Google’s VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, demoed a ‘technical concept’ at MWC that would allow devices with Webkit browsers to use Gmail offline. Such devices include the iPhone, Magic aka G2 and Palm’s upcoming Pre.
The app is dependant on HTML5’s AppCache and Database standards, so developers need only code one application for multiple platforms with a GUI that’s identical for all. I’m not familiar with HTML5, but I guess the application will store not only the user data but also the software. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
No word on when or if Google will release the application. Hit the jump for the video demo.
via iPhone Buzz
For all the G is evil, and antitrust cries, one this is clear.
They are miles ahead of what commoners think or do. Or even conceptualise.
Let’s see when this gets announced!
The Web is clearly establishing itself as *the* mobile platform – Flash and native SDKs are a bit late to the game.
Sure, there will be great apps written natively. Can they scale into global businesses? Probably not – only as part of something that lives in the browser.
This is good news for ordinary users like me. However, I hope that other companies come out with similar application too.
This is certainly going to set the bar higher for other companies, translating into good news for us!
http://tr.im/gk8j
Does HTML5 let you hook IPC messages like BroadcastReceiver() too?
If not how can you launch phone calls from your web app?
How can you exploit any of this API?
Why stop at HTML5 ???
Why not have a web browser that asks the user for permission to do these things?
http://lampwww.epfl.ch/~linuxsoft/android/android-0.9_beta/docs/reference/android/Manifest.permission.html
And let the user create REALLY cool web apps with markup?
Why conform to standards that are already outdated?
Did Microsoft care about standards when they made Visual C++6 or Visual Basic ???
Of course not, and that let them do things that made their platform the defacto standard.
Screw the standards and open everything to the web or it’s just crap. 3 things? Geo + cache + state ???
pfffftttt…..
You still need 3 things to make a real cell app. Eclipse with the Android SDK, a mac or OSX86 with Xcode and the iPhone SDK and Zend MVC for the backend.
These 3 little things from HTML5 are too little.
It’s Google gears for phones + geo, which pales in comparison to the true APIs for both Android and the iPhone.
HTML5 does have some nice vector drawing directives though, and the presentation doesn’t show that off at all.
Yes, this is the real web 3.0, app acces from everywhere
Why do I need that on a Android phone like the G2, I do have already a full-fledged Gmail offline client?
What’s tha advantage?
Cheers
Oliver
Lt me correct you as a current Android developer and webkit webview hacker..
HTML5 stores data not the app..
that was simply awesome
I wrote a tutorial about the technologies behind the GMail offline demo. You can find it here: http://blog.msc-mobile.com/2009/03/03/1236073555483.html
This is good news for ordinary users like me. However, I hope that other companies come out with similar application too.