Capturing more than half of the global smartphone market, Google’s Android mobile platform offers a vibrant and growing marketplace for developers. In this book, Android programming expert Chris Haseman shows you how to use the powerful set of Android tools to begin writing the next generation of Android applications. Chris provides a complete introduction to developing for Google’s mobile OS, offering tons of insights and hard-earned advice. After a tour of how to install and configure the Android SDK and Eclipse IDE, you jump right in, building your first Android project. Chris starts off with how to use the major building blocks to create an intuitive and good-looking interface. Next, he shows you how to retrieve data and how to use lists to display data. Chris then explores how to use services—important, and often under-utilized, components of the Android platform. Chris examines how to handle media and location services before showing you how to write applications for the Android ecosystem.