The mobile app job market and Android app development are growing enormously. Over 500,000 Android apps have been created since 2008, and Android is overtaking iOS in momentum. This creates high demand for Android programmers. The document recommends attending workshops to efficiently learn Android development, as materials are designed for methodical, time-efficient learning. Key Android concepts and areas like activities, intents, and UI will be covered through hands-on practice and repetition to help learning.

3.  The job market for mobile applications is
already huge and is growing at an
enormous pace. People are using their
mobile devices more than they are using
their notebook or desktop computers,
and Android based devices are being
launched frequently.

4.  As of May 2012, the number of apps that
have been created and released for the
android platform is
over500,000 (source: DISTIMO: Google
Android Market). Considering that the
Google Playstore started late in 2008, in
a little over four years, there has been an
explosion of mobile apps.

5.  While IOS enjoyed an early lead in terms
of number of apps, the IOS dominance is
no longer secured (source:TechCrunch:
Android overtakes IOS ...). It is plain to
see that the momentum of mobile apps
development is rapidly increasing. This
creates a demand for programmers on
the android platform. Excellent
opportunities await those who are early
and ready into this growing market.

6.  There are many ways to learn android, you can read lots
of books voraciously then practice; you can keep on
reading tutorials available on the internet then practice;
you can attend meetings of the local user groups, then
practice; you can sign-up for workshops (hopefully this
one) then practice some more. A combination of one,
some or all of these things will ramp up your skills on
android development but the fastest way is to attend a
workshop because the materials have been prepared
coherently and designed thoughtfully so that you can
progress in a methodical and time-efficient way.
 The learning material was painstakingly and carefully put
together in a way that will let YOU grow into the direction
of skill, the quickest possible time.

8.  Use of vocabulary - You need to be able
to talk about the things you are learning
and working on---either with your fellow
attendees or co-workers or people within
your on-line group. By stressing
vocabulary your mental handle on the
concepts increase rapidly

9.  Cut the craft, amplify what's important -
The more esoteric parts of android
programming has been downplayed.
The material focused on key areas that
are rich in concept and low on (less
important) code acrobatics

10.  Idea recursion - some concepts are
more difficult than others. Some take
time to sink in. These more difficult
concepts are repeated throughout the
workshop so that they maybe reinforced
and YOU can remember them more
effectively

11.  Think like a programmer - To write a
program, YOU need to understand how
the algorithms works, see them in action
and debug them. The workshop will
force you to go through this workflow

13.  Building blocks of an Anroid app
 Android Activities
 Android Intents
 Android Broadcast Receivers
 Android Content Providers
 Android Services

14.  Creating basic user interfaces - Using
views and view groups
 Build Event driven apps
 Apps life cycle
 Learn Tabs and Tabs Activity
 Use Android Intents (Implicit and Explicit)

15.  Handle screen rotations
 Icons
 Building menus

16.  Database programming (SQ Lite)
 Using log cat and adb for testing and
debugging
 Threads and AsyncTask
 Alerts

17.  Network programming
 2D and basic animation
 Using the camera
 Linkify
 Using the Preferences

19.  We will use API level 8 (Froyo) and 9
(Gingerbread). As of 2.July.2012
Gingerbread and Froyo are the most
dominant versions of android in the user's
hands; 64% and 17% respectively.

23.  A notebook computer. You can use a Windows PC,
Mac Book or a Linux notebook, it doesn't really
matter
 A properly setup android environment. Best to
download the SDK before attending the course, it
might take you a while because the SDK is rather
hefty. If you need some directions on how to do this, I
wrote a small set of instructions here
 An android device. This is completely optional. You
can explore android programming without a physical
device. From my experience though, I really will urge
you to invest in an (even cheap) android device
because testing with the AVD is excruciatingly and
painfully slow.