Man oh Man! There is almost as much daily news flashes coming out of the Evernote base camp as their is out of AppleTown. But today’s news is all for the droid people. Evernote has announced not only a new concentration on developing for the Android system, but a new release update. Here is how it looks and what they say about it:

“In this update, we’re releasing our first major Android-only feature: the Evernote Widget. This super useful home screen widget allows you to quickly jump right into your desired Evernote action. You can pop into a search or into a new text, snapshot or audio note. Activating the widget is simple. Press and hold your finger on your phone’s home screen. Select ‘widget’ for the menu that appears, then choose Evernote. Next, drag the widget to any screen you like. You’re done.

Pinch and zoom support

Pinch and zoom is now supported within notes. If you would like to get a closer look at that snapshot, zoom in, swipe around, then zoom out. Now you’ll be able to see every minute detail of your note contents. This feature is available on phones running Android 2.1 and later.

Send to Evernote

Android apps that have a Sharing menu, will now list Evernote as a recipient. This means that you can easily send stuff from many of your favorite applications directly into a new Evernote note. For example, you can send images from a photo app, save URLs of cool websites you browse, capture tweets in Seesmic, and lots more. This is another Evernote feature that’s only available on Android.

Performance improvements via note caching

After you view a note, Evernote for Android caches that note on the device so that it will load much faster the next time you search for it. This is the first step towards (drumroll, please) offline note storage, which will be coming soon.

Lots and lots of fixes

This release also addresses a number of little annoyances:

• Fixed a problem that kept an edited note from updating properly
• Fixed a problem that removed intentional white space within notes
• Added higher resolution iconography (Android 2.1 and later)
• Placed the Save button onscreen on the audio notes screen
• Fixed a problem that kept the app from loading tags properly

And many, many other fixes.

Get Evernote for Android from the Android Market. If you have trouble accessing Evernote after installation, restart your phone. You may also need to remove the old application shortcut.”

I love to read, and my absolute favorite is anything paranormal, sci-fi, or fantasy.  However, like most people, I have tightened my wallet, and cut back on purchasing books.  Luckily for me, Amazon has plenty of great reads for free or under $4.  Start with one of the originals, Bram Stoker’s Dracula for the low, low price of FREE.  By favorite book blog, Bitten By Books, has put together a list of 101 books – 83 free and 18 other dirt cheap titles mainly in the world of paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and few other fun titles.  Make sure to go check them out.

While you were sleeping, those who seem to never rest at Evernote gave your iPad and iPhone even more functionality with a new update for Evernote.

If you are a Premium account holder, you get two nice improvements to offline note management.

Offline notebooks can now sync over 3G. If you would prefer that things only sync of Wi-Fi, then tap the switch to the ON position.

There are also improvements to editing text, and other under the hood bug-fixes.

Get the update from your current version, or if you don’t have a premium account, get it HERE.

I get this question asked a lot.  I used to prefer building my computers.  Now, I prefer buying.  My last computer purchased was a Core i7 powered Dell Studio XPS which I use for video production.  Why buy?  For me it’s mainly because of price – the cost of the computers that I generally see cannot be built for less money after you take into account the cost of all the parts including the operating system.  It’s just not economical to compete against big name companies.  Granted, when you build your own, you get to choose every choice part from case to processor.  For me, I tend to buy and upgrade as needed.  I try to stick with nothing less than a quad core CPU for future proofing.  So what about you?  Do you prefer buying or building?

Bigger and faster would be the two words that some up technology as time progresses.  I used to think that USB 1.1 with a speed of 12Mbps was fast.  Then came USB 2.0 with a which brought speeds to a pleasant 480Mbps.  Now, with so much to backup, that 480Mbps/second just doesn’t cut it anymore.  It’s time to leap to the blazing fast speeds of SuperSpeed USB aka USB 3.0.  By doubling the number of wires from 4 to 8, USB 3.0 will provide 50% more power with a peak of 150mA for unconfigured devices and configured devices get a healthy 80% more power going from 500mA of available power to 900mA.  With USB 3.0, power efficiency improves as well as many other features such as streaming for large transfers allowing major time savings.  USB 3.0 was designed to backwards compatible with USB 2.0.  Now here’s the kicker – the new speeds for data transfer is up to 4.8Gbps (assuming that a standard hard drive can provide speeds that high – perhaps SSD?).  Yes, you read that right – a WHOPPING 4.8Gbps – that’s like 9x!  I’d love to see my backups move that fast.

Next up we have eSATA (external Serial ATA).  Currently the speed for eSATA is 3Gb/s.    This still makes it 84% faster in terms of transfer speeds.  So the gear I purchased for this project are a USB 3.0 to eSATA connector, eSATA to eSATA cable, SATA to eSATA cable, and an express card to USB 3.0  adapter.  I had the choice to get an express card to eSATA adapter but decided against it as the cost of such a device was greater than the express card to USB 3.0.  The other advantage is that USB 3.0 is very versatile as it is also compatible with USB 2.0.  With the following tools and cables, I can now, in theory, connect almost any desktop and laptop (with express card) to my new eSATA hard drive for backups.  Other considerations before I head off to bed – does my Acronis True Image support eSATA when booting off the disc?  How much time exactly does it take for a backup?  What is the premium I’ll need pay to get into eSATA  / USB 3.0?  All these and more will be answered soon on Just Another Mobile Monday – A Practical Look @ Mobile Life.