[jaymzcampbell]

This is excellent! Thanks for this, it complements (replaces even) very nicely my usual means of learning a new API call - that is 'read relevant SO post; look up each main function call on developer docs; hunt down further clearer 'real world' examples".

Also if you are doing android development in general (anyone) I can't recommend the android-query (http://code.google.com/p/android-query/) library enough; it's saved lots of time and makes a lot of common tasks much easier.

[drorweiss]

Thanks - I'll have a look at androidquery.

[myko]

AndroidQuery seems to lock the UI thread a bit at times. If you're just looking for a nice library to make net requests/load images I'd try Ion: https://github.com/koush/ion

Some other good libraries to check out are Volley, OkHttp, and Picasso. The latter 2 are maintained by Square (same folks who maintain ActionBar Sherlock) and they give great support in their G+ community: https://plus.google.com/communities/109244258569782858265

[jaymzcampbell]

I hadn't heard of Ion, it looks very nice; I'm going to check the others out too. I had a hard time finding something similar for iOS which is a shame - though maybe my Google-Fu is failing me.

[myko]

AFNetworking is pretty spectacular on iOS. And RestKit (which uses AFNetworking) is nearly as nice as using Ion+Gson (steeper learning curve though, but great CoreData integration if you're into that).

[jaymzcampbell]

Many thanks for the pointers