RSSGmail rolls out its offline options
By Angela Gunn | Published January 27, 2009, 8:15 PM
If you use Google's Gmail service for your correspondence, check underneath the Labs tabs in the upper right corner. You may be one of the lucky ones in the first wave of those with access to the service's new option for reading and composing mail offline.
Using Gmail while offline has, of course, long been possible for anyone with an email reader compatible with POP and IMAP. But the option to do it via Gears-based functionality is new, and can handle work offline, work online (of course), and work over what the service calls "flaky" connections. (Gmail engineer Andy Palay assures readers of the Gmail Blog that live wire-chewing squirrels were used in the testing of the system.) Offline Gmail will include mailbox search and threaded conversations.
Not among the fortunate first wave? Take heart. Though cautioning that the system's still experimental, Google says the option will roll out fully over the next few days. For more information, the blog post above includes a video with lovely hand-drawn (why ask why?) images such as the one excerpted.
(weeping)
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|I will assume, madame, that the tears are for my graphics-acquisition skills. Trust me, I'm with you on that. Other acceptable answers include "there goes my excuse for not doing e-mail on planes" and "why doesn't Gmail love me enough to give me access immediately."
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|That's your artwork?
I can't judge... my own drawing skills rise merely to the level of drawing a dog's face and "Bill the Cat". :p
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|Hi PC_Tool -- oh no, not me. That's a screen capture from Google's video. You'll notice the black stripe up the side? That's not in the video; that's me messing *up* the capture. Sad lack of skills here. And wait 'til you see my photos; CES was only a glimpse of the horror...
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