At Mobile World Congress Google demoed their latest software for various mobile phones. Two of the most interesting developments were webapps designed for iPhone and upcoming Palm Pre. Both apps not only demonstrated power of latest web technologies, but also the easy of development HTML5 brings with it.
Google showed a Gmail webapp for iPhone that brings offline functionality allowing users to work with email in airplane mode or when they are out of wireless coverage area. The webapp uses HTML5’s App Cache and Database features to keep a backup of Gmail account on the mobile devices giving offline capabilities. The messages can be labeled or deleted while you are offline and they will automatically sync with server when you again have wireless connection.
The second webapp that Google showed was Maps for Palm Pre. The Maps was coded completely using HTML5 and it also uses Database and App Cache features along with GeoLocation feature found in HTML5. According to Google, the webapp retains the same functionality found on desktop counterpart.
As both these apps are coded using HTML5 they can be easily brought to other devices that support HTML5 web standard. In the demo Google showed the Gmail webapp running on the upcoming HTC Magic handset with same functionality and look. Google didn’t say when the Gmail webapp would be released for iPhone.