Android Tablet Developer's Cookbook, The

Product Author Bios

B.M. Harwani founded and owns Microchip Computer Education (MCE), which provides computer education in all programming and web developing platforms. He has taught for more than 16 years and blogs on technology at http://bmharwani.com/blog.

The Android Tablet Developer’s Cookbook helps experienced Android developers leverage new Android 4.2.2 features to build compelling applications that take full advantage of tablets’ bigger screens, dual-core processors, and larger, faster memory.

Tightly focused on Android 4.2.2’s tablet-related capabilities, it presents an unparalleled library of easy-to-reuse code for solving real-world problems. Everything’s organized in modular, standalone sections to help you quickly find what you’re looking for, even when you need to use multiple classes together.

Throughout, B.M. Harwani clearly explains how Android tablet apps are unique, how to leverage Android skills and libraries you’ve already mastered, and how to efficiently integrate tablet APIs and features. From media to NFC, porting phone apps to integrating analytics, this book will help you do it fast and do it right.

Coverage includes

• Providing user control via the system clipboard, notifications, and pending intents
• Supporting drag and drop for both text and images
• Displaying navigation and core app functionality via the ActionBar
• Using widgets to present calendars, number pickers, image stacks, and options lists
• Delivering powerful graphics via animation and hardware accelerated 2D
• Recording audio, video, and images
• Responding to sensors
• Pairing tablets to other Bluetooth-enabled Android devices or PCs
• Using Wi-Fi Direct to share media
• Creating custom home screen widgets
• Making the most of threads and the AsyncTask class
• Exchanging data via JSON
• Displaying and browsing Web content via the WebView widget
• Creating fragments dynamically at runtime and implementing communication between fragments
• Porting apps from smartphones to tablets and building new apps for both
• Supporting older versions of the Android SDK
• Sharing data and messages via NFC with Android Beam
• Integrating app analytics and tracking

Table of Contents

Introduction     1

I: User Interface Techniques

1 Overview of Android Tablet Applications     7

2 Fragments     47

3 ActionBars in Action     101

4 New Widgets     131

II: Managing Content

5 System Clipboard and Drag and Drop     155

6 Notifications and Pending Intents     183

7 Loaders     201

III: Multimedia Techniques

8 Animation     231

9 Hardware Accelerated 2D     281

10 Creating and Rendering Graphics     299

11 Recording Audio, Video, and Images     323

IV: Networking and Hardware Interface

12 Wireless Connectivity     361

13 Cores and Threads     391

14 Keyboards and Sensors     407

V: Exploring the Web

15 JSON     425

16 WebViews     449

VI: Advanced Android Techniques

17 Adding Support for the Small Screen     467

18 Home Screen Widgets     491

19 Android Beam     511

20 Application Analytics and Tracking     533

Index     547