
Android Apprenticeship - endlessvoid94
http://blog.bloc.io/2014/02/worlds-first-android-apprenticeship/?utm_campaign=androidlaunch&utm_source=HN&utm_medium=web
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pacofvf
Seriously, creating an "Instragram" or a "Twitter" following this tutorial
[http://developer.android.com/training/basics/firstapp/index....](http://developer.android.com/training/basics/firstapp/index.html)
is very easy if you know how to code, I wouldn't spend $5,000 on that, but if
you don't know how to code the I would spend those $5k in learning how to code
in a different platform since beginning with mobile apps it's no easy stuff.

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bitJericho
I don't know if it's fair to call a paid education an "apprenticeship."

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swamp40
It looks to me like you only get 3 hours of (admittedly 1-on-1) instruction
per week for 12 weeks. That doesn't seem like much for $3500/$5000.

Compare that to Make Games With Us [0], which teaches you how to make iOS
games in Objective-C and Cocos2D, gives classes 9-5 x 5 days a week for 8
weeks, for $5000.

[0] [https://www.makegameswith.us/summer-
academy/](https://www.makegameswith.us/summer-academy/)

~~~
endlessvoid94
that's actually just the _minimum_ amount of time you're REQUIRED to spend :-)

Most students do more.

~~~
swamp40
Ok, thanks for clarifying that.

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simoncarter
FYI, Coursera is offering a free alternative. No one-on-one, but an active
student community on the course.
[https://class.coursera.org/android-001](https://class.coursera.org/android-001)

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cliveowen
The biggest hurdle in learning Android programming isn't the platform or the
Java language, is that stupid, stupid Eclipse.

~~~
kurtle
Eclipse should no longer be a valid complaint.

I started Android dev using with Eclipse. Moving to Android Studio made
everything much, much smoother (except for builds, which take slightly longer
now).

Android Studio is much better for showing views in multiple form factors.

Another important step, using an Atom Based image + Intel Hardware
Acceleration Module ([http://software.intel.com/en-
us/android/articles/installatio...](http://software.intel.com/en-
us/android/articles/installation-instructions-for-intel-hardware-accelerated-
execution-manager-mac-os-x)).

This reduces load time from about 2+ minutes to 15 seconds and similarly makes
debugging apps much, much smoother.

Things that still bother me (as a converted iOS developer):

    
    
      * Java's lack of anonymous functions (blocks in iOS)
      * having to design for many more form factors
      * no standard core data function
      * not being able to ignore Android 2.* market share (seriously, this lacks even a simple Action Bar)
      * managing 4+ pixel densities for assets

~~~
Zigurd
Haven't tried it myself yet but the latest Support Library includes a
supposedly full-featured ActionBar. That would make it suck much less. Just in
time for 2.x to start fading away.

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mrdougwright
Android before iOS...interesting.

