Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform

I have been programming computers for more than 30 years. My background includes DOS Basic, c, C#, C++ .NET, but not Java. I bought this book because I want to get started in writing some apps for my phone. I have found it to be the best beginning book available. I have looked at 3 or 4 others. It is complete, accurate and has real applications to develop. IT shows you how to set up the IDE and tells you where to get the tools. The author explains what he is doing but does not get bogged down in the details. You should have a background in Java but if you have experience in some of the other languages out there you should be able to get by. A knowledge of XML would help too. My recommendation for anyone trying to develop for the Android OS would be: 1. Get familiar with Java 2. get familiar with XML (rudimentary understanding) 3. Buy this book 4. Go for it! I will be placing this author on my 'watch list' because his writing level is very comfortable for me.

I have virtually no programming experience. Other than a solid beginner's understanding of LAMP (unix, apache, mysql, PHP and scripting stuff in general), I've never done more than fiddle with code. I do have a cursory knowledge of programming concepts and XML, but that's about it. I'm pretty much a curly brace language virgin. Hello, Android does a solid job of introducing you to the fundamentals of programming for the Android OS -- it gives you a succinct overview of why you need to do 'XYZ' and when to do it. If you're looking for pages and pages of fundamentals and core concepts, you may want to look elsewhere because Hello, Android makes you hit the ground running and helps you immediately apply the quick concepts you just learned. This is excellent for a beginner like me because the results are immediate and gives you a sense of "this isn't so intimidating... I can actually do it!" The one aspect I enjoyed about the book was that it gently gets the absolute beginner up to speed but then does less and less hand-holding as the tutorials moved along; this lets intermediate and advanced programmers move along at a brisk pace, but also forces beginners to think about previous concepts that were taught earlier. Instead of simply copying-and-pasting "recipe" code, it really challenged me to think and absorb what the author was teaching. This was invaluable for me as a beginner that likes to be challenged with more than just a simple 'copy and paste this code from page XX, then hit build and run'. One intangible you won't find in the book -- the author is very helpful/responsive in the Pragmatic Programmer's forums, as are the other members. Any question I've had were answered (usually) within a day, and many times within an hour. For instance, I was having an issue with running 64-bit version of Java JDK in my Android dev environment. The author (and other members) were very helpful in getting my dev environment up and running. Needless to say, the community that goes along with the book is invaluable. I've owned dozens of wrox, apress etc books since the 90s, and this is one of the few that I would not hesitate to recommend to both beginners and advanced programmers with no Java or XML dev experience. Get this book! 4.5 stars. PS -- if you buy the paper version of the book, I'd also highly recommend the e-version. Having a PDF up side-by-side with Eclipse (Android's default IDE) is extremely useful.

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.

This book definitely started me off in the right direction for making my own applications for Android. Although this application misses an important section, "Publishing your application", the book is on the design process of the applications. The book starts you off by familiarizing you with how the Android is run and the general idea of its interface. Then come the example applications which can also be found online. Each example application is a different use of the Android... Sudoku, GPS tracking, MySQL, OpenGL, Browsers, etc... This shows you a basic example to a solution. This book does everything it intends to do for a user of the G1 starting to program. I have never programmed in Java and XML(C and HTML, though), and this book managed to get me understanding and writing basic applications within several hours. I wouldn't recommend this book if you don't understand basic code because the book does jump into it rather quick and has many technical words. However, for a small book of 200 pages, each summary is very concise and exactly what was necessary to learn the understanding of the material- if you really want more, Im sure Wikipedia and Android-forum along your side will solve all your problems. The only problem I have with programming now, is customizing my applications to my liking. But this is just learning programming better. I plan on having many applications on the market place after learning a bit more java, XML, and practicing just a bit! Thanks and good luck G1 programmers!

This is exactly the book I wanted and what any developer who wants to learn Google Android Needs. The author did an excellent job in just 200+ pages to give you core concepts and tips to start coding an Android. Ofcourse in 200 pages he cannot explain all the details but google itself has good documentation also to learn those details. My overall experience of Android SDK is that it is very powerful SDK which can do many things that other Phone SDKs were never able to do because of phone limitations. But also a bit disappointed in somewhat poor design of the API itself.