Beginning Smartphone Web Development Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Mobile web development is very current nowadays and the books out there now is very slim in explaining all the technologies that are neccessary. This book is a godsend for web developers who really need a reference book on understanding what issues and concerns must be taken on trying to get your mobile web page viewable on the thousands of different web platforms there are.
Web browsers in mobile devices aim to comply with web and mobile industry standards. The author teaches you the standards, best practices and development techniques for building interactive mobile web pages for browsers in smartphones and other mobile devices.
The standards-based mobile web browser is the most promising cross-platform mobile technology. The author based this book on his courses he teaches based upon his many years of experiennce in deploying mobile web applications around the world.
The examples are easy to follow and help get you up and running in a short time.
Its a great book and should be in your computer book library.

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Written by learnthemobileweb.com's Gail Frederick, Beginning Web Development is one of the first, if not the first, books by a major publisher on Smartphone specific application development and mobile Web standards.The book contains 90% cross-platform development techniques for all smartphone browsers and 10% optimizations for WebKit, Chrome, Palm Pre, Pocket IE and popular third-party smartphone browsers like Opera Mobile and Skyfire.The success of the iPhone and BlackBerry and the emergence of Palm Pre webOS, Nokia S60 and many more devices currently necessitates the need for this book for the marketplace - the Mobile Web 2.0.

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USB Complete: The Developer's Guide (Complete Guides series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I teach a USB class, so I've had occasion to review every book on the subject. I've chosen Jan's book for my class text because it is, by a wide margin, the best single book on the Universal Serial Bus I've seen. Jan has the unique talent of talking directly to the user in a very friendly, clear, and easy to read style, while losing absolutely nothing in scope or detail. The chapter on how to coerce Visual Basic into making the Windows API calls necessary to support the USB HID class got me over major hurdles while preparing lecture materials. Instead of the usual kitchen sink approach, Jan zeros in on exactly what you need to know to do the job and covers it completely. And her examples actually work!
If you're looking for a book that spans basic USB principles to advanced topics, all clearly explained, you can't go wrong with this book.

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This updated edition of the best-selling developer's guide to the Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface covers all aspects of project development, including hardware design, device firmware, and host application software.Topics include how to choose a device controller chip, how to write device firmware for USB communications, how to cut development time by using USB device classes, and how to write software to access devices that perform vendor-specific functions. Also discussed are hardware interfacing, using bus power, wireless technologies, and USB On-The-Go.The book presents example code for accessing USB devices using Visual Basic .NET and Visual C# .NET. The example code shows how to detect device arrival and removal and how to transfer vendor-defined data using the human interface device class and Microsoft's WinUSB driver. Also covered is how to write device firmware to communicate with the USB host.The Fourth Edition covers USB 3.0 and SuperSpeed and has new information on controller chips, USB classes, power use, and Microsoft's WinUSB driver.The author's website has program code, articles, and other information of interest to USB developers. (www.Lvr.com)

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Core J2ME Technology Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this book about two months ago when my company was starting a J2ME project. I read the first 6 chapters page for page as an introduction and then used the rest of the book as a reference. I now consider myself a proficient J2ME programmer.
I've used the book mostly as a reference and I have found that the way the chapters are laid out makes it very easy to find whatever information I'm looking for. The chapters on Record Stores are particularly useful.
One reviewer said to just read the online docs. CDLC and MIDP are not very difficult technologies to become proficient at but the documentation online will make it much harder on you. If you don't mind wasting hours of time to save [money] on this book thats fine. But if your time is valuable like mine break down and make the investment. This book and the JavaDocs will be all you need to start professional apps in J2ME.

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With Nokia alone announcing deployment of 150 million phones running Sun's J2ME and Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP), developer interest in these technologies is enormous. Now, there's an authoritative, example-rich technical resource that will enable every Java developer to build robust applications for any J2ME mobile device -- fast. Written by one of the world's most experienced Java developers and trainers, this hands-on book teaches J2ME and MIDP using more than 50 well-designed examples -- all of them clearly commented, thoroughly explained, and available for download on the Web. Core J2ME Technology covers everything a developer needs to get results. John Muchow begins with an overview of the J2ME, including configurations and profiles; then walks you through creating your complete J2ME development environment -- from downloading J2ME to troubleshooting. The book then provides exhaustive coverage of the MIDP programming interface: the basics of the MIDlet application lifecycle; event handling; low-level components; persistent storage; networking (including communication with servlets and session management); and more.The book also contains comprehensive references to both key elements of J2ME: MIDP and the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) specification. For all experienced Java developers who want to create mobile applications with J2ME.

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WAP 2.0 Development Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The title of this book is a blatant lie.
NOWHERE in this book does it cover WAP 2.0.
In appendix A, it clearly states the book is only about 1.1!
It covers the 1.1 version, which is now out of date.
Chris Tull is not to blame - he covered 1.1 wonderfully;
it's the publishers who were afraid of losing $$ that need to be very ashamed. Black eye for Que on this one!
Don't be fooled by the 4 star rating; 4 of 6 are duplicates!

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This book is a comprehensive tutorial that is logically organized, up-to-date, and includes coverage of the most popular wireless programming language, WML.Readers create a working application, developing examples that build from one chapter to the next. With each chapter readers are learning, practicing, and building on required skills necessary not only for wireless development, but also programming in general. By the end of the book, readers will have created a wireless database application that allows them to view, enter, and delete information.The book provides a usable reference of summaries on all languages discussed within the book, as well as a comparison of the wireless devices, and different development tools on the market today.Chris Tull writes tutorials and technical articles each week for AnywhereYouGo.com to help developers further their expertise in creating wireless applications. An application consultant and freelance writer, his writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Texas Technology, inquiry.com, and Managing Automation. He is also an active member of the STC (Society of Technical Communication).Chris has been involved in emerging technologies since mid-1990. Early in his career, he worked at Caver-Morehead Systems, where he was responsible for the integration of DBMS systems for companies such as Hewlett-Packard, EDS, and Texas Instruments. He also produced technical documentation for the company.

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BlackBerry Development Fundamentals Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)If you intend to develop BlackBerry apps, this is a great book. It doesn't teach you programming, it doesn't spoon feed you on how to create apps like some of the other iPhone books.
What it does provide is that it has all the relevant information you need to know about developing for the BlackBerry platform in one location. The author is clearly very knowledgeable.
I have developed apps for the BlackBerry platform since 2002. I only wish this book was available earlier. Highly recommended for both experienced and beginners. Just don't expect this to be a book that teaches programming or J2ME fundamentals.


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J2ME: The Complete Reference Review

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(More customer reviews)This book should be retitled as MIDPand JDBC:The complete reference. It is in NO way a complete reference for J2ME.
If you are looking a book on using the MIDP profile, this is as comprehensive as a book can get.It has complete code listings to explain each concept and has extensive coverage of the MIDP API's.
J2ME also consists of CDC profile that is used to write J2ME applications for wireless devices that are NOT memory constrained. When one clainms that they are creating a complete reference for J2ME, they cannot leave out CDC. This book does not even devote 1 chapter to explain CDC which is such a crucial part of J2ME. Instead the author wastes space and piles on chapters by explaining JDBC and web services.
Buy this book if you want to learn only MIDP, else this one is not for you.

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J2ME allows developers to use Java and the J2ME wireless toolkit to create applications and programs for wireless and mobile devices. This is the most comprehensive resource for Java developers seeking to understand and utilise J2ME when building mobile applications and services. - Understand the core fundamentals of J2ME - Discover what makes J2ME unique with coverage on advanced topics like Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) and Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) - Comprehend how to build robust mobile applications with examples on J2ME supported software development kits, databases, web services, and more - Learn from other people's mistakes with coverage on J2ME Best Practices and security

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

Average Reviews:

(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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BlackBerry Application Development For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) Review

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(More customer reviews)This "Dummies" book is like most of the books in this series: helpful, easy-to-follow instructions from basic applications to more complicated applications. There is even a chapter dealing with submitting your own app to the Blackberry app world, pricing and submitting it to RIM. The book assumes you have some familiarity with Java because that is the language used to create apps for Blackberry.


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The Fabric of Mobile Services: Software Paradigms and Business Demands (Information and Communication Technology Series,) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an outstanding, must-read for any business development and marketing professionals in the mobile and media space. It provides an in-depth, comprehensive overview of the Mobile internet infrastructure and application ecosystem. For anyone who is engaged in creating new mobile services over the next few years, this book is an invaluable resource.

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What is the future of mobile services?
In order for mobile services to achieve the scale, scope, and agility required to keep them relevant and successful, a number of fundamental technical and business challenges need to be addressed. The Fabric of Mobile Services provides readers with a solid understanding of the subject, covering short-and long-term considerations and future trends that will shape thistechnological evolution.
Beginning with an introduction that brings readers up to speed on the mobile services environment, the book covers:
The business of mobile services
Mobile user location as a service enabler
Simplicity and user experience
The always-on infrastructure challenge
Underpinnings of mobile opportunism
Design patterns for mobile services
Advanced services of today and tomorrow

Complemented with case studies and end-of-chapter summaries that help facilitate readers' comprehension, The Fabric of Mobile Services is essential reading for researchers, engineers, software engineers, students, and anyone working in the mobile services industry.

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Embedded Systems Handbook (Industrial Information Technology) Review

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(More customer reviews)Embedded Systems Handbook edited by Richard Zurawski (Industrial Information Technology: CRC Press) Embedded systems are nearly ubiquitous, and books on individual topics or components of embedded systems are equally abundant. Unfortunately, for those designers who thirst for knowledge of the big picture of embedded systems, there is not a drop to drink. Until now. The Embedded Systems Handbook is an oasis of information, offering a mix of basic and advanced topics, new solutions and technologies arising from the most recent research efforts, and emerging trends to help you stay current in this ever-changing field.
With preeminent contributors from leading industrial and academic institutions around the globe, this authoritative handbook presents timely tutorials, surveys, and technological overviews spanning the range of issues and technologies involved in embedded systems. Many of the technology developments, deployments, and trends are made available in this book for the first time. Six sections provide coherence to the presentation, detailing:
A broad introduction to embedded systems
System- and network-on-chip (SoC/NoC) design
Testing of embedded core-based integrated circuits
Networked embedded systems
Sensor networks, and
Automotive, industrial automation, and intelligent sensor applications
With concise yet comprehensive coverage of the latest developments, solutions, tools, products, and research results, the Embedded Systems Handbook is ideal for both novices and seasoned engineers looking to enhance and expand embedded systems capabilities.
Detailing the latest advances and technologies, this monumental work:
Discusses real-time issues, methods, and trends along with design, modeling, software, and power-aware embedded computing
Provides broad coverage of IC technologies, embedded security, and networked embedded systems
Explores safety-critical embedded systems, synchronous languages and software, and fault-tolerance
Delves extensively into sensor networks
Anchors the discussion with several practical, real-world embedded system applications
The purpose of the Embedded Systems Handbook is to provide a reference useful to a broad range of professionals and researchers from industry and academia involved in the evolution of concepts and technologies, as well as development and use of embedded systems and related technologies.
The book provides a comprehensive overview of the field of embedded systems and applications. The emphasis is on advanced material to cover recent significant research results and technology evolution and developments. It is primarily aimed at experienced professionals from industry and academia, but will also be useful to novices with some university background in embedded systems and related areas. Some of the topics presented in the book have received limited coverage in other publications either owing to the fast evolution of the technologies involved, or material confidentiality, or limited circulation in the case of industry-driven developments.
The book covers extensively the design and validation of real-time embedded systems, design and verification languages, operating systems and scheduling, timing and performance analysis, power aware computing, security in embedded systems, the design of application-specific instruction-set processors (ASIPs), system-on-chip (SoC) and network-on-chip (NoC), testing of core-based ICs, network embedded systems and sensor networks, and embedded applications to include in-car embedded electronic systems, intelligent sensors, and embedded web servers for industrial automation.
The book contains 46 contributions, written by leading experts from industry and academia directly involved in the creation and evolution of the ideas and technologies treated in the book.
The material presented is in the form of tutorials, surveys, and technology overviews. The contributions are grouped into sections for cohesive and comprehensive presentation of the treated areas. The reports on recent technology developments, deployments, and trends frequently cover material released to the profession for the first time.
The book can be used as a reference (or prescribed text) for university (post)graduate courses: Section I (Embedded Systems) provides "core" material on embedded systems. Selected illustrations of actual applications are presented in Section VI (Embedded Applications). Sections 11 and III (System-on-Chip Design, and Testing of Embedded Core-Based Integrated Circuits) offer material on recent advances in system-on-chip design and testing of core-based ICs. Sections IV and V (Networked Embedded Systems, and Sensor Networks) are suitable for a course on sensor networks.
The handbook is designed to cover a wide range of topics that comprise the field of embedded systems and applications. The material covered in this volume will be of interest to a wide spectrum of professionals and researchers from industry and academia, as well as graduate students, from the fields of electrical and computer engineering, computer science and software engineering, as well as mechatronic engineering.
It is an indispensable companion for those who seek to learn more about embedded systems and applications, and those who want to stay up to date with recent technical developments in the field. It is also a comprehensive reference for university or professional development courses on embedded systems.
Embedded systems is a vast field encompassing numerous disciplines. Not every topic, however important, can be covered in a book of reasonable volume without superficial treatment. Choices need to be made with respect to the topics covered, balance between research material and reports on novel industrial developments and technologies, balance between so-called "core" topics and new trends, and other aspects. The "time-to-market" is another important factor in making those decisions, along with the availability of qualified authors to cover the topics.
One of the main objectives of any handbook is to give a well-structured and cohesive description of fundamentals of the area under treatment. It is hoped that the section Embedded Systems has achieved this objective. Every effort was made to make sure that each contribution in this section contains introductory material to assist beginners with the navigation through more advanced issues. This section does not strive to replicate or replace university level material, but, rather, tries to address more advanced issues, and recent research and technology developments.
To make this book timely and relevant to a broad range of professionals and researchers, the book includes material reflecting state-of-the-art trends to cover topics such as design of ASIPs, SoC communication architectures including NoC, design of heterogeneous SoC, as well as testing of core-based integrated circuits. This material reports on new approaches, methods, technologies, and actual systems. The contributions come from the industry driving those developments, industry-affiliated research institutions, and academic establishments participating in major research initiatives.
Application domains have had a considerable impact on the evolution of embedded systems, in terms of required methodologies and supporting tools, and resulting technologies. A good example is the accelerated evolution of the SoC design to meet demands for computing power posed by DSP, network and multimedia processors. SoCs are slowly making inroads into the area of industrial automation to implement complex field-area intelligent devices which integrate the intelligent sensor/actuator functionality by providing on-chip signal conversion, data and signal processing, and communication functions. There is a growing tendency to network field-area intelligent devices around industrial communication networks. Similar trends appear in the automotive electronic systems where the Electronic Control Units (ECUs) are networked by means of safety-critical communication protocols such as ElexRay, for instance, for the purpose of controlling vehicle functions such as electronic engine control, anti-locking break system, active suspension, etc. The design of this kind of networked embedded system (this also includes hard real-time industrial control systems) is a challenge in itself due to the distributed nature of processing elements, sharing a common communication medium and safety-critical requirements. With the auto-motive industry increasingly keen on adopting mechatronic solutions, it was felt that exploring, in detail, the design of in-vehicle electronic embedded systems would be of interest to the readers of this book. The applications part of the book also touches the area of industrial automation (networked control systems) where the issues are similar. In this case, the focus is on the design of wet) servers embedded in the intelligent field-area devices, and the security issues arising from internetworking.
Sensor networks are another example of networked embedded systems, although, the "embedding" factor is not so evident as in other applications; particularly for wireless and self-organizing networks where the nodes may be embedded in the ecosystem, battlefield, or a chemical plant, for instance. The area of
wireless sensor networks has now evolved into a relative maturity. Owing to novelty, and growing importance, it has been included in the book to give a comprehensive overview of the area, and present new research results which are likely to have a tangible impact on further developments and technology.
The specifics of the design automation of integrated circuits have been deliberately omitted in this book to keep the volume at a reasonable size and in view of the publication of another...Read more›

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Embedded systems are nearly ubiquitous, and books on individual topics or components of embedded systems are equally abundant. Unfortunately, for those designers who thirst for knowledge of the big picture of embedded systems there is not a drop to drink. Until now. The Embedded Systems Handbook is an oasis of information, offering a mix of basic and advanced topics, new solutions and technologies arising from the most recent research efforts, and emerging trends to help you stay current in this ever-changing field.With preeminent contributors from leading industrial and academic institutions around the globe, this authoritative handbook presents timely tutorials, surveys, and technological overviews spanning the range of issues and technologies involved in embedded systems. Many of the technology developments, deployments, and trends are made available in this book for the first time. Six sections provide coherence to the presentation, detailing:
A broad introduction to embedded systems
System- and network-on-chip (SoC/NoC) design
Testing of embedded core-based integrated circuits
Networked embedded systems
Sensor networks, and
Automotive, industrial automation, and intelligent sensor applicationsWith concise yet comprehensive coverage of the latest developments, solutions, tools, products, and research results, the Embedded Systems Handbook is ideal for both novices and seasoned engineers looking to enhance and expand embedded systems capabilities.

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Windows Communication Foundation 4 Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft)) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a good resource for learning WCF. It covers a ton of topics and they are shown in the context of real world applications.
The book starts out with a few chapters introducing WCF and Hosting possibilities.
It then contains chapter on securing an enterprise (intranet) as well as what it takes to secure a service exposed to the internet. These are great chapters, but a little confusing when it comes to the certificate deployment to the clients. I also would have like to have seen how to specifically secure Ajax and WPF clients over the internet.
The book then covers transactions, reliable sessions, performance, discovery, routing, REST, asynchronous operations, workflows, state, and data contracts.
The main thing I like about the book is the attempt to show real world situations.
The main thing I thought the book could use was some diagrams (UML or whatever) to help describe the execution of some of the code being explained and to help show some context. I would have also liked to see a complete chapter on just configuration. None of the books I have seen on WCF have very good details on configuration.
The code samples are well organized and very usable.
This is a book that must be read. It is not a quick reference. That is not a bad thing, the explanations are thorough, just not in a quick look up format.
All in all I recommend reading this book. It contains a ton of information and is one of the better WCF 4 books available.

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Your hands-on, step-by-step guide to building connected, service-oriented applications.

Teach yourself the essentials of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) 4 -- one step at a time. With this practical, learn-by-doing tutorial, you get the clear guidance and hands-on examples you need to begin creating Web services for robust Windows-based business applications.

Discover how to:

Build and host SOAP and REST services
Maintain service contracts and data contracts
Control configuration and communications programmatically
Implement message encryption, authentication, and authorization
Manage identity with Windows CardSpace
Begin working with Windows Workflow Foundation to create scalable and durable business services
Implement service discovery and message routing
Optimize performance with service throttling, encoding, and streaming
Integrate WCF services with ASP.NET clients and enterprise services components

Your Step by Step digital content includes:

Practice exercises
Downloadable code samples
Fully searchable online edition of the book -- with unlimited access on the Web

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Microsoft® Mobile Development Handbook Review

Average Reviews:

(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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Pro Android 3 Review

Average Reviews:

(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

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(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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Learning WML, and WMLScript: Programming the Wireless Web Review

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(More customer reviews)I thought this book was great. It struck the right balance between being a comprehensive primer on the topic, having enough detail if you decide you need it and not going into too much detail about stuff that is dealt with elsewhere - like CGI programming or generating pages from languages like Perl. If you want that then buy Leraning Perl or CGI programming on the World Wide Web.

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The next generation of mobile communicators is here, and deliveringcontent to them will mean programming in WML (Wireless Markup Language)and WMLScript, the languages of the Wireless Application Environment(WAE). The WAE allows information in almost all applications to beformatted for display on mobile devices, such as cell phones, andenables the user to interact with the information.

Why learn yet another technology? According to some estimates, 75percent of web document viewing by the year 2002 will be throughnon-desktop devices, many using wireless technologies. Clearly, the futureis wireless. For web developers who want to get up to speed quickly inthese languages, Learning WML & WMLScript maps out in detail theWAE and its two major components, WML and WMLScript.

Fortunately, the WAE provides a World Wide Web-like model for writingapplications, incorporating several key features of the Web to ease thetransition for developers. Almost all wireless applications can bewritten with WML, which replaces HTML in the wireless environment, andWMLScript, which replaces JavaScript. With this book, web developerswith some knowledge of programming and C, Java, or JavaScript syntax caneasily master both languages.

Chapter by chapter, Learning WML & WMLScript takes readersthrough the following WML topics:

Decks, templates and cards
User Interaction
Variables and contexts
Tasks, events, and timers
Text and text formatting

WMLScript topics include:

Data types, conversions and variables
Operators and expressions
Statements
Functions
Standard libraries

Learning WML & WMLScript is the resource of choice forapplication developers who want to upgrade their skills and their sitesso they won't be left plugged in during the wireless revolution.

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Beginning J2ME Platform: From Novice to Professional Review

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(More customer reviews)J2ME is a jungle of configurations, profiles, and APIs. A beginner's book might soar over the jungle like an exotic bird, pretty but insubstantial. Such a book would see everything from a 20,000 foot view. You'd see the lay of the land, but wouldn't get your feet wet.
Another approach would be for the authors to grab their machetes and start hacking their way in, following a particular path. You'd get all dirty and sweaty and get a lot of experience, but not necessarily understand exactly how you got there.
This book decidedly takes this latter path. After a brief introductory chapter, it concentrates on the core APIs and the most commonly implemented configuration and device profile. Although there's plenty of practical information on tools and lots of code examples, as a reader unfamiliar with J2ME, and someone who doesn't own a Java-enabled phone, I felt disoriented. As an introduction to J2ME programming, I felt the book was lacking in background and motivations.
Striking a balance between the two approaches I described might be a fool's errand. Therefore you would probably need one book from each category to really get involved in J2ME development.

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Sams Teach Yourself Wireless Java with J2ME in 21 Days Review

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(More customer reviews)I knew a little bit of Java, and I found this book very good. J2ME is explained pretty good, and the examples are easy to follow. I have developed several applications that I use after reading this book.
If there is anything that is missing in this book, it would probably be an Appendix with a better description of the different APIs.
It is a very good book for anyone that wants to learn J2ME, but might be a little boring if you already have J2ME experience. However, if you buy a "Teach Yourself .... in 21 days" book, you are probably not an experienced programmer in the language anyway.

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Sams Teach Yourself Wireless Java with J2ME in 21 Days begins by establishing the basic parameters of J2ME development and its uses in building wireless applications. The tutorial chapters introduce both text and graphical application development for typical wireless devices. Finally, the book presents the major types of applications that the wireless developer will build-information management, communications, games, etc. The book also introduces the basic concepts of networking wireless devices through Java.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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