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Book Review: Developing Android Applications with Adobe AIR

Posted on Jul 21, 2011

I don't do a ton of book reviews but I really wanted to take an opportunity to highlight a book I think is great resource for anyone looking to build mobile applications with Adobe AIR. Here's the thing to me about purchasing books: if I expect you to shell out hard-earned money for a book (especially one in print), I better offer something significantly better than what I can get for free from either Adobe's official documentation or by Googling. This book, "Developing Android Applications with Adobe AIR" by Véronique Brossier, does just that. Here's how.

A Focus on ActionScript not Flex
Don't get me wrong, I love Flex on mobile to death but a lot of tutorials have been written for it that are available on the ADC or via the official "Developing Mobile Applications with Flex and Flash Builder" documentation produced by my colleagues at Adobe. By choosing to focus on straight ActionScript development rather than Flex, Véronique has made a book that is a great reference for either a Flex developer, ActionScript developer or a Flash Pro developer. Pretty much all of her sample code would work the same integrated into a Flex application if that is the route you choose. Plus, it gives us Flex developers a chance to improve our ActionScript coding chops.

Examples that Go Beyond the Obvious
My personal favorite thing about this book is that in practically every case, Véronique goes beyond the basics to not only discuss considerations I may never have recognized (or would have recognized too late, after I'd already launched) but to offer code samples on how to address these. For example, rather than just discuss how you can access accelerometer values and use them to move an object within your application, she adds sections on how and why you might consider implementing either a high-pass or a low-pass filter on your accelerometer data. She not only covers what these filters achieve, but, of course, shares sample ActionScript code demonstrating how it is actually built. It is these "beyond the obvious" sort of examples throughout the book that I believe will maintain the book's lasting value on your shelf.

The Title Says Android but the Reality is Broader
Probably because of the timing of the book and perhaps the ability to test these samples on multiple platforms, the book title indicates this is about making Android applications. Maybe it is a marketing thing. Either way, there is no reason that a majority of the code here couldn't run "as is" on any mobile platform supported by AIR - as in, if you are developing iOS or Blackberry Playbook apps with AIR, you should get this book too.

Congrats to Véronique on creating such a valuable resource. I hope that enough of you pick it up so that she has the opportunity to continue to update as both Android and AIR evolve. Go get it. P.S. You can follow Véronique on Twitter via @v3ronique.

Comments

Wow, sounds like a great book. Glad I picked it up, then... Now where can I get some extra hours-per-day to get around to all of these great books on my shelf??

Posted By Adam Tuttle / Posted on 07/22/2011 at 5:46 AM