In reading and using the example code in Android 3.0 Animations, I found it is targeted for a developer 1) who understands the development environment 2) is looking to add animation in Java and 3) has little or no idea where to start. The book covers the concepts of animation nicely starting small and adding complexity as it continues. The amount of background information is small for understanding frames and tweens. The primary focus is given a basic understanding, how can it be implemented in Java. Animators (Android 3.0) play a significant part, though there is coverage of how to handle previous versions of Android. Guidance is also provided on routes not to take, which is quite welcome. There is coverage for 3d rotations with information on dealing with matrices and even the creation of an animated screensaver.

The last chapter is the one that could stay with you for a while. It describes best practices and usability. The guidelines in this chapter transcend java and android and can be applied in many instances.

To sum it, If you already have completed an Android project and are looking to enhance your next one with animations, this book gives you a grounding to go forward.

I have found the book Flash Development for Android Cookbook very useful in the coding phase of a project. It is very easy to find a particular recipe of code cut and paste it into a project and use it. The description for each recipe provide a good explanation of what the code is doing and also provides background on why each recipe works.

The book starts by describing several development  environments for setup and debugging and as this is a book targeted at improving coding, this was a welcome item to see. The book covers quite a few areas including gestures, gps, accelerometer, camera, microphone, video, audio, network, file system, database, security, and distribution. While the book is targeted at Android, it’s clear that many of the recipies can be used on other AIR platforms as well.

What I liked best about the book is that when I choose a recipe, and flipped to the correct page, there were no jumps anywhere else. That is, everything I needed for the recipe is included in the recipe. Also, several of the recipes have found thier way into my production code.

I recommend this book to a mid level developer who is familiar with ActionScript and is looking to speed up the coding phase of a mobile project, especially if the target device is Android.