This book is a practical and hands-on guide for developing Android applications using new features of Android Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0), with a step-by-step approach and clearly explained sample codes. You will learn the new APIs in Android 4.0 with these sample codes.
Chapter 1, Action Bar for All, introduces us to the action bar and shows us how to use and configure the action bar.
Chapter 2, A New Layout – GridLayout, introduces us to GridLayout and shows us how to use and configure GridLayout. GridLayout is a new layout introduced with Android Ice Cream Sandwich. This layout is an optimized layout and could be used instead of LinearLayout and RelativeLayout.
Chapter 3, Social APIs, covers the Social APIs that were introduced with Android Ice Cream Sandwich. This API makes it easy to integrate the social networks. Furthermore, high resolution photos can now be used as a contact's photo after Ice Cream Sandwich was released. This chapter shows Social API usage with examples.
Chapter 4, Calendar APIs, covers the Calendar APIs which were introduced with Android Ice Cream Sandwich for managing calendars. Event, attendee, alert, and reminder databases can be managed with these APIs. These APIs allow us to easily integrate calendars with our Android applications. This chapter shows how to use Calendar APIs with examples.
Chapter 5, Fragments, introduces us to the basics of fragments and how to use them.
Chapter 6, Supporting Different Screen Sizes, introduces us to the ways of designing user interfaces that support different screen sizes.
Chapter 7, Android Compatibility Package, introduces us to the Android Compatibility Package and shows us how to use it. The Android Compatibility Package is to allow the porting of the new APIs to the older versions of the Android platform.
Chapter 8, New Connectivity APIs – Android Beam and Wi-Fi Direct, introduces us to Android Beam, which uses the NFC hardware of the device and Wi-Fi Direct which allows devices to connect to each other without using wireless access points. This chapter will teach us the usage of Android Beam and Wi-Fi Direct.
Chapter 9, Multiple APK Support, introduces us to Multiple APK Support which is a new option in Google Play (Android Market) by which multiple versions of APKs could be uploaded for a single application.
This chapter is available for download at http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/Multiple_APK_Support.pdf.
Chapter 10, APIs with Android Jelly Bean, covers Android Jelly Bean and the new APIs within it.
This chapter is available for download at http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/Android_JellyBean.pdf.