Getting started with Android development

If you want to start learning Android Development the best way to start is to just pick something simple and figure out how to make it.  Just pick a simple and easy app idea and start trying things until you get to where you want to go.  I don't recommend trying to read documentation first and trying to understand everything.  I think it makes much more sense after you've started to write code.

Google has actually provided a very good tutorial for making your first app, Building Your First App.  The way I personally learned was:

1. Get a basic app working with Building Your First App.
2. Open a Android sample project from the SDK that shares some of the functionality with what you want your app to do.
3. Read through sample project and try to get a sense of how it works.
4. Start adding code to the sample project to build on the existing functionality.
5. Start a new project, try to make it do the same thing as the sample project you've modified without the extraneous code.

The first app I made in this manner was Have A Break.