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Professional Android 4 Application Development

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Developers, build mobile Android apps using Android 4

The fast-growing popularity of Android smartphones and tabletscreates a huge opportunities for developers. If you're anexperienced developer, you can start creating robust mobile Androidapps right away with this professional guide to Android 4application development. Written by one of Google's lead Androiddeveloper advocates, this practical book walks you through a seriesof hands-on projects that illustrate the features of the AndroidSDK. That includes all the new APIs introduced in Android 3 and 4,including building for tablets, using the Action Bar, Wi-Fi Direct,NFC Beam, and more. This book helps you learn to master the design, lifecycle, andUI of an Android app through practical exercises, which you canthen use as a basis for developing your own Android apps.

864 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2012

48 people are currently reading
306 people want to read

About the author

Reto Meier

16 books9 followers
Reto is an experienced software developer with over 10 years experience in GUI application architecture, design, and development. He’s worked in a number of industries, including offshore oil & gas and finance, and is now a developer advocate at Google.

Always interested in emerging technologies, Reto has been involved in Android since the initial release in 2007. In his spare time he tinkers with a wide range of development platforms including WPF and Google’s plethora of developer tools.

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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
8 reviews
Want to read
May 18, 2025
Professional Android 4 Application Development is a comprehensive guide that dives deep into building robust Android apps using the Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) platform. It covers core concepts like UI design, data management, background processing, and leveraging Android’s APIs effectively.

When relating this to an app like RilNotifier—which monitors and notifies users about mobile network changes—the book’s detailed explanations on handling background services, broadcast receivers, and efficient resource management become especially relevant. Understanding these principles helps developers create responsive, low-impact apps like RilNotifier that run smoothly in the background while delivering timely notifications without draining the battery.

Overall, this book is a valuable resource for developers aiming to build professional, efficient, and user-friendly Android apps, particularly those involving system-level event monitoring such as network state changes in RilNotifier.
https://techboltify.com/rilnotifier-a...
2 reviews
September 6, 2019
I have read this book, it was amazing experience.
it contains simple explanations about android app development and its APIs to build professional apps.
Useful book i recommend for who are interested in mobile development.
Profile Image for Dmytro.
21 reviews2 followers
September 12, 2017
This book was a great choice for developers who started developing something on Android. But it's deprecated nowadays.
Profile Image for Bagus Santoso.
103 reviews1 follower
November 21, 2018
Great book. Cover everything you need to know to get started in Android, build an app and prepare yourself for other part of Android that didn't covered by the book.
Profile Image for Sebastian Gebski.
1,188 reviews1,340 followers
September 15, 2013
Great book. The topic itself is huge, but author managed to cover pretty much every aspect of Android development with sufficient details - you don't get overwhelmed with details you won't memorize but you get the idea about what's available, what you can achieve and how to shape your applications up to do that.

The content is clear, code samples are very clear and easy to understand. And the book itself is still up to date (it covers Android 4.x).

This book is supposed to fit the needs of any developer who didn't try programming Android yet - I can't confirm it or deny, because I was pretty much just updating myself from Android 2.x development (and I didn't touch that for some time), but it seems to make sense.

Really recommended - if you want to get a grip on Android app development, this book will be a great help.
Profile Image for Jim.
45 reviews3 followers
December 29, 2012
Typical excellent Wrox teaching and reference book. I've stopped reading about half-way through as it goes into topics I've no interest in yet, no doubt I'll return.
The explanation of concepts is bar none, just what a professional programmer wants. I suppose I could learn along online tutorials, but they just don't have the flow and the context that good books have, plus it's useless trying to follow them on your Nexus yet with networks as primitive as they still are.
Profile Image for Mahmoud El-Naggar.
47 reviews20 followers
March 14, 2014
finally I Completed this great book
you must put it in your must-have list if you want to push your Android development level to high level
Profile Image for Adnan Haque.
1 review
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April 17, 2013
i think I'm finishing this book...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
12 reviews1 follower
December 29, 2013
A decent learning material, however it misses the depths of some critical topics like concurrency.
Profile Image for Marcos.
2 reviews
May 19, 2014
Great Android book. One of the best I have read! If you are a programmer who already know the basics (OO, basic design patterns, etc) and you want to start with Android, this book is for you.
Author 3 books6 followers
December 24, 2017
Read the earlier version which is much shorter. Some of the examples are tough to get going but it's worthwhile.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews

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