An elephant never forgets. And as Evernote's elephant logo suggests, the note-taking platform already sees itself as a tool for storage, yes, but also for enhancing memory.

That couldn't be clearer with a newly release app today: Evernote Peek (iTunes link). The app makes rather ingenious use of the new iPad Smart Cover, creating a new way to make and study flash cards.

Evernote Peek connects to your Evernote account, and you can select which notebooks you want to utilize (or create specific ones for this purpose.) The title of the note becomes the clue, and the body of the note itself, the answer.

The app was designed by Evernote CEO Phil Libin and VP of Marketing as they were Andrew Sinkov playing around with the newly released Smart Cover. "It didn't seem like an accessory so much as an extension of the device. As we sat there opening and closing the cover, a question struck us: could we use the cover to control an app that would make Evernote even more useful?"

The answer is obviously yes.

There are other services that integrate with Evernote to create these sorts of study materials, including StudyBlue, which we recently covered. But the new Evernote Peek app has done something pretty unique here, and we'll see if others can follow with similarly smart uses of the new Smart Cover.

Before today, sharing Notebooks meant using the Web version of Evernote. But with this update, it all can be done within the desktop client.

Shared notes can be edited by those you've invited only if you have a Premium account. Premium Evernote subscribers also have access to note history for these shared notebooks, so you can view all the changes that have been made.

If you're an avid Evernote user (like me), have a lot of notebooks (like me), and are methodical about your filing system (that's me too), then the second feature in this update will make you happy. You can finally "stack" your notebooks in Evernote, so you can group together and better organize certain notebooks - a good feature for those who use some of the apps in Evernote's Trunk such as Awesome Note.

In order to get this version, click on the "Update to Beta" checkbox in the Software Update Tab in Evernote for Mac preferences. But remember: it is Beta, a "work-in-progress."

It's this last feature that might make iPhone users wish it was their turn to have their Evernote app updated. If you're like me and store pretty much every important thought, draft, image, brainstorm, account info, and story idea in Evernote, you've had that panicky thought, "What if this were to fall into the wrong hands?" Now, you can lock the Evernote app with a PIN. Whenever you return to the app, you'll be asked to enter a special code. You can still compose notes, even without entering the PIN, but it'll be necessary in order to view and search notes. (This feature is only available to premium subscribers.)

With this update, for example, Android users now can create notebook stacks, and they also have better access to shared notebooks. Notebooks are a stack of notes that you've sorted into one collection, something that greatly helps with organization. You can also share your notes to Facebook, Twitter, and email.

Evernote for Android lets you capture your location whenever you create a note - that's not new. But now the app will map these notes for you, particularly useful if you're using Evernote to chronicle a travel diary.

(Here's hoping Evernote for iPhone is next to see an upgrade!)

Today at the Google I/O developer conference one of the big topics is tablets. All attendees have been provided with new tablets and everywhere you look, there's another company demonstrating their new tablet app. One of those companies is Evernote, one of our favorite cloud-based note taking apps.

We caught up with Evernote on the trade show floor today and got a quick preview of the soon-to-arrive tablet version of Evernote that is set to hit the Android Market in the coming weeks.

Take a look, as Alex Pachikov, VP of business development at Evernote, takes us through the new app:

The next version of Evernote will be available in the Android market in the next couple of weeks.

These improvements focus on the social and sharing aspects of Evernote, giving Windows users the ability to share notes for the first time. You can share individual notes to Facebook or Twitter or email. You can also share entire notebooks - idea when you're working on a group project.

One of the benefits of shared notes and linked notebooks on the desktop is that they're stored locally. That means you can access them even when you're offline.

Another couple of minor, but useful additions to Evernote for Windows are aimed at writers: a status bar that tracks word and character count, the addition of CTRL+F (find and replace), and better and more consistent indentation.

As is the case with most of the improvements to Evernote, these new features for Windows users will likely make their way to other platforms soon.

Evernote also launched a new product called Evernote Trunk today. Currently, this is only a showcase for third-party services that integrate with Evernote, though the company plans to turn it into a full-blown Evernote app store in the near future.

At launch, the Evernote Trunk will feature about 100 products from 75 different companies. The showcase currently features Evernote-integrated services like business card scanners and voice notes applications. While Evernote itself isn't very social (and Evernote isn't interested in adding this functionality itself), applications in the Trunk will allow users to share their data and pull data from social apps into Evernote.

One of the launch partners for this integration is Seesmic, which will first integrate Evernote's functionality in its mobile clients. Evernote is also working with SAP StreamWork. In total, Evernote currently has about 2,000 API partners.

To some degree, this update turns Evernote into more of a platform and the company plans to expand the number of applications in the store over the coming weeks. This new functionality will be available in updated versions of Evernote's desktop apps today and should come to the mobile apps in the coming days. For the time being, Evernote will just showcase these apps, but the company also plans to allow developers to sell their services right in the Evernote Trunk. Even though Evernote's CEO Phil Libin argued that this is just a showcase and not an app store, the company's plans to allow developers to sell their apps through the Evernote Trunk clearly points in this direction.

The Current State of Evernote

Currently, Evernote users create about 312 memories every minute and the company's servers handle 42,000 requests per minute through its API. The majority of Evernote's users tend to use the service for both personal and business purposes and almost 20% of its users access the service on 3 or more devices.

With regards to Evernote's business model, CEO Phil Libin called the company a "freemium success." Evernote now has about 80,000 paying users. Taking a swipe at Facebook, Libin also noted that the company doesn't want to make money from mining its users' data.

The upgrade includes rich text editing within notes, mobile access to shared notebooks, the ability to search within individual notes and, for premium users, the option to lock the app with a passcode.

The new version of the iOS app also includes access to shared notebooks, something that wasn't previously available. The ability to create and edit notes in shared notebooks is something that the team says they're still working on.

Another seemingly small but helpful feature that's been added is the ability to search within individual notes in the app. Previously, you could run a search across your entire account, but never on a note-by-note basis. That changes with today's update.

Users that have upgraded to a paid premium account now have the option to lock their Evernote app using a numeric passcode, much like you can do with the device itself. This adds an extra layer of security on top of what might be private or otherwise sensitive information contained in the app.

In addition to all these new features, the iPad version of Evernote has been redesigned with an improved layout for the "All Notes" view of the app.

You can geo-tag your food events, describe the scenario, take pictures, add caloric information with the food tracker and share through Facebook and Twitter. Basically, if you like to scrapbook your life and especially your adventures through the culinary world, that is what Evernote Food is designed for.

Evernote Hello is a way to remember people's names. It is a lot like an app that came out last month called Namerick, so similar to the point where we wonder if Evernote borrowed the idea or just hired the developer. Hello bases remembering people's names on three key principles: faces, time and context. So, what the person looks like, where and when you met them and what you were doing at the time.

When you meet someone new, you have have them using the forward-facing camera on the iPhone to take a picture of themselves (or take it yourself). The app will take four photos for a mosaic of that persons face. It will then create an "encounter" which contains the person's face and where you met them and any other notes you add at the time.

There are other services available that have the functionality of both Food and Hello. Facebook, especially with the the Timeline rollout set to come, is probably the first to pop to mind. Like Evernote, Facebook wants to be the place where you record your life and share it with your friends. Evernote's two new apps are perfect for people that like to document to their personal cloud through Evernote and do not like the idea of being attached to Facebook's social graph. If you are a heavy Evernote user, you will probably end up using Hello and Food. If not, there is probably no reason to do so.

Are you going to use Evernote Food and Hello? Do you like the idea of digitally scrap booking your life? Let us know in the comments.

Over the past month, the Evernote team has been cranking out new features left-and-right. If you haven't been following the news, here's what you've missed:

• Clip to Evernote Bookmarklet: the Clip to Evernote bookmarklet was updated to allow you to clip either part of a web page or the whole thing. Plus, you can create a simple quick note without launching Evernote.
• Safari Clipper: Evernote added a Safari version of the Web Clipper which, in addition to the standard features, also lets you save web pages as PDFs. Growl support notifies you of new syncs and clippings.
• Firefox Clipper for Mac: For those who prefer Firefox on Mac, the new Firefox clipper for Mac is tightly integrated with the desktop client.
• Android Client Gets a Makeover: The mobile version for Android was revamped, adding in improved searching and navigation. It also optimized the interface for touch screens, enabled portrait and landscape viewing, and now takes full advantage of the Android browser.

The new Web Clipper

Shoeboxed Integration

Perhaps the biggest and best update, though, is the partnership with scanning service Shoeboxed - a partnership which was announced a little less than a month ago. This service lets you either mail in or email in scans of receipts and business cards. They do the tedious work of scanning them for you and then they post the scanned images online. With the Shoeboxed + Evernote integration, you can now send your Shoeboxed scans directly to your Evernote account.

Finally, if you can't get enough Evernote, the company has also introduced a podcast about their service. The first one, released mid-March, features discussions about the company itself as well as company news and tips. You can get the MP3 here or subscribe in iTunes.

Do you use Evernote? Tell us about it in the comments!

While there's been nothing wrong with the Evernote's Web interface per se, when you compare the web experience to native apps, the interface makes you happy that you have downloaded the desktop client or the mobile phone app. It's sort of dull and gray. The new interface has been revamped. It's brighter and it now has the recognizable three-panel interface. From left to right: your notebooks, your tags, your note list, and your single note view.

The Changing (And Growing!) Evernote Demographic

CEO Phil Libin says that only 13% of Evernote users currently use the Web version, and with those statistics in mind, it does make sense that this was the last app for the company to redesign.

But Libin notes that since Evernote's launch, its demographics have shifted substantially. No longer is Evernote solely used by professionals (professionals with their fancy smartphones and native apps, that is). The tool is becoming used by more and more students. For many of them, that means using the Web version - not simply because they're accessing Evernote via the computer lab, but because (and please take note here developers) they don't download software and they prefer the browser.

This update also adds a new feature to Evernote: the ability to share individual notes over Facebook and email. Users will be able to share a note with others - in the words of Libin "share your private brain with the social brain."

The addition of a Facebook share mechanism comes pretty late in the game for Evernote. While startups are often told to include viral loops like Facebook, Evernote has hardly needed such a thing. The company is adding over 26,000 new users a day. Nonetheless, the ability to share notes to a Facebook wall or to a Facebook group will likely only serve to help boost that growth.

The new version has a number of key improvements, including a better interface with almost every screen. But all the key features are still in the app: the ability to take notes, snap pictures, record audio, and sync your Evernote data across devices.

Your Evernote notes are now searchable via the Google Search widget on your Android's home screen. You can also create shortcuts from the home screen directly to any note or search (such as your To Do or grocery lists).

And within the app, the Search button is now available at the top of every screen so you can access the feature more easily. The Search screen also allows you to, well, search, but to also view previous and saved searches, as well as one of my favorite Evernote tricks, search for notes within a certain radius of your location, something that is perfect for finding the notes you took while at a certain venue (Good for libraries. Great for long-term parking at the airport.)

When you're viewing a note, you'll also see a new tab that, when clicked, will give a thumbnail view of all the notes from your current search. This new feature lets you quickly switch between notes.

And overall, "quick" is a good way to describe the new Android app, whose performance seems to be much more responsive than the older version.

Finally, Offline Notebooks

Evernote is one of the key tools in my workflow, and as such I've paid for a Premium account. And so I'm happy to see that this upgrade adds one of the best features from the iPhone app: the ability to specify notebooks that you want to be available for offline viewing.

And if you run out of storage space on your Android's internal memory, Evernote 2.0 will let you move the app to the SD card.

The new version is available for download via the Android Market.

Evernote becomes a single destination for every note you have, including video, pics, to-dos, audio message, web clips, and web bookmarks. All notes can be tagged and synchronized between your Mac or PC, the Evernote Web app, and your BlackBerry. You can access your existing notes by searching for keywords, filter by tags, or simply browse for them.

In The Field

Many of us have been looking for a mobile note taking application that would be useful "in the field", since that's where we take most of our notes. Often we can't type fast enough on our mobile devices to keep up, so we jot down notes on *gasp* paper. With Evernote for Blackberry you can simply take a snapshot with your device, add a subject, comments and some tags and save it for later. When you get home you can sync everything up and have it available on your desktop or on the Web.

Prior to using Evernote for Blackberry, some people used to snap pictures of people's name tags at various events for future reference. Now you can put those in a folder in Evernote and tag, comment and archive them.

But Does it Work?

Taking text notes in Evernote for BlackBerry is straightforward and easy as are snapshot and audio notes. Trying to recognize words in some written notes can be a little sketchy, but Evernote does a pretty decent job of finding key words through a simple search. Overall the interface is a little clunky, and there seems to be no (obvious) way to add content to existing notes using the BlackBerry. Those are the only major complaints we have with it, although not being able to add to existing notes on the fly is a real bummer.

What makes this app especially useful is the ability to sync everything at once. That alone makes it an app we will continue to use. When you add BlackBerry's tagging capabilities with GPS, it becomes very powerful note taking tool indeed. Imagine being able to geotag a note and how that could be useful later. Add some snapshots, maybe a short video or audio clip and you have the makings of a very serviceable blog post or report.

Evernote for BlackBerry is certainly worth a try, check it out for yourself. It is available on the Evernote site or from BlackBerry App World. Of course there are several note taking apps for the BlackBerry, but so far this is the best one we have found, especially among the other free apps.

As it's nearing Finals Week for many schools, and the necessity of the good notes and storage seems paramount. And Evernote is announcing a new integration today with StudyBlue that is targeted at the educational market and that showcases the ways in which Evernote's popular storage and note-taking capabilities can be utilized for educational purposes

Now, with the Evernote integration, you can import your Evernote notes into your StudyBlue account and more easily make and share flashcards from the materials you've stored in Evernote. In order to connect the two accounts, you'll need to have your classes set up in StudyBlue and then sync the accounts via the StudyBlue profile page.

You can then drag all your class notes into the StudyBlue folder that's created in Evernote. From there your materials will appear in StudyBlue and you'll have the option to review the material or convert items - when appropriate - to flashcards. (That act of retyping notes as flashcards is a good exercise in itself).

You can share these notes with others, a good reason to convince both teachers and classmates to join the site.

In addition to the Web interface, StudyBlue has free iPhone and Android apps. The Evernote integration works whether or not you're a premium Evernote subscriber.

Other enhancements in the 2.0 version of the Evernote iPhone client are:

The big improvement in our book is the landscape mode. iPhone applications from the start have had a rocky relationship with the on-screen keyboard, many apps chose to emulate the built-in iPhone functionality and offer a keyboard only in portrait mode, sacrificing typing comfort for screen real-estate. But more often now (and especially with the upcoming iPhone 3.0 OS update) apps are offering the superior landscape mode and making due with the minuscule amount of screen that is available above the keyboard. That means that note-taking in Evernote on the iPhone just got a lot more finger-friendly.

If you haven't used Evernote before, it's one of those apps that you might need convincing to start using, and then wonder how you ever lived without it. I like to think of it as a personal Moleskine notebook that can expand to allow scrap-booking anything you might find online, from a scanned photo, to text clippings, bookmarks or entire web pages, even audio notes to yourself. The strength Evernote brings to the 'digital scrapbook' concept is universal access - you can literally add to or access your account online, via a desktop app (which works great with scanner software by the way), a browser bookmarklet or toolbar, the aforementioned iPhone app and other mobile phones, and even email. We have previous coverage on it as well.

The Evernote service starts out free and you can purchase additional online storage and a digitally encrypted connection to your account for $5/month or $45/year. The iPhone app is also free, so what are you waiting for, download it and give it a try!

Libin stressed that Evernote does not want to be in the business software market. Instead, he wants Evernote to focus on its current straightforward business model ("I don't like clever business models," he told us today).

The State of Evernote

Libin also gave us a quick update on the state of Evernote. The company currently has around 150,000 paying users and expects to reach the 6 million user mark by the end of the year. About 18,000 new users sign up for the service every day, coming from both the mobile apps and the web and desktop services. The majority of its users are currently in the U.S. (57%), but Libin expects that this number will drop as Evernote acquires more users in Asia (especially Japan where NTT DoCoMo now preloads its Android phones with free access to the premium version of Evernote). Libin also expects to see a lot of growth in Latin America next year.

Talking about Evernote's freemium model, Libin told us that users don't convert well from the free to the premium accounts in their first few months on the service. Users really only convert after about 6 months of membership and today, 20% of Evernote's oldest users (more than 2 years of membership) are premium users.