AsyncTask does encapsulate the threading stuff though. The HTTP APIs aren't Android specific - they're just the standard Java API and Apache's HttpClient. I su

AsyncTask does encapsulate the threading stuff though. The HTTP APIs aren't Android specific - they're just the standard Java API and Apache's HttpClient. I suppose Google could create another API on top of these APIs (and all the other ancient and poorly designed Java APIs), but since Java's "callbacks" are objects with methods you override, you aren't really saving yourself much.