Hands-on with Evernote 2.0 for Android

One of my favorite applications on my mobile devices is Evernote. I have it on my iPad, HTC EVO 4G, and other devices and have even been searching the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace every day looking for it on this new platform. While it is not yet available on WP7, I am pleased to tell you that they just released a new Android version, 2.0, that has several improvements and new features. The most obvious thing to me though is the extreme improvements in speed and responsiveness of the application.

Evernote 2.0 for Android is a major update for the company and it is available now in the Android Market. According to the Evernote folks, here is the list of features you will find in Evernote 2.0:

• Newer, more intuitive interface
• Cleaner home screen
• New search interface
• New views with new options
• Simpler sorting and browsing
• Dramatically faster
• Improved browsing, viewing and search
• Offline note storage
• Background syncing
• Premium users can specify notebooks to be saved for offline viewing
• Record audio as you type: The audio recorder is right in the new note screen so you can tap and talk at the same time.
• Storage options: Running out of storage space on your device’s internal memory? Evernote 2.0 lets you move the app to the SD Card.
• Sharing from other apps: You can send content from other apps into Evernote using the sharing option. We’ll grab the info and turn it into a new note.
• In-app Premium upgrade: You can upgrade to Evernote Premium straight from the application Settings.

The first thing I did was install the new Evernote widget on the main home screen of my new myTouch 4G. The icons are different than the previous version and with a single tap you can start to create a text note, photo note, or voice recording, as well as launch the Evernote application or initiate a search of your notes.

I also really like that they brought the viewing feature I love on the iPad to the Android platform so you can now view thumbnails of your notes and notebooks. Another hand feature is the ability to make a note or search result a home screen shortcut for super quick access on your device.

You can also download notes for offline viewing, similar to the way you can on the iPhone. Check out my YouTube video embedded above for a look at some of the new features and design.