Synopses & Reviews
Android devices are stealing market share from the iPhone with dramatic speed, and you have a killer app idea. Where to begin? Head First Android Development will help you get your first application up and running in no time with the Android SDK and Eclipse plug-in. You'll learn how to design for devices with a variety of different screen sizes and resolutions, along with mastering core programming and design principles that will make your app stand out.
Whether you're a seasoned iPhone developer who wants to jump into the the Android Market, or someone with previous programming skills but no mobile apps in your resume, this book offers a complete learning experience for creating eye-catching, top-selling Android applications.
You'll learn how to:
- Install the Android SDK and Eclipse plug-in and get started building apps
- Add buttons, edit text fields, and build your own navigation options in the Android menu
- Customize the look of your app with theming and adding image resources
- Use Android's content provider mechanism to add images and contact information to an app, and establish permissions for their use
- Work with the Android devices' camera, GPS, and accelerometer
- Experiment with different Android emulator configurations to simulate different devices with a variety of screen sizes
- Optimize, test, and distribute your application in the Android Market
We think your time is too valuable to waste struggling with new concepts. Using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First Android Development uses a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.
Synopsis
If you know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you already have the tools you need to develop Android apps. With this book, you'll learn how to use these web technologies to design and build apps for any Android device, using the framework of your choice. No knowledge of Java is required.
Device-agnostic mobile apps are the wave of the future, and this book shows you how to create one product that can be used on several mobile operating systems. You'll find guidelines for using the free PhoneGap framework to convert your product into a native Android app. And you'll learn why releasing your product as a web app first helps you find, fix, and test bugs much faster than if you went straight to the Android Market with a product built with the official Android SDK.
- Build Android apps with tools you already know how to use
- Learn advanced styling techniques for creating animation
- Develop apps with jQTouch and XUI that look and feel like native Android apps
- Take advantage of client-side data storage with apps that run even when the Android device is offline
- Hook into advanced Android features -- including the accelerometer, camera, microphone, and more -- with JavaScript
- Submit your applications to the Android Market
Synopsis
With this book, readers learn how to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript technologies to design and build apps for any Android device, using the framework of their choice. No knowledge of Java is required.
Synopsis
If you know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you already have the tools you need to develop Android applications. This hands-on book shows you how to use these open source web standards to design and build apps that can be adapted for any Android device -- without having to use Java.
You'll learn how to create an Android-friendly web app on the platform of your choice, and then convert it to a native Android app with the free PhoneGap framework. Discover why device-agnostic mobile apps are the wave of the future, and start building apps that offer greater flexibility and a broader reach.
- Learn the basics for making a web page look great on the Android web browser
- Convert a website into a web application, complete with progress indicators and more
- Add animation with jQTouch to make your web app look and feel like a native Android app
- Take advantage of client-side data storage with apps that run even when the Android device is offline
- Use PhoneGap to hook into advanced Android features -- including the accelerometer, geolocation, and alerts
- Test and debug your app on the Web under load with real users, and then submit the finished product to the Android Market
This book received valuable community input through O'Reilly's Open Feedback Publishing System (OFPS). Learn more at http://labs.oreilly.com/ofps.html.
Synopsis
Create mobile services and applications regardless of your computer programming knowledge. This extraordinary book introduces you to App Inventor for Android, a powerful tool that exposes you to the world of computer programming, so you can create technology rather than merely consume it.
You don't need years of training to build your own Android apps. This book teaches you how to quickly design and code apps for anything from texting to location awareness to data storage on the Web, using App Inventor's unique visual interface. Ideal for beginning and intermediate Android developers, hobbyists and makers, and students of any age, App Inventor will help you turn your great idea into a full-functioning app in no time.
- Take advantage of App Inventor's GPS-location sensor: Build an app shows the location of friends or colleagues at a concert or conference, or one that gives you a custom tour of your school, workplace, or a museum.
- Use an Android device's phone features: Write an app that periodically texts "missing you" to loved ones, an app that responds to texts automatically when you're driving, and an app that reads incoming texts aloud.
- Communicate with the Web: Create Android apps that talk to your favorite web sites, such as Amazon and Twitter.
About the Author
David Wolber is the Chair of Computer Science at the University of San Francisco, and teaches App Inventor in a course at USF. He worked with the App Inventor team, and authored the advanced tutorials found on the App Inventor site. The apps created by his students– mostly humanities and business majors with no prior programming experience–have been chronicled in articles of The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Tech Crunch, Fortune.CNN.com, and Yahoo News.
Harold (Hal) Abelson, a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, has a longstanding interest in using computation as a conceptual framework in teaching. He has played a key role in fostering MIT institutional educational technology initiativeI, and is a founding director of Creative Commons and Public Knowledge. Hals book, Turtle Geometry, written with Andrea diSessa in 1981, presented a computational approach to geometry that has been cited as "the first step in a revolutionary change in the entire teaching/learning process."
Table of Contents
Preface; Who Should Read This Book; What You Need to Use This Book; Conventions Used in This Book; Using Code Examples; Safari® Books Online; How to Contact Us; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Getting Started; 1.1 Web Apps Versus Native Apps; 1.2 Web Programming Crash Course; Chapter 2: Basic Styling; 2.1 Don't Have a Website?; 2.2 First Steps; 2.3 Adding the Android CSS; 2.4 Adding the Android Look and Feel; 2.5 Adding Basic Behavior with jQuery; 2.6 What You've Learned; Chapter 3: Advanced Styling; 3.1 Adding a Touch of Ajax; 3.2 Traffic Cop; 3.3 Simple Bells and Whistles; 3.4 Adding an Icon to the Home Screen; 3.5 What You've Learned; Chapter 4: Animation; 4.1 With a Little Help from Our Friend; 4.2 Sliding Home; 4.3 Adding the Dates Panel; 4.4 Adding the Date Panel; 4.5 Adding the New Entry Panel; 4.6 Adding the Settings Panel; 4.7 Putting It All Together; 4.8 Customizing jQTouch; 4.9 What You've Learned; Chapter 5: Client-Side Data Storage; 5.1 Web Storage; 5.2 Web SQL Database; 5.3 What You've Learned; 5.4 Web Database Error Code Reference; Chapter 6: Going Offline; 6.1 The Basics of the Offline Application Cache; 6.2 Online Whitelist and Fallback Options; 6.3 Creating a Dynamic Manifest File; 6.4 Debugging; 6.5 What You've Learned; Chapter 7: Going Native; 7.1 Introduction to PhoneGap; 7.2 Download the Android SDK; 7.3 Download PhoneGap; 7.4 Setting Up the Environment; 7.5 Create an Android Virtual Device; 7.6 Build KiloGap; 7.7 Installing KiloGap in the Emulator; 7.8 Installing KiloGap on Your Phone; 7.9 Controlling the Phone with JavaScript; 7.10 What You've Learned; Chapter 8: Submitting Your App to the Android Market; 8.1 Preparing a Release Version of Your App; 8.2 Uploading Your App to the Android Market; 8.3 Distributing Your App Directly; 8.4 Further Reading; Detecting Browsers with WURFL; Installation; Configuration; Testing wurfl-php; Colophon;