UI Design is not my favorite topic since it reminds me of Swing.  The UI in android can be all laid out in java but the best practice is to use XML. Makes sense when your UI concerns are more about UI component layout than client side scripting.  It is interesting to see how Android manages their menus.  Their menus slide up from the bottom of the phone and can also act as popup windows.  This can lead to a crisp, clean UI design if you want that look.

With only four chapters down and seven more to read I don't think I'll finish the book this week.  I hope to get though enough of the topics this week to feel comfortable with Android development.  So far I feel like I've only seen the tip of the iceberg.  My next couple chapters deal with persisted data and more guts of the android framework.  Hopefully we'll be adding some real good stuff to the To Do List app I've been building in the book.