Android Apps for Absolute Beginners

This book is written in a friendly way, and take you from the most basic concepts to finally get some significant knowledge of how to make some cool applications. I know some Java and knew nothing about XML, at the end when you finish with this book you get the nerve to face some code and not running away like if you had seen the worst nightmare turned to truth. Really you could learn to develop some basic and interesting applications, and the author teach you right from the scratch, explaining what every single word and/or instruction is doing in your code, what its awesome if don't have a lot of background related to programming. If you have at least some basic knowledge about OOP and Java that it's a bonus but not necessary, anyway you should learn 'em both in some point from here to some time soon. There're some minor errors but if you're into the context you easily pick'em up and all the apps are set up to run on the Android 1.5 Android Virtual Device. I just got some trouble with the video app, but I guess it's due to the external resource provided by the book. I'm not sure if the next books proposed by the series are in the same vein, I hope so. Excellent book!

This book is really outdated. The eclipse and android SDK are completely outdated. A lot of things does not go as the book says.Try to use eclipse 4.2.1 and android 4.1 SDK to program the examples on chapter 11. You will not find it possible. Every word is exactly the same as the book says but the program will just crash when it execute the routines in onCreate method of the main activity java code.Its really hard to follow this book also. That was because the author does not give you a good big picture first. And there aren't any integral projects that piece everything together.In general, this book is a piece of x*#(# ! Don't buy!

As an absolute beginner,this book meets that criteria to get you introduced to all of thebasics of using Android. All of the necessary "must know" details and items are covered to educate you and start you on the trek towards using Android and formulating your basics of app development.

I was blocked from the first example .Because of an error that say " R cannot be resolved." After i import Android.R another error occur say that "R.layout.activity_main cannot be resolved".I think it will be better if I can contact the writer.I found that a lot of new android amateur faced the same problem like me.Anyway I keep on reading and found many easy to understand topics and someday I may have a chance to try.I will read this book one more time.

After wading through the first five chapters, I find that the author repeats some information several times, and other critical items are glossed over entirely.I think I'll get better results from the Android SDK website's tutorials, because I haven't found an example in the book that worked as written.I would recommend looking elsewhere for instruction.

The first and only edition of this book is Copyrighted 2011, and is now painfully outdated. The software and syntax used in this book varies significantly from what is now considered best practice. A significant fraction of the example applications will not function as expected.I recommend seeking out another option until a second edition is published.

This is probably the first any only tech book I've read cover-to-cover as it gets you quickly up to speed on how to develop applications for the Android. It gives clean, neat and simple examples. I've tried using the internet to get me started in Android development but there is a ton of bad code out there and you really never build on anything! It's all fragmented pieces of code that don't explain what's going on.Even if you don't have any programming background, learning the JAVA language isn't that complicated and when developing for Android, it's even mixed in with XML which helps make it easier. Heck, Androids approach much better than Apple X-Code.The one minor disappointment was in Chapter 10 where the author acknowledges the code he is using is depreciated! I'll give him credit that all throughout the book he has directly informed us that he is programming all his examples to be compatible with Android phones that run 1.5/1.6 and up.That's a great motto, include all the users and all the phone out on the market but during the time the author is writing the book . . . if Android has blatantly informed the world the are depreciating code I was surprised to see the examples continue to use depreciated code. The examples used in Chapter 10 cause Eclipse start throwing warning and strike-out out your code. For a beginner this is not a pleasant thing to see. Other than this, I would still be able to recommend this book to any beginner looking to get started in Android Development. It will give you a strong solid foundation in Java/XML and will leave you wanting to do more which is the perfect sign of a well written book.

Much better than the PHP for beginners book I worked with prior to this...Simple walkthroughs, explanation and entry level prep.

A decent 'how to' format...Thanks...Marcus