Huddleston - Android fully loaded

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Android Fully Loaded, Second Edition

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Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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Copyright 2012 by Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-17302-2

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to Stephanie McComb, Acquisitions Editor at Wiley, for entrusting yet another edition of this book to me. This marks the fourth project we have worked on together, and I look forward to many more to come.

Thank you also to my fantastic agent Margot Hutchison for handling all of the business details so that I dont have to.

Thank you to Chris Pichereau, David Sechrist, Debbie Abshier, and all of the others at Abshier House for their hard work shepherding this project along, keeping me on track, and making sure my English makes sense.

Thank you to Phil Nickinson, who once again agreed to be my tech editor. Phil is the editor of AndroidCentral.com, one of the foremost experts on all things Android, and a great cousin. Neither this or the prior version would have been possible without him.

Finally, thank you to Kelley, Jessica, and Xander. I love you all.

Credits

Senior Acquisitions Editor

Stephanie McComb

Editorial Director

Robyn B. Siesky

Vice President & Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President & Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Business Manager

Amy Knies

Marketing Manager

Sandy Smith

Production Editor, Copy Editing, Layout, Design, Proofreading, and Indexing

Abshier House

Technical Editor

Phil Nickinson

Cover Image

Michael E. Trent

About the Author

Rob Huddleston is an Adjunct Professor at the Art Institute of California, Sacramento in the Web Design and Interactive Media department, where he teaches programming and design, focusing heavily on mobile development. He has been creating web pages and applications since 1994, and worked for many years as a corporate trainer, where he taught web and graphic design to thousands of students from all walks of life.

Rob is the author of XML: Your visual blueprint for building expert websites using XML, CSS, XHTML; HTML, XHTML; and CSS: Your visual blueprint for designing effective websites; Master VISUALLY: Dreamweaver CS4 and Flash Professional CS4; ActionScript 3: Your visual blueprint for creating interactive projects in Flash CS4 Professional; the Adobe Flash Catalyst Bible; Teach Yourself VISUALLY Web Design, and the first edition of this book.

When he is not writing or teaching, Rob hangs out with his wife and two children, runs the Sacramento Adobe Users Group, sees a ridiculous number of movies, and obsesses about Firefly and Serenity.

You can contact Rob via his website at http://www.robhuddleston.com or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robhuddles.

Consider this, four short years ago, very few people had ever heard the term smartphone. While the term is in fact quite a bit older according to Wikipedia, it was first applied to the Ericsson GS88 in 1997 it was not until Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone in 2007 that the term entered common usage. The smartphone almost perfectly fits the definition of a disruptive technology; that is, one of those technologies that comes along every so often that radically changes our world. One simple example: Smartphones have created a massive shift in how we interact online. Today, most people visiting the top sites on the web still use desktop and laptop computers, but that trend is quickly changing. In fact, estimates are that by 2015, smartphones will surpass traditional computers to become the primary means by which we get online.

The smartphone market itself is changing so fast it is hard to keep up. At times it seems like new devices are released almost every day. Desktop PC users are used to hearing about new versions of Windows or the Macintosh operating system every three or four years, while their devices seem to get new versions at a breakneck speed.

Apple led the next revolution in mobile devices in 2010 with the announcement of the iPad. Just as smartphones existed before the iPhone, tablets existed before the iPad, but it was the device that brought the idea of tablets into the mainstream.