what are the best advanced android development books?

I've learned Java, can I develop for Android?

• I've been into computer programming for over 4 years now. Been using Game Maker, and I self taught myself parts of several languages and just played around with them to get familiar with how they work. I've just finished an Advanced Placement Java course (equivalent to first year university) and I now have nothing to do, so I wanted to jump into Android development. Basically I know everything from basic java functions to creating methods, classes, and how it all works (even recursion). I never did get into file reading/writing but that isn't to hard to learn. I know I cannot just jump into Android development and expect to know everything, its a completely different interface, but I'm at an advantage over those who have never coded before. I'm unsure where I could find a good learning resource just to get familiar with developing for Android specifically, not to learn basic java. I've also considered iPhone development but I don't even know the language it's in, and I prefer the Android market anyways. -- I also know that I am not "done" learning Java (can you ever be 'done'?), this is more to occupy my free time for the summer so I don't go into another Java course cold.

• Answer:

  I would recommend [1] Professional Android 2 Application Development - although I must say Android SDK is quite well documented so it is a good resource to sue too [2] but I know some people have said it can be harder to follow. I would say though, as far as Java is concerned, Android uses the Java language, that's about it. It does not use the Java API, only a handful of classes are kept the rest is completely unique to Android, for all intents and purposes you will have to relearn how to write programs in the new SDK. The other thing I would say as advice, when developing for Android you do not develop for the latest release, not unless you want your audience to be very limited. Majority of Android devices still run 2.x and that will be your target market. You will find a lot of tutorials and references will focus on 2.x development - don't take that as a sign they are out of date, they use 2.x for a reason. Even the Android SDK tutorials you can follow will use 2.x As long as you know the syntax of Java you will be at an advantage but forget the API you're used to and look at the Android SDK documentation [2] first before you make assumptions on how to program certain things, for a start java.awt and javax.swing don't exist in Android you'll have to use Android's own GUI API.