Pro Android 3 - Different Devices

[leroy tsruya]

First, I'd like to mention that by looking at the rich table of contents of the book, it seems the book contains a lot of information and covers a wide range of the subject.
Definately seems like a book i'd like to put my hands on
I'd like to ask though, There is a large variety of Android based devices. Does the book points the differences when developing for different tablets, smartphones?

[Satya Komatineni]

Leroy,

Android as of now has two API releases. The 2.3 branch which is used/intended for all phone like devices. Then there is 3.x series called honeycomb that is meant and available at the moment only for tablets.

So the book covers both APIs. About 70% of the book is on 2.3 and 30% is tablet specic. But again all of the 70% is applicable for tablets as well.

Using the book you will be able to build apps for both types of devices.

There are some concepts that are specifically introduced with tablets at the moment but will be made available for phones as well later. Most of these new tablet features are based on fragments. we cover fragments really at length.

If you are using tablets
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Use fragments copiously
Use actionbars
You can use drag and drop
You can use almost every api availale on 2.3 as well
3.0 api doesn't come with a phone like emulator only a tablet

if you are developing for phones
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You cannot use 3.0 fragments (although there is a backport available in some fashion)
No action bar support yet
No drag and drop support yet
You can use only 2.3 apis

As the book covers all the apis, including 2.3 and 3.0 one can choose which platform they are going to write apps for and accordingly use the api.

Hope this helps
Satya

[Dave MacLean]

We also cover differences between devices and what that means for a developer. Not only how to create resources for different devices to accommodate different screen sizes and densities, but also to specify when your application requires a certain device feature, such as a keyboard or a certain sensor. This is especially important when deploying your application to the Android Market (we have a whole chapter on that), because you don't want users to download your app to a device that isn't able to run it. The matching of apps to devices through the Android Market is accomplished via the AndroidManifest.xml file, and we explain all that too.

- dave

[leroy tsruya]

Wow, Thank you for taking the time and answer.
That was very clear and helpfull.
As I said, I was actually planning on getting a book to improve my Amdroid skills, and actually make nice application. Your new book seems exactly like what I was looking for