12 Free Android SDK Tutorials

As almost 70 per cent of the total smartphone market share has been acquired by Android, Android App development holds a lot of opportunities. And if you are an Android developer, you know the importance of SDK. The Android Software Development Kit (Android SDK) contains the necessary tools to create, compile and package Android applications. Most of these tools are command line based. The primary way to develop Android applications is based on the Java programming language. And the Android SDK contains the Android debug bridge (adb) which is a tool which allows you to connect to a virtual or real Android device for the purpose of managing the device or debugging your application.

Here we bring to you some pretty cool tutorials for the developers who have just stepped into Android application making. Hope you find these useful.

1. Creating Android Apps Using AIDE

The most common problem faced by people new to Android is setting up the Android environment. Still more difficult is the process of offline Android installation. For large applications, you still require setting up the Android environment on a PC along with the Eclipse IDE, but for smaller and simple applications you can use AIDE, which runs directly on your Android phone or tablet and allows you to compile your Android app without leaving your device. Also, AIDE is fully compatible with Eclipse. Click here for the tutorial..

2. Optimizing Battery Life

For your app to be a good citizen, it should seek to limit its impact on the battery life of its host device. After this class you will be able to build apps that monitor modify their functionality and behavior based on the state of the host device.

By taking steps such as disabling background service updates when you lose connectivity, or reducing the rate of such updates when the battery level is low, you can ensure that the impact of your app on battery life is minimized, without compromising the user experience. Click here for the tutorial..

3. Improving Layout Performance

Layouts are a key part of Android applications that directly affect the user experience. If implemented poorly, your layout can lead to a memory hungry application with slow UIs. The Android SDK includes tools to help you identify problems in your layout performance, which when combined the lessons here, you will be able to implement smooth scrolling interfaces with a minimum memory footprint.

Click here for the tutorial..

4. Transferring Data Without Draining The Battery

Here you will learn to minimize the battery life impact of downloads and network connections, particularly in relation to the wireless radio.

This class demonstrates the best practices for scheduling and executing downloads using techniques such as caching, polling, and prefetching. You will learn how the power-use profile of the wireless radio can affect your choices on when, what, and how to transfer data in order to minimize impact on battery life. Click here for the tutorial..

5. Connecting Devices Wirelessly

Besides enabling communication with the cloud, Android's wireless APIs also enable communication with other devices on the same local network, and even devices which are not on a network, but are physically nearby. The addition of Network Service Discovery (NSD) takes this further by allowing an application to seek out a nearby device running services with which it can communicate. Integrating this functionality into your application helps you provide a wide range of features, such as playing games with users in the same room, pulling images from a networked NSD-enabled webcam, or remotely logging into other machines on the same network. Click here for the tutorial..

6. Creating Android Hello World Applications

Recent changes to the Android SDK tools have made it possible to quickly create Android projects using various starting templates. Learn how to create several different “Hello World” apps for the Android platform in this tutorial. Click here for the tutorial..

7. Android UI Workshop: Build An Interactive Quiz App

Get a hands on, crash course in building an effective and attractive UI for your Android app, and design an interactive quiz app along the way! Click here for the tutorial..

8. Implementing Drag-And-Drop Functionality

The drag-and-drop facility on the Android SDK is an interaction feature many apps can benefit from and getting started is straightforward. In this tutorial, we will implement a basic drag-and-drop operation, making clear what additional options you have for your own projects! Click here for the tutorial..

9. Creating A Simple Property Animation

With Android you can include various types of animation in your apps. In this tutorial we will create a basic property animation using Android’s Object Animator and Value Animator classes. The result will be simple but the techniques involved will apply in more complex animated effects. We will create an animation in which a steering wheel turns and the background scene moves accordingly. Click here for the tutorial..

10. Android Animation Basics

Animations can be applied as Layout animations to ViewGroups, to be triggered when the ViewGroup is created/displayed or applied to any view and be triggered by us any time.

The animations can be definex in XMl or by code. Defining in xml is mutch more clear, but you can not set animation parameters dinamically. Click here for the tutorial..

11. Android Apps Porting To Blackberry Playbook

Android apps porting to BlackBerry PlayBook. It's easy. Click here for the tutorial..

12. Android Sliding Menu

In recent Android applications, the menu which slides in from the left of the screen has become increasingly popular. this article show one how to create a similar menu in a simple way using the TranslateAnimation class.

Click here for the tutorial..