Beginning Android Tablet Programming: Starting with Android Honeycomb for Tablets

Beginning Android Tablet Programming: Starting with Android Honeycomb for Tablets

by Robbie Matthews
Released November 2011
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781430237839

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Beginning Android Tablet Programming starts off by showing how to get your system ready for Android tablet programming. You won't need any previous Android experience, because you'll learn all about the basic structure of an Android program and how the Android operating system works—and then you'll learn how to write your first Android tablet application from scratch!

Beginning Android Tablet Programming then equips you to build a set of interesting and fully-working Android tablet applications. These projects will give you the inspiration and insights to build your own Android programs in the future.

You'll be introduced to 2D programming, and you'll see what you can do with a touch screen interface and the Honeycomb SDK. Of course, 3D programming is even more alluring for many programmers. If that includes you, you'll learn about how Honeycomb has changed the game for Android graphics programming, and get your first taste of 3D programming on an Android tablet.

Lights, camera, action! You'll learn along the way how Android Honeycomb gives you access, through your programming, to all those interesting sensors that tablet computers are equipped with today—beyond the touch screen itself. You'll learn, for example, how you to use a tablet GPS sensor to locate your car!

You'll also discover how you can access files on your tablet—or on the web—through programming, and then build on that insight to create your own file browser application. This Android project contains many useful coding techniques appropriate for many situations you might encounter in your future programming Android tablet applications; you'll be glad to have them under your belt.

So do you want to write programs that can receive and send reminder messages via SMS? Do you want to write your first 2D or 3D game on Android? Perhaps you'd like to write an application that sorts out all your contacts for you! Beginning Android Tablet Programming introduces you to Android tablet programming, and shows how you can program your Android tablet from scratch to do what you want!

Table of contents

  1. Title
  2. Dedication
  3. Contents at a Glance
  4. Contents
  5. About the Author
  6. About the Technical Reviewer
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Some Notes on Using the Downloaded Code
  9. Chapter 1: Getting Started
    1. A Short, Personal History of Portable Programming
    2. The Advent of Android
    3. Preparing Your Computer
    4. Your First Android Program
    5. Oh, No! Java!
    6. A Quick Guide to Java
    7. Summary
  10. Chapter 2: How Android Works
    1. Basic Structure of Android Programs
    2. Intents: What, Where, Why, and Are They Honorable?
    3. Secretly Linux
    4. Summary
  11. Chapter 3: What Can You Do with an Android Tablet?
    1. More Sensors Than the CIA
    2. Lights, Camera, Action
    3. Browsing for Fun and Profit
    4. My Little Black Book—Managing Contacts
    5. Share My Stuff (Sending and Receiving, Well, Everything)
    6. Sound and Fury (Managing Media Files)
    7. Summary
  12. Chapter 4: Beyond Java: Programming in Python and Friends
    1. Why Use Another Language?
    2. Getting Started
    3. Script Management
    4. Summary
  13. Chapter 5: Project 1: Media Player
    1. Fragments
    2. Media Player Application
    3. Summary
  14. Chapter 6: Explorer
    1. Anatomy of a File Explorer
    2. Summary
  15. Chapter 7: Contact Manager
    1. And Now for Something Completely Different
    2. Managing Contacts
    3. Summary
  16. Chapter 8: Dude, Where's My Car?
    1. Location Manager
    2. The Application
    3. Are We There Yet?
    4. Lists of Targets
    5. Summary
  17. Chapter 9: Let the Games Begin!
    1. Threads
    2. Floater
    3. Into the Third Dimension!
    4. Summary
  18. Chapter 10: Remind Me
    1. Alarms
    2. Sending SMS
    3. Text To Speech
    4. SQLite
    5. The Application
    6. Summary
  19. Chapter 11: Everything Else
    1. Timers
    2. Doing Things in Background
    3. The Download Manager
    4. Animations
    5. USB
    6. Summary
  20. Index

Product information

  • Title: Beginning Android Tablet Programming: Starting with Android Honeycomb for Tablets
  • Author(s): Robbie Matthews
  • Release date: November 2011
  • Publisher(s): Apress
  • ISBN: 9781430237839