapter is a nice intro to layouts, keeping it simple, while still using a common layout (RelativeLayout). Favorite Twitter Searches is a great chapter that introduces a lot of core concepts. App descriptions give a clear understanding of what's being built; the code highlighting is helpful. Doodlz is a great app-anyone can identify with it. The Address Book app is a good intro to launching other Activities and utilizing a SQLite database."-Ian G. Clifton, Independent Contractor and Android App Developer



"Chapter 1 is an easy introduction; thanks to the link to one of the blogs, I found an alternate emulator. Welcome App shows layouts and some controls and prepares the way for resource internationalization. The Tip Calculator app UI highlights all the tricky cases of TableLayout and TableRow, which makes it a valuable demonstration. The Favorite Twitter Searches app does a good job of introducing a number of important UI skills, especially using the LayoutInflater and the ScrollView to programmatically add UI elements. Flag Quiz uses a variety of tools, such as collections, AlertDialog.Builder and animations. I like the configuration check for screen size to set the orientation of the Doodlz app. I haven't seen any other books cover app publishing so well." -Douglas Jones, Senior Software Engineer, Fullpower Technologies



"Good Intro to overall Android, Java and OO concepts."-Ronan ''Zero'' Schwarz, CIO, OpenIntents



"One of the best Android books. Does an excellent job explaining the Android platform; I love the car analogy to explain object-oriented terms. Tip Calculator does a good job showing how to create a GUI-I like using the Outline window. I've never published an app, but after seeing how easy it is, I have a couple that I'm considering publishing." -Tony Cantrell, Georgia Northwestern Technical College



"The Flag Quiz is interesting, engaging and shows important concepts like fragments, animations and resource qualifiers. The Cannon Game is fun-a great way to demonstrate displaying moving objects on the screen." -Arijit Sengupta, Wright State University



"By the end of each chapter the reader will have created a functional app while acquiring a working knowledge of the material. This is the most practical method to master app development. The Twitter Searches app is a great example to illustrate arrays, opening a website, creating key-value pairs, hiding the keyboard and interacting with the app." -Dawn Wick, Southwestern Community College



"Apps use Android 4.4 KitKat features, like printing and immersive mode. Covers the details a developer needs to be successful. The Welcome App chapter is very good; creating the project with no code is nice. I like that Twitter Searches uses the web to connect the user to Twitter. The Cannon Game brings the basic elements together for a game-animation, sounds, etc." -Jim Hathaway, Application Developer, Kellogg Company



"I really like how accessibility is covered; this is generally an afterthought for most developers. Chapter 9 contains useful information that's hard to find, particularly in respect to marketing-this is something that developers struggle to discover." -Michael Pardo, Mobiata



"Nice discussion of intents and how these are needed to start activities. Cannon Game is challenging, but well implemented and explained. Chapter 9, Google Play and App Business Issues, is perfect-the information about market shares and tools to convert Android apps into iOS apps is very motivating." -Jesus Ubaldo Quevedo-Torrero, University of Wisconsin-Parkside