If there is a company with undying love for the iPhone (while being a direct competitor), it’s Google. They announce a brand new web app for Gmail, but demo it entirely on the iPhone.
The new Gmail web app is simply fantastic. The app uses (I assume) the new HTML 5 standard in the Safari app to allow access to email without an internet connection. You can view email, delete, as well as compose new messages (with addressbook autocompletion) without your Wifi or 3G connection. You can only go so deep with the emails, as it cannot cache everything. Search, for instance, does not work. The best part of all this, is that there’s no configuration whatsoever! Just visit Gmail once, and if in your next visit you don’t have an active internet connection, just tap right ahead!
The web app itself has also incorporated some UI changes. The search is now much more accessible. They’ve also got a new ‘floaty bar’ which allows quick access to certain actions. It’s a really well done web app.
Check out the video from Google explaining some of these new features.
