Smart Phone and Next Generation Mobile Computing (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a very brief review, since I haven't finished reading the book, but I'm finding this to be exactly what I wanted: an intelligently written book that focuses on a very diverse set of uses of Smart Phones, and provides good technical deatil about their capabilities.

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Programming Mobile Devices: An Introduction for Practitioners Review

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(More customer reviews)The biggest feature of this book is how you need to get accustomed to the limited resources on a cellphone, compared to a laptop or personal computer. Many programmers will come to mobile devices from developing on the latter 2 platforms. Still, if you have been programming long enough, the cellphone environments described in the text can be akin to working on the PCs of the 1980s.
It is a pity that there are two programming languages needed for cellphones. The book has examples drawn from Java and Symbian. The Java code is simpler than Java programs written for larger environments. The widget set is very limited. The Symbian examples are likewise easy to follow. What it does mean is that any commercial examples you develop have to be manually coded into both languages, if you are after the largest possible market.

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With forewords by Jan Bosch, Nokia and Antero Taivalsaari, Sun Microsystems.
Learn how to programme the mobile devices of the future!
The importance of mobile systems programming has emerged over the recent years as a new domain in software development. The design of software that runs in a mobile device requires that developers combine the rules applicable in embedded environment; memory-awareness, limited performance, security, and limited resources with features that are needed in workstation environment; modifiability, run-time extensions, and rapid application development.
Programming Mobile Devices is a comprehensive, practical introduction to programming mobile systems. The book is a platform independent approach to programming mobile devices: it does not focus on specific technologies, and devices, instead it evaluates the component areas and issues that are common to all mobile software platforms. This text will enable the designer to programme mobile devices by mastering both hardware-aware and application-level software, as well as the main principles that guide their design.
Programming Mobile Devices:
Provides a complete and authoritative overview of programming mobile systems.
Discusses the major issues surrounding mobile systems programming; such as understanding of embedded systems and workstation programming.
Covers memory management, the concepts of applications, dynamically linked libraries, concurrency, handling local resources, networking and mobile devices as well as security features.
Uses generic examples from JavaTM and Symbian OS to illustrate the principles of mobile device programming.

Programming Mobile Devices is essential reading for graduate and advanced undergraduate students, academic and industrial researchers in the field as well as software developers, and programmers.

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Android Programming Tutorials, 3rd Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)Excellent book. Several chapters will build upon the same sample application and will explain each new piece of code. When later chapters don't fit the current sample application, it will start with a new sample application. One doesn't need to "follow along from chapter to chapter" as each chapter introduces new ideas and also has ability to download the code. I for one didn't code up any of the samples but simply followed along the explanations and applied the concepts and methods to my own application. It would have been nice if it went into depth on database handling and patterns as that seems to be troublesome for me if you don't follow the exact pattern as described. Other than that, great book to get you up and running quickly.

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Fundamentals of Mobile and Pervasive Computing Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is a good entry point for someone wishing to learn about wireless computing and communication. It provides a broad survey of the various kinds of wireless applications and implementation design patterns, discussing the technology performance limitations and trade-offs that motivate each design decision. The viability and effectiveness of every design choice depends upon the other choices taken, motivating many complex mathematical optimization problems.

I began reading this book with the assumption that wireless application design rested on the same principles as the design of ordinary distributed computer systems, save for a narrower communication bandwidth, and occasional planned disconnections. This book made me realize that things are much more complicated in the wireless world. In ordinary distributed systems, the main challenge is the design of a static scheme for distributing work among communicating components. Once that is done, one can pretty much separate the infrastructure oriented code from the business logic. In the wireless world, the communication bandwidth's variability and lack of reliability requires the distribution of tasks to react to changing network conditions; this radically increases the difficulty of separating infrastructure concerns from business logic. The limitations of typical mobile devices (small memory, limited power, and slow processor speed) only add to the developer's burden. In designing an application for a pre-existing wireless system, traditional methods of program organization may not be appropriate. The need to discover or invent algorithms that take into account a mobile network's unique characteristics creates a challenge somewhat akin to that faced by the early users of novel massively-parallel computer architectures.
One learns that there are no general purpose easy answers to these problems, but the book does an excellent job in laying out the issues, concerns and approaches, while providing ample bibliographies of published research that readers can delve into for their specific problem. The reader comes away with a familiarity in the terms, concepts and acronyms used in the wireless community, providing an excellent foundation for further reading in the literature (which, unfortunately, is not always as well-written or accessible to the newcomer as is this text).


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This book details the engineering principles underlying mobile computing, serving as a basic reference as text for graduate and advanced undergraduates. It is the first systematic explanation of mobile communications as a discipline in itself, containing Exercises, projects, and solutions.

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Bluetooth Application Programming with the Java APIs Essentials Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking) Review

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(More customer reviews)Although it doesn't say so on the cover, this is actually a second edition of a book by the same name and the same authors. The first edition was good, but this technology moves quickly and a new edition was needed. There is plenty of practical instruction and lots of helpful figures in the book which, quite honesty, is often lacking in books published by Morgan Kaufmann - they tend to be a bit on the academic side. Plus the book has a website where there is plenty of additional code plus the javex.bluetooth and java.obex packages available for download. Also note that the old edition of the book has about two hundred more pages than this new edition. That's because much of what was previously in the book has been moved to the website, primarily code. The following is the table of contents for the new edition:
Ch 1: Introduction
Ch 2: An Overview of JABWT
Ch 3: High Level Architecture
Ch 4: RFCOMM
Ch 5: OBEX
Ch 6: Device Discovery
Ch 7: Service Discovery
Ch 8: L2CAP
Ch 9: Bluetooth and the Push Registry
Just because some of the chapter titles are the same doesn't mean the content is the same. Everything has been updated and so far it looks like a worthwhile purchase.

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Programming the Mobile Web Review

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(More customer reviews)The purpose of this book is to identify best practices when creating web applications that will be consumed by mobile web browsers. It not only does an excellent job outlining those best practices, but it's incredibly up to date in its content. Not only is there information related to "retina display" available in iPhone 4, but there is also a brief discussion about how Palm has been purchased by HP (both events occurred only a few months ago).
The book begins by providing the most comprehensive discussion of mobile browsers that I've ever seen. The author furthers this discussion throughout the book by providing some of the most detailed information on the compatibility between these various mobile browsers and the standards that each one supports. The book warrants a purchase simply for this information alone.
The author continues by providing examples of supported doctypes, coding markup, and CSS. The author demonstrates CSS differences between the major mobile browsers, and demonstrates some libraries to make web applications look more like native applications.
There is a lot of attention given to Safari, and rightly so, since it is one of the most popular mobile browsers available. However, the reader should be prepared for this fact.
All in all, I found this to be a terrific reference to the state of mobile browsers and a great reference to assist in maximizing compatibility among mobile browsers. I'd highly recommend this for any developer who is creating mobile web applications. By following the guidelines outlined in this book, your applications will be able to effectively reach the largest mobile population possible.


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Microsoft® Mobile Development Handbook Review

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(More customer reviews)Trust me, I've read them all going back to 2001 and I've written two of them myself. This is as broad and deep as it gets when it comes to managed code development on Windows Mobile. This should come as no surprise as it was written by the Windows Mobile MVP "Dream Team" of Andy Wigley, Peter Foot and Daniel "The Moth" Moth (now at Microsoft). Not only is this one of the first books to cover the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 and SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition, it even gives the reader coverage of Visual Studio 2008, and .NET Compact Framework 3.5 technologies such as WCF, LINQ, Compression, and "on-device" Unit Tests.
This book provides superb coverage of Security Programming where it shows the reader how to encrypt data with AES and RSA plus the signing of exe's and dll's. If you're interesting developing games or UI's that can't be created with the controls found in the Visual Studio Toolbox, the two chapters on Graphics and Direct3D Mobile are unparalleled. As someone who has a personal interest in the sucess of games on Windows Mobile using the .NET Compact Framework as a consistent game development runtime, this book serves as the launch pad for such endeavors. Whether you're an ISV looking to build the next killer app, a corporate developer tasked with mobilizing your line of business applications, a consultant that needs to aquire mobile development skills, or a game development house looking to take advantage of the explosive growth of the Windows Mobile platform, I highly recommend you get this book!
-Rob

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Get practical information for developing applications with the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 2.0—straight from mobile-development experts. This definitive guide delivers the proven techniques, real-world insights, and extensive code samples you need to bring information access to any Windows-based mobile device.

Discover how to:

Design a user interface that is optimized for smart devices
Add functionality by using Windows® Mobile APIs
Organize and persist data stored on a device
Establish network connections and respond to changes in network state
Synchronize mobile devices with data stored on backend servers
Implement authentication, symmetric encryption, and asymmetric encryption algorithms
Optimize application performance for resource-constrained devices
Interoperate with native code by using PInvoke and COM interop
PLUS—Get an introduction to .NET Compact Framework 3.5 and Microsoft Visual Studio® code name "Orcas"

PLUS—Get Microsoft Visual C#® and Visual Basic® code samples on the Web

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Palm webOS Review

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(More customer reviews)It is a good book, but the errata is just too much. You can't even get the first few lines of code to work because they won't fix the file names. Basically, WebOS made an engine change in their file naming schema after the book was published. Therefore the entire book uses naming conventions that won't work. I've spent hours trying to find all the instances of incorrect file name reference to no avail.
Wait for another book to come out or until they fix this one.

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A Note from the Author and from O'Reilly Media about what this book does--and doesn't--do: Palm webOS is a brand new platform and represents a very different type of operating system where the web runtime is used as the basis for the UI and Application model. Palm and O'Reilly felt that it was important to have a book available to help developers get a basic understanding of the new Palm platform at the time that the SDK was released; this timing played a major role in the content and structure of the book. Ideally this book would have been a complete reference of the new platform but that wasn't possible since the content was written at the same time as the software SDK was being developed by the Palm engineering team. Thebook does provide a complete overview of Palm webOS, a thorough description of the application model and gives details on many key design concepts. There are descriptions and examples of UI widgets, services, storage, notifications, dashboards and background applications, serving as a great introduction but not as a definitive source. The book uses a simple News reader application to illustrate the technical descriptions but the examples are not intended to serve as a cookbook tutorial. Experienced developers should be able to use the examples to build up a working application chapter by chapter but others may not find the loose descriptions adequate for recreating the application unaided. Over time, these different needs will be filled by other books, but in the meantime we hope that this book will serve a valuable role introducing developers to webOS and giving them a way of getting started with webOS application development. A second printing of the book will update any original coverage obsoleted by subsequent Mojo SDK builds. For owners of the original printing of the book, all of these updates are posted on the "View/Submit Errata" link (please see left-hand column of this web page). Thanks for understanding that book publishing and coverage of rapidly moving technologies can sometimes be an inexact science; we knew there'd be a need for a book such as Palm webOS: The Insider's Guide to Developing Applications in JavaScript using the Palm MojoT Framework, and there's certainly no better person to write that book that Mitch Allen; that said, we understand that because it is such a new operating system and SDK, there would (and will continue to be) changes that at best can't be documented and explored until new printings of the books are released. In the meantime we will be diligent in posting updates to this book's O'Reilly Media catalog page.
Description This is the official guide to building native JavaScript applications for Palm's new mobile operating system, Palm® webOS™. Written by Palm's software chief technology officer along with the Palm webOS development team, Palm webOS provides a complete tutorial on the design principles, architecture, UI, tools, and services necessary to develop webOS applications-including the Mojo JavaScript framework and Palm's SDK. Palm webOS is designed to support a fast and superb user experience using established web standards, so if you're familiar with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you're ready to build applications for any webOS-based device, including the Palm Pre. You'll gain expertise, chapter by chapter, as you build a working mobile application through the course of the book. You'll also learn how to extend existing web apps to work with the new generation of mobile phones.
Get a thorough overview of the webOS platform and architecture
Understand the critical concepts for application design: what separates webOS from other web and mobile platforms
Learn the details of Mojo's development tools and SDK for building and testing mobile applications
Examine best practices, important considerations, and guiding principles for developing with webOS and the Mojo framework

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Professional Android 2 Application Development (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) Review

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(More customer reviews)Android 2 is pretty new (as of March 2010) so having an Android 2 book on the market that is good quality was unexpected. I have not read all chapters, but here are my impressions so far:
Pro's
=====
- Author's style is neither dull or exciting, just to the point. Most explanations are clear and thorough.
- I definitely feel I have a good resource to complement the online Android docs. There have been a variety of topics I've tried to answer using Android docs (and Google searches) without much luck that this book covered clearly.
- There are a lot of good topics covered. Space is not wasted on reprinting information readily available online. Instead, author regularly refers reader to web links.
- And, finally, I appreciate the well-edited index.
Con's
=====
- The book is very weak in the illustration department. For example, instead of showing an image of a NinePatch bitmap, the author explains how a NinePatch should be constructed. This is chintzy and unforgivable for a book about a heavily visual technology.
- Occassionally, concepts are introduced without providing context. 'Kinda like when you walk into a meeting and the speakers clearly know their material but forget that 90% of the others in the room need to be brought up to speed before instructing.
- Some conspicuous omissions. For instance, no information on fonts.


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Update to the bestseller now features the latest release of the Android platform
Android is a powerful, flexible, open source platform for mobile devices and its popularity is growing at an unprecedented pace. This update to the bestselling first edition dives in to cover the exciting new features of the latest release of the Android mobile platform.
Providing in-depth coverage of how to build mobile applications using the next major release of the Android SDK, this invaluable resource takes a hands-on approach to discussing Android with a series of projects, each of which introduces a new feature and highlights techniques and best practices to get the most out of Android.
The Android SDK is a powerful, flexible, open source platform for mobile devices
Shares helpful techniques and best practices to maximize the capabilities of Android
Explains the possibilities of Android through the use of a series of detailed projects
Demonstrates how to create real-world mobile applications for Android phones
Includes coverage of the latest version of Android

Providing concise and compelling examples, Professional Android Application Development is an updated guide aimed at helping you create mobile applications for mobile devices running the latest version of Android.
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

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Pro Android 3 Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a really good book on Android development.
I have been extensively programming in java for a few years. Recently
I was reading about a CIO summit in our area and each of the CIOs talked about
how significant the new mobile devices are for banking, transportation
and healthcare.
I wanted to see how to quickly gain expertise in the mobile space to
my already well established enterprise skills.
This book has pointed out that I can be up and running with Android
very quickly even without buying a single android device. I could walk
through almost all the examples of this book through the emulator.
I also like the fact that most of the chapters (except for a couple at
the begining) are stand alone. Each chapter has working examples that
have been specifically developed for that chapter with few
pre-requisites. I am able to download the zip files for each chapter
so that I can import them directly into eclipse. Then I am able to
read through the chapter and look at the working example
simultaneously to make the most of it.
If you look at the google android developer website you see that
android offers an extensive set of APIs. I do find the android
documentation on the android site very good. However I needed a book
that is a bit more organized and take me from concept to concept in a
meaningful manner.
By comparison I can see that this book covers a number of android
basic features that include intents, resources, menus, dialogs,
controls, services, security, preferences, activities, and content
providers. Some of these concepts are very unique to Android. The
authors have gone into a lot of detail while covering these topics. I
must say this strengthened my appreciation of Android as a full
fledged programming platform.
I am also very pleased with the coverage of Android internals that
include processes, threads, handlers, asynchronous tasks, broadcast
receivers, wake locks, long running services, notification manager
etc.
I have always wanted to see what it means to program in opengl. This
book provides an excellent introduction to opengl including the opengl
es 2.0. Be warned though that this is not an extensive guide on
OpenGL. You may have to buy a 500 page book just to do justice to all
the intricacies of OpenGL. This book does have references to further
material that you can read on OpenGL. The animation chapter is really
fun to read. The other advanced topics covered include maps,
telephony, sensors, media.
The coverage on the contacts api is extensive and good.
It is really surprising how quickly this book was released with
coverage for tablets only after a month or two of the honeycomb
release.
Finally for a senior programmer this book goes into how to dive into
the android sdk source code right in the introductory chapter. I found
this really useful when I am not sure how a particular functionality
works when the SDK documentation is not clear.
As I have listed so many things this book covers it is fair to list a
few things that it does not cover. Game programmign is not covered at
all. Live Wall Paper topic is not covered. If you are thinking of
using Bluetooth API to write cool applications it is not covered
either.
But I am really happy with the book because I am able to gain a broad
picture of the Android SDK. I am able to understand its architecture.
I am able to explore its advanced APIs. I am left with a lot
references to supporting material in each chapter.
Excellent in all and all.
Oh, one more thing! The supplemental website that supports this book
androidbook.com seem to contain a lot of the working notes of authors
in addition to their future research on Android SDK.

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Pro Android 3 shows you how to build real-world and fun mobile applications using the new Android 3.0 SDK. It covers everything from the fundamentals of building apps for embedded devices, phones, and tablets to advanced concepts such as custom 3D components and multi-tasking. Using the tutorials and expert advice, you'll quickly be able to build cool mobile apps and run them on dozens of Android-based smartphones. You'll explore and use the Android APIs, including those for media and sensors. And you'll check out what's new with Android 3.0, including the improved UI across all Android platforms, integration with services, and more, giving you the knowledge to create stunning, cutting-edge apps, while keeping you agile enough to respond to changes in the future. What you'll learn
How to use Android to build Java-based mobile applications for Google phones with a touch screen or keyboard
How to design and implement irresistible user interfaces for touchscreens with Views and layouts
How to populate your application with data from data sources, using Content Providers
How to create 3D graphics with OpenGL and custom components
How to build multimedia and game apps using Android's Media APIs and OpenGL
How to use Android's location-based services, network-based services, and security
How to use new Android 3.0 features, such as Fragments and the ActionBar
Who this book is forThis book is for professional software engineers/programmers looking to move their ideas and applications into the mobile space with Android. It assumes a passable understanding of Java, including how to write classes and handle basic inheritance structures. Table of Contents
Introducing the Android Computing Platform
Setting up your Development Environment
Understanding Resources
Understanding Content Providers
Understanding Intents
Building User Interfaces and Using Controls
Adding Menus
Implementing Dialogs
Working with Preferences and Saving State
Security and Permissions
Working with Services
Exploring Packages, Processes, and Library Projects
Exploring Processes, Components, Threads, and Handlers
Exploring Broadcast Receivers and Long Running Services
Exploring the Alarm Manager
Unveiling 2D Animation
Exploring Maps and Location Services
Using the Telephony APIs
Understanding the Media Frameworks
Programming 3D Graphics with OpenGL
Exploring Live Folders
Home Screen Widgets and Live Wallpaper
Android Search
Exploring Text to Speech and the Google Translate API
Touchscreens
Using Sensors
Understanding the Contact API
Deploying your Application: Android Market and Beyond
Fragments
Action Bar
Selected Topics in Android 3.0

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Mobile Design and Development: Practical Concepts and Techniques for Creating Mobile Sites and Web Apps (Animal Guide) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Original review written by Pasquale Granato, JUG Lugano, [...] First of all, let's clear the field from a possible misunderstanding: this book is not about general mobile design and development but it is about web mobile development. The author states a precise, despite arguable, opinion that brutally said is: do not code native applications but prefer as much as you can web applications. This statement is largely discussed across the book and everyone can make up his own opinion about this. Mine is that currently times are not mature to consider to write just web applications both because mobile browser are not powerful enough (on average) to assure a smooth experience on all devices and because of the lack of a good way to make money from your web app.
The first three chapters of the book are a really good introduction to the history of mobile, to the mobile current status and to the reasons that should drive an approach to the mobile development. These chapters are a well written recap of the status of the art and present a lot of data useful to understand the global situation. Unfortunately the book is printed in black and white and several pie-charts and graphs are pretty much impossible to read.
The central part of the book, chapters from four to ten, is devoted to design issues and, despite the lack of an in-depth examination of some subjects, offers a pretty good survey of the topic.
The final part of the book is slightly more technical covering topics such as XHTML-MP, CSS, HTML5, device adaptation, etc. The problem here is that there is nothing really practical and all remains at an introductory level. To give you an example, a capital topic in device adaptation like Media Queries is covered in half a page with just a trivial example. Furthermore the author seems to be unaware of things like XwapProfile or UAProf (that is probably a obsolete and unreliable method but deserve at least a notation).
My biggest complain is anyway about the author's obsession for the iPhone. The Apple's jewel is referenced continuously and always with great glorification: the word iPhone recurs 99 times in the book and out of the 115 pictures in the book as many as 37 depict an iPhone. An entire chapter is devoted to iPhone web applications development even though most of the concepts presented here are common to other modern devices.
This is overall a decent introductory book, if you are completely new to the field, and it's packed with many good advices but do not expect much from the practical techniques promised by the title.

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Android Application Development For Dummies Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm going to preface this review by saying that I have been programming for about 15 years, and have been working professionally as a developer for almost 3 years. My background is in VB, C#, Javascript, HTML, and even a little dabbling in C/C++. With that in mind, my Java knowledge was essentially everything I had learned from C# (which is very similar), and the tutorials on Google's Android development website. You could argue Javascript may help, but they're so different that I don't think it counts as experience.
I finished all of the tutorials on Google's site and still felt like I wasn't really grasping the concept of Android development. For those of you who have developed in C#/VB for Windows or Windows Mobile, you may understand what I mean when I say that going from something so straight-forward as using Visual Studio and .NET languages to something a little more complex and code-heavy like C++ or Java while using an unfamiliar IDE like Eclipse can be a little daunting at first. Google's tutorials, while full of great examples, don't really take the time to explain the "why" and then "what" of Android development, and instead have a more confusing approach of "Step 1: Type all this code in; Step 2: That code you just type does [this]; Step 3: Run your application".
The first half of this book is incredibly informative, and after reading only a couple short paragraphs on things I've already tried to learn and failed, I really understood it this time. The author's tone and descriptions make even the most complicated topics very easy to understand. The author also likes to commonly encourage the reader, writing that we are "experts", and making assumptions that we understand what we just read, even after it was some insanely complicated thing that was described in detail across four pages. It seems like this approach might be little odd, but I liked it. It kept my confidence up as I was reading.
The second half of the book, while also great, starts a little on the fast track. There are other reviews that mention this, and although I partially agree, it's also worth mentioning that a lot of the things that are flown through quickly come together a little later in the book. However, the pace does seem to go from a "one line at a time" methodology into a "type these 60 lines of code in and I'll explain it later" sort of teaching. While I don't prefer this, and I think it's a bit messy, the information IS there; it's just harder to soak it all in than it was in the first half of the book. The application you are building at the end is quite large, and I have tried to think of an easier way the author could have filled me with the knowledge instead of the approach taken, but I really couldn't think of a better way, mainly due to the way the code has to be written for the particular task at hand.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I think it was a great introduction to Android development, and is leaps and bounds above Google's documentation, at least for a beginner. I wish the book was a little longer, and I wish the author didn't frequently say things like "I could write an entire book on [subject], so I won't go into detail about this. If you want to learn more, read the documentation at [Google link]." For these reasons, I gave it four stars instead of five. The fundamentals do exist in this book, but I would have liked to have seen more.
I would recommend this book for anyone with any sort of programming background looking to get into Android development. I would probably not recommend it to someone who has no programming background whatsoever.


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The fun and friendly guide to creating applications on the Android platform
The popularity of the Android market is soaring with no sign of slowing down. The open nature of the Android OS offers programmers the freedom to access the platform's capabilities and this straightforward guide walks you through the steps for creating amazing Android applications. Android programming expert Donn Felker explains how to download the SDK, get Eclipse up and running, code Android applications, and submit your finished products to the Android Market. Featuring two sample programs, this introductory book explores everything from the simple basics to more advanced aspects of the Android platform.
Takes you soup through nuts of developing applications for the Android platform
Begins with downloading the SDK, then explains how to code Android applications and submit projects to the Android Market
Written by Android guru Donn Felker, who breaks every aspect of developing applications for the Android platform into easily digestible pieces

No matter your level of programming experience, Android Application Development For Dummies is an ideal guide for getting started with developing applications for the Android platform.

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Mobile Commerce : Opportunities, Applications, and Technologies of Wireless Business Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a broad treatment of M-commerce and is aimed at a broad audience of business and technical readers. Usually books of this nature are mediocre because of the trade-offs compromises in scope and content that need to be made to accommodate a wide audience. In the case of the book, though, it isn't the case.
First, the book is organized by (1) Business opportunity, (2) Applications, (3) Technology, (4) Issues and (5) Directory of M-Commerce Applications. The first four sections are both insightful and invaluable. The directory of M-commerce applications, in my opinion, does not add any value to the book because information of this nature changes so rapidly that it's inaccurate before a book is even published.
What I like about the book is the even treatment of opportunities that are inherent in M-commerce, including some insights into why Europe does not have the advantages that normally come from being early adopters (in spite of the pessimists who cite a "two year head start" while ignoring the U.S. leadership in technology implementation when we do get around to it), and the interesting view of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), which many believe to be just an interim - the author advises to put resources and effort into WAP and make it part of a business strategy if you want to be an M-commerce player.
The survey of technologies and standards are also useful, even if given somewhat superficial treatment. The value is you are exposed to all of the factors and considerations with which to make informed decisions or gain an understanding of the M-commerce landscape. In this respect the applications and technology sections of the book can be viewed as a primer.
Overall, this is an excellent book for learning about M-commerce from business and technical points of view because it provides a context and keen insights in both domains.

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Mobile Phone Programming: and its Application to Wireless Networking Review

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(More customer reviews)I have more than 6 years experience in this industry and can tell that this is the first book of this kind I saw. It will allow you to get your own hands-on experience with many different platforms, from Series 60 to Qtopia. Due to real programming examples, it is very praxis oriented, but also with several scientific aspect rising open questions. And all this without any "hypes" or "bubbles", as you maybe know from other books about "mobile". If you are an expert, it will also allow you to get a piratical impression of other platforms in a short time. So, in the nutshell, this books is worth each $$ use spent on it! Great book!

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Wireless and Mobile Network Architectures Review

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(More customer reviews)The reviewer was in search of a book that could provide the basis for a course on mobile communications at the graduate level for students from a mixed (EE and CS) background. The new book by Lin and Chlamtac fits the bill perfectly. It assumes neither knowledge of wireless physical layer, nor knowledge of higher layer applications and application interfaces. In fact, it is a book with an original approach, being the first to present mobile networks by emphasizing the services that can be provided and the mobility management schemes needed to support such services. Because of its particular focus, the book is also an excellent text for systems and systems software developers as well as the senior undergrad or grad level science and engineering reader who is curious about the particular subject. Certain decisions were necessary to keep the book focused. For example, it stays clear of elaborating on modulation, coding and modeling for wireless communication (presenting just the essential info). It also avoids being IP-centric, although, naturally, it cannot escape discussing data services, such as SMS, GPRS, WAP etc.
An aspect that weighs in favor of the book is the inclusion of research results from the research of its two world renowned authors. The included research results can help the graduate level reader appreciate the available research opportunities, and the context in which solutions can be developed. The researcher will also find the collection of references (as recent as 2000) extremely helpful in studying the area. The teacher can use the material to develop simulation and analytical models for students to gain better insight to the workings of mobile services.
Another objective of the book, is to function as reference material. Its authors have done the hard work of distilling the essence of a large collection of standards documents related to mobility management. >From this point of view, the book will be of value in the longer term as well, making it an a perfectly sound investment.
A challenge dealt with successfully in this book is that in order to present mobility management, it ultimately needs to discuss about signaling protocols, and SS7 in particular. The book takes an approach of presenting background material on signaling on "as needed" basis. A reader not familiar with signaling, will likely progress slowly when signalling is first introduced, but, at the end, will have the double benefit of being exposed to signaling's central role in advanced communication services, and gain understanding on how mobile networks really work. Certainly, there are parts of the text where the density of acronyms calls for careful parsing of the sentences, but such is the case for any technical book that maintains a formal presentation style. It still beats reading standards documents.
After a short review and classification of the systems covered in the text, the book introduces the need and nature of mobility management followed by the most important aspect of mobility management, that of handoff management (detection, assignment and radio link transfer). Following the introduction, extensive attention is given to IS-41 (where, in a way, AMPS, IS-136 and IS-95 "meet" together) and to the GSM counterpart, the Mobile Application Part (MAP). Covered GSM services include the Short Message Service (SMS), International Roaming, and Operations, Administration and Maintenance. In this, first part of the book, what may appear odd at first is the inclusion of low-tier systems with few mobility management capabilities (such as CT 2, DECT etc.) but it serves as a reminder that little gems of protocols can be found in places one may not think looking at. Certainly the point is justified by the discussion of PACS signalling in a separate chapter. Another topic placed in this first part of the book (due to its relation with AMPS and IS-136) is CDPD's architecture and its radio resource allocation and roaming management.
The remaining half of the book is service-oriented. It covers how different types of services can be supported. The services include mobile number portability, VoIP service for mobile networks, GPRS, prepaid mobile phone services, and WAP. Following are two chapters covering the topic of heterogeneous PCS systems integration and the new (3rd) generation mobile services. The final three chapters cover three addition services that follow their own evolution path. Namely, paging systems, the wireless local loop and wireless enterprise networks.
Overall, this book is worth having. Whether you approach it as a student, as an instructor, as an engineer or just as interested to expand your knowledge, it has something to give you. It is unique in its approach and future books on the topic will be measured against it.

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A comprehensive guide to building wireless and mobile networks and services. Based on advanced wireless and mobile network architectures, Personal Communication Services (PCS) offersthe enterprise freedom of communication through mobility. This book gives network engineers and managers a window on the world of wireless and mobile networks, from the enabling technologies and protocols to creating and managing mobile services. Lin and Chlamtac use a unique sustained example approach to teach you how PCS concepts apply to real network operation. For example, they use location update to illustrate concepts in chapters on network signaling,- Mobility management for different systems- Wireless Application ProtocolNetwork signaling for IS-41-based systems, PACS, and GSM- Roaming procedures and international roaming- Operational management- VoIP service for mobile networks- Mobile number portability- GPRS- Third generation (3G) mobile systems- Wireless enterprise networks- Wireless Local Loop- And much more

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Mobile and Wireless Design Essentials Review

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(More customer reviews)I am studying towards a Ph.D. in Information Systems. I was given an assignment to research wireless technologies. I decided to read this book to refresh my memory about the topic. The information in the book is better presented than any journal article on the topic that I have read to date, even articles from world renown researchers from MIT, Stanford, Duke and alike. The author takes a very difficult topic and presents in a crystal clear manner that can be understood by virtually anyone. Moreover, the information is not watered-down. To the contrary, it is the single most valuable resource that I have found on the topic after conducting a thorough literature review. I would recommend it to anyone who deals with wireless networks or wants to increase their knowledge about the topic.

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Describes mobile and wireless design techniques from the developer's perspective, offering in-depth analysis of the complete range of network technologies
Details development options for building Smart Client, Thin Client, and messaging applications as well as PIM (personal information management) and location-based services
The author is an experienced trainer who leads seminars and workshops worldwide for iAnywhere Solutions, a subsidiary of Sybase

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Android Wireless Application Development Review

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(More customer reviews)This is my fourth Android book and by far the best. Concepts that I was uncertain about are explained clearly and completely. I especially like the order in which the topics are covered. The other books launched into developing an application without much underlying explanation of the individual topics - putting that off until later, and not doing it as well. If I had bought this book first, I probably wouldn't have or need the others.

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