Pro Android 4

Using Android Services

Android supports the concept of services. Services are components that run in the background, without a user interface. You can think of these components as similar to Windows services or Unix daemons. Similar to these types of services, Android services can be always available but don't have to be actively doing something. More important, Android services can have life cycles separate from activities. When an activity pauses, stops, or gets destroyed, there may be some processing that you want to continue. Services are good for that too.

Android supports two types of services: local services and remote services. A local service is a service that is only accessible to the application that is hosting it, and it is not accessible ...