I have recently been learning to use OpenGL ES on Android.  I know that many devices currently support OpenGL ES 2.0, but I wanted to start with 1.0 that is supported everywhere.  To that end I will be making a series of posts that contain various bits of code that I have learned along the way that might be useful to others.

So, this is how you can create a texture in OpenGL ES 1.0:

Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(context.getResources(),
R.drawable.item);
int[] textureIds = new int[1];
gl.glGenTextures(1, textureIds, 0);
textureId = textureIds[0];

gl.glBindTexture(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, textureId);

GLUtils.texImage2D(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, bitmap, 0);

gl.glTexParameterf(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL10.GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER,
GL10.GL_NEAREST);

gl.glTexParameterf(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL10.GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER,
GL10.GL_LINEAR);

gl.glTexParameterf(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL10.GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_S,
GL10.GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE);

gl.glTexParameterf(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL10.GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_T,
GL10.GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE);

gl.glBindTexture(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0);

bitmap.recycle();

You can then use the textureId to bind the texture and draw it on the OpenGLSurfaceView.