To help aspiring Android developers get off the ground and develop our next dream app, Android Police has partnered with O'Reilly Media, one of the largest technical book publishers, to give away a multitude of Android books to our readers. Each week or so for the next few months, we'll be giving away a different O'Reilly Android book, asking for nothing but a minute of your time in return.

Developing Android Applications with Flex 4.5

This time around, we're giving away Rich Tretola's Developing Android Applications with Flex 4.5, which was published by O'Reilly just last month (May 2011). The book starts by describing the process of creating and debugging a Flex Mobile project, and then goes into more detail on application layouts and various permissions / configuration settings. You'll also be taught how to use a number of common Android APIs, as well as how to properly work with the file system and SQLite databases. At the end of the book, after a chapter on interacting with the Android OS, you will learn how to publish your completed application using the Android Installer.

You can take a gander at the first few pages via Amazon, look at the table of contents on O'Reilly's website, or read the book's full description below:

Ready to put your ActionScript 3 skills to work on mobile apps? This hands-on book walks you through the process of creating an Adobe AIR application from start to finish, using the Flex 4.5 framework. Move quickly from a basic Hello World application to complex interactions with Android APIs, and get complete code examples for working with Android device components—GPS, camera, gallery, accelerometer, multitouch display, and OS interactions. No matter how much Flex experience you have, this book is the ideal resource.

  • Use Flash Builder 4.5 to create and debug a Flex Mobile project
  • Choose a layout option to determine which files Flash Builder auto-generates
  • Select permissions that control which devices can install your app from the Android Market
  • Explore APIs that enable your app to interact with specific Android OS features
  • Learn how to read and write text files, browse the file system for media files, and create and write to an SQLite database
  • Use the URLRequest class to open your app in the browser, place calls, and create emails and text messages
  • Load web and video content into your app with StageWebView
  • Publish your app to an Android installer file with Flash Builder

Developing Android Applications with Flex 4.5 costs .99 on Amazon, but we're giving away one free copy - read on for complete instructions.

How to Win

The contest is now over, and the winners have been posted here.

In the vein of past book giveaways, this contest does not involve social media. To enter, simply leave a comment here in this post (not on Facebook) and tell everyone why they should use Flex for developing Android apps as opposed to the conventional approach.

The winner will be selected by the Android Police and O'Reilly panel after June 29th 11:59 p.m. PT. Make sure you use your real email in your comment, as that's what we'll use to contact the winner.

Oh, and we try to fight for this every time we do a giveaway, so I'm happy to report that this contest is open to anyone in the world!

Good luck, and may the best aspiring developer win!