Monday, January 14, 2008

Google For iPhone Update

A former spreadsheets addict, Jon Bradford discovered the net in 2000 when he joined a start-up as finance director. Today he works in an accounting practice in Newcastle, UK.

In an interesting article on CNET, Vic Gundotra – a vice president of engineering at Google, responsible for developer evangelism and open source programs – revealed that a new user interface for Google services on the iPhone would be announced at MacWorld only 6 weeks after the previous revision. (Do these people ever have holidays?)

Changes have now been made to search, Gmail, Reader, Calendar, Picasa and the newly released iGoogle for iPhone, to make them quicker and more customizable.

There have been a few changes to add “ajax-like” functionality to enhance user experience, including “near real-time” email updates (no need to hit refresh) and auto-complete functionality for email addresses. Google Calendar will also now offer a new month-at-a-glance view, currently unavailable on the desktop version, and the tabs at the top of the screen can also be customized.

Could Google Apps be next, providing Blackberry-like functionality to iPhone users on their own domains?

In addition to the official announcement made today, Gundotra also noted, “This app will work great on Android,” possibly adding further weight to last month’s earlier article, which suggested Google was using the iPhone to test its Android mobile applications prior to its launch later in the year.

Possibly the most significant announcement Gundotra didn’t make was in the comment, “One thing that bothers me is that (mobile) apps don’t work offline.” Google is clearly working hard to bring Google Gears to a mobile platform – could it be for iPhone or Android (or both)?

Google For iPhone Update by Jon Bradford | Comments (18)

>> More posts

Advertisement