Book excerpt: Take a practical approach to becoming a leading-edge Android developer, learning by example while combining the many technologies needed to create a successful, up-to-date web app. Practical Android Projects introduces the Android software development kit and development tools of the trade, and then dives into building cool-looking and fun apps that put Android's amazing capabilities to work. Android is the powerful, full-featured, open source mobile platform that powers phones like Google Nexus, Motorola Droid, Samsung Galaxy S, and a variety of HTC phones and tablet computers. This book helps you quickly get Android projects up and running with the free and open source Eclipse, NetBeans, and IntelliJ IDEA IDEs. Then you build and extend mobile applications using the Android SDK, Java, Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A), and languages such as Python, Ruby, Javascript/HTML, Flex/AIR, and Lua.