All things Android are at our new site:

http://thisweekin.com/thisweekin-android/

 
 
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The co-hosts and guests included Ashley Esqueda, Itamar Weisbrod, CEO of Cellogic and the co-founder of FlyScreen and John Shiple of Startup Army.

The big news this week included the big letdown with the Android 2.1 upgrade for Droid and that Slingbox is coming to Android this summer.

The app of the week was FlyScreen, an application that puts the content you choose on your lock screen for easy access. Itamar Weisbrod, CEO of Cellogic, told us about this app, which he co-created. He also discussed the frustrations in developing for Android.

The panel discussed the desire for and future of a Google TV. They also gave a quick plug to the newly created ThisWeekIn.com, the umbrella network over This Week in Android.

News:

• Google Buzz gets its own widget on Android. Could this signal the beginning of the growth of Buzz?
• A new car, the Roewe 350 is the first car to hit production this week running the Android OS.
• The Nexus One has been released for AT&T and Sprint, completing the list for the major US wireless carriers.
• PSP graphics may soon (3 years) be comparable to the Nexus One’s says the chip makers.
• Google Maps on Android devices 1.6+ has been updated to a version that has a new search page, a Latitude widget and the ability to make Google Maps your phone’s live wallpaper.
• Users in Canada can now purchase paid Android applications.
• Tim Bray, of Oracle, has left and has now joined the Android team.
• Facebook implements QR codes?
• The Android app marketplace has reached 30,000 applications.
• A new Android based e-reader, the Alex eReader is available for pre-order.
• Did the Motorola Droid outsell the iPhone? Perhaps.
• Is the Google Nexus One a trademark infringement? The courts say they can’t trademark the name.
• Samsung has trademarked “Android” in Korea.

 
 
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The co-hosts and guests included Ashley Esqueda, Barb Dybwad, senior editor of Mashable and Eddie Kim, co-founder of Picwing.com.

The big news this week was the Apple vs. HTC lawsuit, and the possible repercussions if Apple won.

The app of the week was Car Locator. Car Locator, as the name implies, assistes you in the finding of your car, in a parking lot or otherwise. The creator of the application, Eddie Kim, talked about his success with it. Kim had tremendous success with his application after being featured by Google, making at the application’s height, $13,000 each month.

6 Free Android Apps That Will Make You Drop Your iPhone was also discussed.

News:

• The issues on the 3G network with the Droid have been fixed.
• Apple sues HTC, Google backs HTC, Caesar gets murdered. Whoops, sorry, wrong epic. ; )
• Microsoft launched an application for Android, Microsoft Tag which allows the ability to scan “tags”. The panel disscussed is “tags” would recieved widespread adoption.
• The HTC Incredible release on Verizon might be delayed.
• Google has release Google Gesture Search for Android, an app that allows you to find something by drawing on your screen.
• AT&T changes the default search engine on Motorola Backflip from Google to Yahoo.
• Many have reported having multi-touch issues with the Nexus One.
• Google is giving top developers a free Nexus One.
• An Android based landline phone may be coming soon.
• Rumor has it that Android 2.1 will be coming to all U.S. Android phones.
• Another Android based e-book reader is out there: the Entourage eDGe.

 
 
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The co-hosts and guests included Ashley Esqueda, Barb Dybwad of Mashable and Drew Olanoff of TextPlus.

The big news this week included new app store statistics, and an interesting statistic discussed later in this post.

The app of the week was TextPlus. Drew Olanoff talked about the application. On the app, you can text for free and have group conversations. If someone responds, the rest of the group receives the message. You can find Drew on Twitter here.

The panel discussed the security of Android. Mark had talked to someone who said that her Hero was rooted by a rogue app that started creating havoc on her Android device. In addition, Nooks, which run Android, are apparently easily rooted. Barb talked about how she liked out of her Nexus One, iPhone and Droid, her Nexus One that she got at TED the most. She also discussed the appeal of e-readers and more.

News:

• Barb talked about indications for the Nexus One on Verizon.
• SugarSync, a service that syncs your files, now supports the Android platform.
• Distimo has the latest statistics on app sales, including a comparison of Android and iPhone sales and more.
• The panel discussed why the price of Android mobile units were dropping so quickly.
• Recent statistics show that 91 percent of iPhone users would recommend the iPhone versus the 84 percent of Android users who would recommend their phones.
• The Nexus One’s screen may be inferior to the iPhone’s gorgeous display.
• A new application by The Astonishing Tribe may be ground breaking in facial recognition.
• Opera’s mobile browser will be coming to Android soon.
• Farmville will be coming to Android as well with the addition of Flash to Android.
• Quake 3 is able to run on Android.

Two weeks ago (TWiA #3), the panel discussed the future of Adobe and the Android platform. Turns out, they were spot on with what they thought was going to happen. Here’s the latest with Adobe.

Adobe released on Monday an Adobe Air platform and Flash 10.1 for Android. This now means that developers will be able to use Air to write applications for Android.

Starts at 49:00

 
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The co-hosts and guests included Ashley Esqueda, Dave Buchanan and Lane Montgomery from The Android App Show and The iPad Show, John Shiple of Startup Army and Kevin Marks, the VP of the British Telecom, and of ribbit and TummelVision, formerly of Google.

The big news this week included the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, the HTC Legend and more.

The app of the week was Qik. Mark had some fun doing a quick video stream of the studio. Qik allows you to live stream video from your phone.

Kevin Marks talked about ribbit, something he is working on, that allows “virtual telephony”, which allows you to use your phone on other networks. Dave and Lane discussed the possibilities of  Netflix Instant Streaming on Android and more.

News:

• Sony Ericsson turned down the opportunity to produce the Google Nexus One phone.
• AT&T will begin selling its first Android device, the Motorola BACKFLIP, March 7th.
• The panel discussed whether Google was oversaturating the market with its OS.
• AT&T has banded together with other networks including Orange and Telefonica to create a Apple App Store rival. Dave and Lane thought that this move would be a headache for all.
• 60,000 Android based handsets are shipping daily.
• A new Google Goggles feature was showed that allows using OCR and Translate, to take a picture of text in another language, and translate the text into English.
• Flash has announced a Flash version and Air for Android. Mark thought that it could be the solution to coding different versions of an application for different platforms.
• Microsoft announced a mobile OS, Windows Phone 7, that was well received. Ashley thought that if the integration with Xbox Live worked well, it would be amazing.
• The HTC Legend was announced. Everyone on the panel loved the new optical trackpad, and that HTC brought back the lip on the phone.
• A new eBook application for Android was announced, made by PacketVideo partnered with millmo. It is set to arrive in the Japanese market in spring 2010.
• Layar anounced a move that would allow developers to monetize their work. By selling developer made “layers” inside of the application, developers can earn money. Layar puts a layer of information over the camera viewer on your phone.