2025's Top 5

Here are my top 5 highlight of the year 2025, listed randomly:

5 books

I have read 5 books this year. These are books I haven't read before and do not include the ones I've written.

4 new Android Mini Collectibles

I have added 4 new Android Mini Collectibles to my collection. The first was a reward for PE mentorship. I then got one as part of the swags for PES 2025 Dublin. During the event, I also purchased 2 other collectibles.

From top left clockwise: PES25 Dublin, Noogler, Glow in the Dark, PE Mentor

3rd edition of How to Build Android Applications with Kotlin

The third edition of our book How to Build Android Applications with Kotlin has been released on September. If you still haven't, you can get your copy on Packt and on Amazon.

2 New countries visited

I visited two new countries this year: Mexico and Ireland. We went to Ciudad de México for the Concacaf Champions Finals of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC against Cruz Azul and spent a few days before and after the game. I tried Café de Olla (Mexican coffee) and we ate tacos and other Mexican food. We also visited Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Teotihuacan Pyramids.

Café de Olla (Mexican coffee) in Mexico

We went to Dublin, Ireland for PES 2025 and we extended for a few days in the city. I have tried Guiness, Irish coffee, Irish Stew, and full Irish breakfast in Dublin. We also visisted the Brú na Bóinne, Cliffs of Moher and the Book of Kells (at Trinity College).

Irish Coffee in Ireland

1 New App: Custom Currency Converter

I have released a new Android app, Custom Currency Converter. It is a currency exchange app that you can use to convert between two currencies using your custom exchange rate.

Days in Dublin

We went to Dublin, Ireland for a week. I joined the Product Experts Summit and we extended for a few days in the city.

I have tried Guiness, Irish coffee, Irish Stew, and full Irish breakfast in Dublin. We also visisted the Brú na Bóinne, Cliffs of Moher and the Book of Kells (at Trinity College). The weather has been great (not raining) so we were also able to walk around the city most of the time.

Irish Coffee in Ireland

It has been a great experience to visit Ireland. Hopefully, we can be back again soon.

Third Edition: How to Build Android Applications with Kotlin

The third edition of our book, How to Build Android Applications with Kotlin, has now been published. It is now fully using Jetpack Compose and had other updates as well.

You’ll learn the fundamentals of app development, enabling you to use Android Studio, as well as get to grips with Jetpack Compose to create your first screens, build apps to run them on virtual devices through guided exercises, and implement Jetpack Compose’s layout groups to make the most of lists, images, and maps. The book has been updated with Kotlin’s powerful networking and coroutines libraries to help you fetch data in the background from a web service and manage displaying the data using Kotlin flows. You’ll learn about testing, creating clean architecture, and persisting data, as well as exploring the dependency injection pattern and learning how to publish your apps on the Google Play Store.

You'll also work on realistic projects split up into bite-size exercises and activities, along with building apps to create quizzes, read news articles, check weather reports, store recipes, retrieve movie information, and remind you where you parked your car.

You can get your copy of the book on Packt and on Amazon.