Preface

With the ongoing explosion of the mobile Android operating system and proliferation of Android powered devices in the smart phone and tablet computing markets, this is the perfect time to explore the world of Android development using the Flash Platform. Adobe recently released statistics announcing that by the end of 2011, it is projected that more than 200 million smartphones and tablets will support Adobe AIR applications. For 2011, the company expects the mobile Flash Player to be supported on more than 132 million units worldwide. This book provides a variety of fundamental recipes exploring common needs of the mobile Android developer when utilizing these Flash Platform runtimes.

Many existing Flash application developers are excited with the prospect of building mobile applications for Android devices, but where to begin? Expand your reach into mobile application development by using this text as a guide. When possible, the recipes in this book are written using pure ActionScript 3, allowing the reader to work through each example in the tool of their choice. In some instances, we demonstrate the power and flexibility of the mobile Flex framework when dealing with specific layout and structural needs. Jump-start your experience with mobile Android through the step-by-step examples found within.

Flash Development for Android Cookbook will demonstrate a wide variety of mobile-specific examples specifically conceived to be direct and useful in the development of applications for Android devices. Everything you need to get started is included along with suggestions to further your experience with Flash, Flex, and AIR when developing mobile Android applications.

Topics covered within this book include development environment configuration, mobile project creation and conversion, the use of touch and gestures, responding to changes in location and device movement in 3D space, the capture, generation, and manipulation of images, video and audio, application layout and structure, tapping into native processes and hardware, and the manipulation of the file system and managing local application databases. The book will also cover things such as Android-specific device permissions, application optimization techniques, and the packaging and distribution options available on the mobile Android platform.