Google Gears just cut the web cord on my UMPC
Google just made mobile computers quite a bit more useful when offline with their new Google Gears beta. The official Google description is:
- A local server, to cache and serve application resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, etc.) without needing to contact a server
- A database, to store and access data from within the browser
- A worker thread pool, to make web applications more responsive by performing expensive operations in the background
Programming mumbo-jumbo aside, here's what I was able to do after installing the small browser extension: download up to 2,000 of my Google Reader feed items for offline reading, starring and sharing on my UMPC. This type of offline solution could greatly reduce the dependency for always-on connectivity. Once I had my connection back, l simply told Google I wanted to go into online mode and my feed actions were synched. This extension can really change the game for web-based apps and data: it's a potential paradigm shifter.
(via GigaOm)
I was reading the Foleo info earlier, then just jumped on and caught the new Google Gears posts as well and it made me start to think of the possible Google take on this type of device. If there is an eventual Google phone that is connect to many or all of your Google services, why not translate that into this into this Foleo form factor and also add the offline support through Gears. Just my random connections for what they are worth.
Posted by: Matt | May 30, 2007 at 11:23 PM
This looks like they've learned from PPC folks with AvantGo and married it with RSS feeds for offline Web browsing.
Nice catch kct.
Posted by: fil | May 31, 2007 at 12:26 AM
Give us a Sideshow reader device and Google Gears functionality and we have a Shift!
Posted by: Elo | May 31, 2007 at 12:46 AM
This is excelent. Yes, Avantgo for the x86 devices!
I'm rearely without internet connectivity these days (even a 64kbps GPRS connection is enough to do bloglines mobile) but this could be nice for train journeys and flights and times when my cellular data allowance has run out!
Steve
Posted by: Steve Paine | May 31, 2007 at 02:26 AM
It'll be nice if they integrated cached google calander and e-mail access for viewing/use on the go and sync later.
Posted by: Addic | May 31, 2007 at 03:16 AM
This is just plain awesome. Now I can actually walk around out from a wireless network and read all the feeds I want!
Posted by: MASTER | June 01, 2007 at 06:26 AM
Woops, I don't think it does that ^___^. Well it has to be great anyway.
Posted by: MASTER | June 02, 2007 at 12:28 AM