Update: Changed my rating from 3 to 2 stars. I was going through the location chapter and stopped at this paragraph – “The code for the remaining methods of LocationTest–log( ), dumpProviders(), and dumpLocation( )–is not very interesting, so I won’t bore you with it here. You can find it all in the downloadable samples on the book’s website.” This book is way to dependent on you going to the website. It presumes an internet connection, which might not be available wherever I might want to read this book (e.g. coffee shops) or might just be down. So I could just be stuck with incomplete code. I had a read through Pro Android and found that book to be excellent, only missing a section on SensorManager unfortunately. I would go with that one over Hello Android. Rest of my unchanged review is here:

I still rate this book with 3 stars despite how irritating I’m finding it. I figure it is irritating because of my learning style. It covers a wide range of topics, so it might still be worth having around.

It started out fine, and was able to breeze through, even though I had some problems with the initial Sudoku problem. Why I find this book so irritating is the order of the code. The author creates classes and methods that will eventually reference other classes and methods while never saying how the components all fit together. In the case of the Sudoku game, the game logic actually comes at the end of the one of the chapters, whereas for me it would make more sense to place this at the beginning of the chapter to get an understanding of how the game works and then build the xml interfaces on top of this as needed, allowing me to understand how all the components work together. It is obvious the author is just giving the code as he created it rather than going through how to create an Android app. This could just be the way I like to learn programming though. In between the code examples there is little in way of explanation either. I skipped ahead to another chapter to get away from the Sudoku example, and found it similar with poor-ordering and limited explanations.

Do visit the website as there is more help and corrections available.

Rating: 2 / 5

this book seemed to be leaving stuff out, even early on with the “hello, world” example. screen shots didn’t match up. and the publisher’s website offers a free upgrade if you purchased the electronic version. i guess i am screwed since i bought a printed one.

i did like how in the first part of the sudoku example the book had you program a little, then publish out and see the result. then a little more, and then see the result. but when you get to chapter 4, that practice is dropped. at that point on, there are just pages of code to muscle through. there is some explanation as you go along, but i really need to see the result of what i am doing in order to understand it. how about a little pay off every few pages?

i found myself eventually just copying the code from the publisher’s site and going to the sdk for explanation. then i started to wonder why i paid for this book, if i was just going to be referencing the sdk online for free.

i had already ordered Professional Android Application Development (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) but picked this one up at a local store because i was too excited to wait. i guess i should have. “Professional Android Application Development” seems like it might be more helpful. we will see.
Rating: 1 / 5

HELLO, ANDROID: INTRODUCING GOOGLE’S MOBILE DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM covers all the basics of creating working applications using Android, which blends cell phones, open source software, and Google and other Open Alliance members. It’s a mobile platform packed with options and applications, from building location- based services such as GPS to adding 2D and 3D graphics and networking with web services. Computer libraries will find it a top pick.
Rating: 5 / 5

I had previously given it a two and have included that review below. But getting deeper I’m finding so much missing. The book walks you through the steps of making A Sudoku application, but excludes major portions which are in the online sample code. But including that code causes a whole bunch of reference errors to a point at which you end up copying everything from the example. Not much is explained except for the walk-through (see below) so it ends up making the book pretty useless.

Prior:

It walks you through the process of building an application and subsequently you run into a portion of the SDK but it explains little in terms of why you are doing what you are doing. I feel very much like I’m following a recipe. Perhaps the idea is that you can further research using the Android online reference, but in that case I don’t really need the book in that Android’s developer website offers a bunch of online tutorials and examples.
Rating: 1 / 5

Perfect! And quicker than I expected.

I thought it was going to take at least a month and I got it in 17 days. Well done AMAZON.Hello, Android: Introducing Google’s Mobile Development Platform (Pragmatic Programmers)
Rating: 5 / 5