Introduction
Now is an exciting time for mobile developers. Mobile phones have never been more popular, and pow-
erful smartphones are now a regular choice for consumers. Stylish and versatile phones packing hard-
ware features like GPS, accelerometers, and touch screens are an enticing platform upon which to create
innovative mobile applications.
Android hardware will be designed to tempt consumers, but the real win is for developers. With
existing mobile development built on proprietary operating systems that restrict third-party applica-
tions, Android offers an open and equal alternative. Without artifi cial barriers, Android developers
are free to write applications that take full advantage of increasingly powerful mobile hardware. As a
result, developer interest in Android devices has made their 2008 release a hugely anticipated mobile
technology event.
Built on an open source framework, and featuring powerful SDK libraries and an open philosophy,
Android has opened mobile phone development to thousands of developers who haven’t had access to
tools for building mobile applications. Experienced mobile developers can now expand into the Android
platform, leveraging the unique features to enhance existing products or create innovative new ones.
This book is a hands-on guide to building mobile applications using version 1.0 of the Android soft-
ware development kit. Chapter by chapter, it takes you through a series of sample projects, each intro-
ducing new features and techniques to get the most out of Android. It covers all the basic functionality
as well as exploring the advanced features through concise and useful examples.
Since Android is a brand-new, version 1 product, there are only a small number of handsets currently
available that support it. As with any early release, there are likely to be regular changes and improve-
ments to the software and development libraries. The explanations and examples included in this book
will give the grounding and knowledge you need to write compelling mobile applications using the
current SDK, along with the fl exibility to quickly adapt to future enhancements.
Whom T his Book Is F or
This book is for anyone interested in creating applications for the Android mobile phone platform. It
includes information that will be valuable, whether you’re an experienced mobile developer or making
your fi rst foray, via Android, into writing mobile applications.
It will help if readers have used mobile phones (particularly phones running Android), but it’s not nec-
essary, nor is prior experience in mobile phone development. It’s expected that you’ll have some experi-
ence in software development and be familiar with basic development practices. While knowledge of
Java is helpful, it’s not a necessity.
Chapters 1 and 2 introduce mobile development and contain instructions to get you started in Android.
Beyond that, there’s no requirement to read the chapters in order, although a good understanding of the
core components described in Chapters 3 through 6 is important before you venture into the remaining
chapters. Chapters 7 through 11 cover a variety of optional and advanced functionality and can be read
in whatever order interest or need dictates.
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