Widgets! The easy way to smash your Android phone’s battery to OBLIVION. That’s the headline new feature of the latest update to the Android beta version of TweetDeck, which now calls itself v0.9.8. That’s looking perilously close to a full 1.0 official non-beta release.

Here’s a tidy bullet-pointed list of the new changes made to Android TweetDeck, courtesy of the TweetDeck support site:

- New “Quick post” widget
- New “Column” widget
- New “Quick launch bar” widget
- All new Add Column interface
- Fixed various bugs and improved performance

And here’s a few of screenshots of the new widgets in action.

The quick post widget pops up a curiously tiny text window on the screen of our HTC Desire making it rather hard to read your own messages, but does at least work. That’s the TweetDeck column widget on the right.

The quick launch bar is the weird thing (top left) that’s simply three shortcuts to your timeline, replies and DMs. Looks rather bland, but will be better on the battery. TweetDeck’s getting better by the day. If only they would reinstate the bouncy timeline effect.

Just thought we’d mention the Android Google Voice app quickly, seeing as Google’s just updated the chat and phone aggregator today. You can download it and install it right now – but it won’t work here. That’s the bottom line.

Until Google sorts out a deal with the UK mobile network and landline operators to bring Google Voice to the UK, this is what happens when you try to use it outside of the US:

It doesn’t work. Thought we’d give it a try as there’s nothing good on the telly tonight. One day it will work. And if you do go to Google.com/voice you’ll be told it’s not working again. Officially. So don’t waste your time installing it, like we just did on the off chance it’s working. It’s not working.

Google’s put out another tiny update to one of its apps today, with its famed Google Maps Android tool getting upgraded to v4.5.0. According to the post-update splash screen, the only changes here are to the user interface, plus the app now lets you filter Places results by distance.

Here it is.

The integrated menu buttons for Places, Layers and Location on the top right are definitely recent additions, plus Buzz looks jazzier than we remember. But then it’s been quite a long time since we last looked at Buzz. We really ought to pay more attention.

Thanks to Mr Nij for the tip.

UPDATE:
Google’s put up the official announcement. This is a much bigger update than we thought, including GPS navigation for walking directions and tighter Street View integration. Still requires Android 1.6 or above.

Here’s an odd one. There’s a new version of the standalone Google Search app up on the Android Market this evening, which updates your Android search too to v1.1.1 if you install the file.

This doesn’t include Google’s new “Instant Search” search tool that’s been shown off today, instead offering a minor tweak to the layout of results – and some “performance improvements” according to the newly updated Android Market description.

Here’s new Android Google Search in action a few moments ago:

That’s pencil icon’s new, isn’t it? Clicking on that copies your search terms to the search bar, so you’re able to edit it on the fly before searching. Slightly useful. That’s really about all we can see that’s different.

BT Fon’s an odd little Android app. It doesn’t really offer much more than a graphical front end for your Android phone’s Wireless & Networks management tab, but it does offer to let you auto-connect to BT’s national network of wi-fi hotspots.

There’s also a clever little option to have the app always connect to your preferred networks first, so you don’t have to worry about connecting to the wrong access point when at home.

It’s worth installing BT Fon simply to remind yourself to use its wi-fi hotspots when out and about instead of your mobile data connection. If you have a BT broadband account, wi-fi access is free through all UK hotspots. Which is very, very useful.

There’s also a charity thing on the go at the moment, where BT donates 50p to worthy causes each time it’s downloaded. So you might as well, you’ll feel marginally better about yourself.

We doubt this is much of a niche app, as we’d imagine there’s a pretty big crossover between Android fans and satellite TV hobbyists, but anyway. DishPointer Pro is a cool little “augmented reality” app that shows you where satellites are, so you can line up your own dish. Or just look at satellites.

Ideal if you have a moveable dish, or are setting up your own freesat dish to avoid having to pay an installation man.

There’s a rather huge catch in the price – a whopping £11.99. But if you’re saving on installation fees, that’d presumably pay for itself soon enough. And yes, we dream of one day having a motorised satellite dish.

Sex Places is by our old friend (ENEMY) Michael Quach, famed Android Market app distributor (fire bomber). It is literally nothing more than a list of places where people might conceivably have sex. No instructions, just some places.

Here’s the description:

100 places where people have sex!

Check out some of the most exotic, fun, creative, cool, awesome, odd, weird, wild & erotic sex places! Bet you haven’t done it at some of these places! Share these sex places via SMS, Email, Twitter or Facebook!

Here’s where Michael Quach thinks people might do it:

On top of a hill. Isn’t that an evocative notion? Here’s a great review from the Android Marker comments: “Just lists random places. Some impossible to do”. At least he’s cleaned up his UI.

This is the simplest app we’ve yet featured. No Lock has just the one function – disabling the swipe unlocking requirement of Android 2.x handsets.

Once installed, you stick a widget on the Home screen and use it to toggle the screen lock on and off. That’s all it does.

Basically it lets you turn your phone on and off from standby without the extra swipe. Any button press wakes it up. The extra swipe was annoying me. Now it is gone. Not good for people who pocket their phones, but ideal if your phone is mainly desk based.

HTC Peep, HTC’s built-in Twitter client that comes pre-loaded with HTC Sense, has been broken. It’s been broken for the last few days, as a result of some login system changes make at Twitter’s end.

Twitter claimed the issue had been resolved a few days ago, but judging by the complaints still rattling around the internet this evening, it wasn’t. But it looks like it is now.

HTC Peep has started working again for us. We couldn’t sign in an hour ago, but just now managed a connection. Look, that’s us at the top of that screenshot, tweeting about the status of Android Twitter apps at 11.14pm on a Friday night, via HTC Peep.

That is how we “roll”.

Rovio, maker of smash iPhone game Angry Birds, has come out with a full statement on the status of the imminent Android version of the game, following this morning’s unofficial announcement.

The good news is it’s ditched its plans for a private beta, and will instead be making a test version of “Angry Birds Lite” available to download for everyone with “second generation Android devices” through the Android Market. Here’s the announcement, from Rovio’s blog:

This week, we were planning to run a closed beta test of Angry Birds Lite for Android. Due to the massive response and demand from the Android community, we have decided to make Angry Birds Lite Beta available for everybody through the Android Market this Friday.

Please note that this will be the beta version of the application which is still undergoing final testing before official release. Angry Birds Lite Beta is presented on an “as is” basis, and we cannot guarantee its functionality on every Android device.

Angry Birds Lite Beta will run on second generation Android devices and upwards.

To get all the latest information about Angry Birds on Android, sign up to the mailing list at android.angrybirds.com.

We’ll have screenshots of the Android version up on here six minutes after it launches, time zones permitting.