Gmail set for offline access

Users of Google's Gmail webmail service will soon have another means of gaining offline access to their data, after the company revealed plans to add offline capabilities to several Google Apps services.

Both Gmail and Calendar will have Google Gears support within six weeks, according to the unofficial Google Operating System blog, enabling users to use both applications when they are not connected to the internet.

Changes to documents are then uploaded when the user reconnects.

The search giant's RSS software Google Reader and its office suite Google Docs are already integrated with Gears.

The company will soon add SyncML support to Gmail. SyncML is a data synchronisation technology supported by several mobile phone manufacturers. The blog says that Google's implementation is "related to the sync that they worked on with Apple for 3G iPhone".