Hour 24. Writing Android Apps

What You’ll Learn in This Hour:

• Why Android was created

• How to create an Android app

• How an Android app is structured

• How to run an app on an emulator

• How to run an app on an Android phone

Java’s a general-purpose programming language that can run on a wide variety of platforms. One of those platforms has arisen in the past four years to become an enormously successful spark for new Java development.

The Android operating system, which started out on cell phones and has spread to a variety of other devices, exclusively runs programs written in Java.

These programs, called apps, are built on an open-source mobile platform that’s completely free for developers to build on. Anyone can write, deploy, and sell Android apps.

During this hour, you learn about how Android came about, what makes it special, and why tens of thousands of programmers are developing on the platform. You also create an app and run it on an Android phone (if you own one) and an emulator (if you don’t).