The first thing that you’ll notice about the new look is the homescreen’s new look. The homescreen now puts the most frequently used functions in one place for one-touch access. I primarily use Evernote for bookmarking and tagging websites. For me, having the tags available in one touch on the homescreen is a time-saver. Having the primary functions of Evernote available in one touch is also great for those of us that are prone to “brain freezes” when we want to add something to our Evernote accounts.

Click here to read the complete run-down of the new Evernote for Android features. Or watch the video overview below.

To use IDEAL WebMath students select the type of problem they need help solving. After selecting the type of problem, students enter the numbers that they are working with then press the solve button. Students will get the answer to the problem, but they also get an explanation of how to solve the problem.

CluePoint’s version of The Ant and the Grasshopper allows children to read along with a narrator or read the story on their own. Between each section of the story there is a 3D pop-up activity in which students have to help the ant and the grasshopper gather objects by dragging and dropping them into place. My only complaint is the background music that I found annoying. Fortunately, the background music can be turned off.

Movie Studio is a default app installed on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and other devices using Honeycomb (Android 3.0+).  (As a point of clarification I have the original model not the newly released version 2). The app allows you to mix together image, video, and sound files to create a short movie on your tablet. There are some basic transitions that you can place between elements. You can also insert some text. As you might guess, the entire  creation process takes place on a timeline in a drag and drop style. Your finished movie can be saved on  your tablet (warning, that will eat up storage quickly), emailed, or uploaded directly to YouTube.

I searched all over Google Play and the Samsung App store, but unfortunately could not find a way to install Movie Studio on other devices. But if you have a tablet running Honeycomb, make sure you don’t overlook Movie Studio. Movie Studio could be a great app for students to create movies on the go.

Important Update: Minutes after I posted this Tammy Lind Tweeted to me that Movie Studio is a part of Android 4.0.

Mobile Drummer is a free Android app for playing the drums to recorded rhythms. You can play along with the default tracks that Mobile Drummer provides or you can play along with music that you have stored on your Android device. Mobile Drummer has a recording option that you can use to hear yourself after you’ve played the drums. Each drum’s and cymbal’s sounds can be adjusted by the user.

Drums HD is a free Android app that offers five virtual drumsets to play. Drums HD has animations that show when each drum is hit. The animations can be turned off for tablets and phones that don’t have enough processing power to handle the animations and sounds at the same time.

Drum Set is free Android app that offers three drumset layouts. Drum Set’s layout options are jazz, big concert, and basic. There are seventeen drums and cymbals that can be played the sets. The video below shows Drum Set in action.

Piano Lesson Tutor is a free app offering video lessons for students. The lessons are designed for beginner to intermediate level piano students. The videos are hosted on YouTube so you could just find them there. Piano Lesson Tutor organizes the videos into lessons for you.

Piano Pro is a free app that puts a virtual piano keyboard on your tablet or phone. The keys are labeled to help beginners. Piano Pro has a series of play-along songs to help you learn to play the piano. The play-along activities are completed by playing the keys above which notes are appearing.

xPiano is a free app that also puts a virtual piano keyboard on your tablet. The keys are not labeled so you do have to know which notes are associated with which keys. xPiano has twelve different instrument sounds with which you can experiment. The app also has a recording option that you can use to save your music and export it to other projects.

PicSay could be used by students to create short stories by adding speech bubbles and text to some of their favorite pictures. Your students could take pictures of their pets, like I did, and create conversations between them.

In addition to the expected features of showing your current latitude and longitude coordinates, GPS Essentials offers a bunch of other useful features. Using GPS Essentials you can measure your current altitude, measure distances, and record your tracks. You can export your tracks and waypoints as KML files to use in Google Earth and Google Maps. You can also import KML and GPX files to use in GPS Essentials to navigate to various locations.

Combine the use of QR-GPS Plugin with GPS Essentials to create and carry-out scavenger hunts. Use the combination to record and plan walking tours for your next field trip. Or use GPS Essentials to teach students basic lessons on navigation (if you’re taking students on actual hikes, long bike rides, or paddling trips, don’t use GPS Essentials as a replacement for a real GPS unit and maps).

QR-GPS Plugin works with the free QR Droid app to allow you to quickly create QR codes for the GPS coordinates for wherever you are standing. You ca also manually input coordinates or manually input a location by entering an address. Whichever way you choose to input locations, the QR code that is generated for you can be share via text message, email, Twitter, or Facebook. You can also save the code to your SD card and print it. (Of course, if you emailed the QR code to yourself you could print it from there too).

When you scan the QR code generated by QR-GPS Plugin you can open it within a number of different Android apps including Google Earth, Google Maps,  and GPS Essentials. The QR Droid blog has detailed directions on how to use the QR-GPS Plugin.

For academic activities using the QR codes generated from QR-GPS Plugin, I have a few thoughts (with a little help from a friend).  First, since the codes easily open in Google Earth and Google Maps you could create geography puzzles in which students use clues to guess the location to which you’re leading them. Then to check their answers students scan the QR codes and open them in Google Earth or Google Maps on their tablets or phones. Second, create a scavenger hunt in which students go from location to location scanning QR codes to get directions to the next stop in the hunt. Finally, the QR codes could be scanned and saved in Google Maps or GPS essentials for students to use as part of a walking tour.

The second handy update is the option to use your bookmarks as shortcuts on your device’s homescreen. Rather than launching your browser then opening your bookmarks, just click on the shortcut to launch directly into your favorite websites.