14 DAY TRIAL // Google’s VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, was present at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and even came into the spotlight to demonstrate a new ‘technical concept’ meant to allow devices that feature a Webkit browser to use Gmail while offline. Devices that would be able to support the technology include the iPhone, HTC Magic (aka G2), as well as Palm’s upcoming Pre handset.
The demonstration made at the mobile show was conducted on the iPhone, yet the S60 browser as well as other similar apps are expected to be able to support this system. For the time being, Google still has the concept in its labs but it should prove an interesting feature if released to Nokia's Ovi Mail.
It seems that the new app is based on HTML5’s AppCache and Database standards, which means that developers will be able to only code one application that would run on multiple platforms while also sporting the same graphical user interface on all operating systems.
An interesting feature of the new app is that it will bind user data to the mail browser, and not to the mail applications that are developed for S60, WebOS or Android handsets. At the same time, it seems that there will not be offline access using POP3 or IMAP included in these applications.
The Google Gears browser extensions have already enabled the features for desktop users, and they can experience off-line Gmail access, which means that the new feature for mobile devices was expected to come next. As many of you might already know, Opera also announced that Google Gears will be integrated into its mobile browser, allowing users to work offline and then sync with the servers.
For the time being, Google hasn't announced a release date for its application. The video demo below will give you a glimpse of how this works.