Gmail Offline With Google Gears

Until today, one of the biggest drawbacks of Gmail is that you could not go through your emails when you were offline. Today, that changes. Gmail is finally going offline. Google is rolling out a Google Gears version of Gmail that will be available to users starting today in Gmail Labs. (If you don’t see it, keep checking, the rollout to all users should be complete by the end of the week).

After installing the Google Gears plug-in to your browser, Gmail detects when you are offline. It caches your e-mail so that you can read it, respond to it, search it, star it, or label it. When you are connected to the Internet again, it sends all the messages. You can even open attachments. This is exactly the way Gmail already works on mobile phones such as the Android and those that support Gears. In fact, according to Gmail product manager Todd Jackson, who briefed me earlier today:

The underlying sync engine is exactly the same for Android and offline Gmail.

Some features, however, won’t work. Anything that requires an Internet connection, such as spellcheck, won’t work offline. And while you can open attachments, you won’t be able to add attachments at launch (that feature will be added soon, however).

HTC SmartPhone Include Photo Geotagging

HTC on Friday unveiled the Touch Cruise, a handset featuring built-in GPS and accompanying software. The new smartphone, an update to a similarly named HTC device released in January 2008, offers consumers a more compact form factor as well as new features.

The handset is the first to include a new photograph-tagging application from HTC, called "Footprints." The program enables owners who take pictures using the device's 3.2-megapixel camera to then add notes and audio clips while automatically identifying the photo's specific geographical location. In addition to identifying each snapshot with its specific GPS coordinates, Footprint also auto-names each picture with its general location or area.

Once it's time for show-and-tell, users can relive their travels photo-by-photo with the geo-tracking program, whether the pictures were taken indoors or outside, said HTC. The Touch Cruise also doubles as an in-car navigation system when docked in the accompanying car cradle. Users will receive turn-by-turn directions displayed on the handset's 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen. With HTC's TouchFLO technology, that means users can access their phone, contacts, e-mail, messaging, calendar and GPS apps with a simple touch.

Microsoft snubs_torrents

Torrentfreak has lambasted Microsoft for not using torrents for the launch of the Windows 7 Beta. Microsoft faced serious bandwidth constraints and had to delay the launch of the Beta by a day. Although the criticism is impassioned coming from a blog about torrents, it is both sensible and plausible.
An official Torrent would have not only taken a lot of burden off Microsoft’s own servers, but it would have also offered great speeds as torrents speeds improve with traffic (the ratio between seeders and leechers is equally important, though). It is the same mistake that Microsoft made during the launch of the Vista Beta. (Image Credit: Geekzilla)