Google have updated their mobile Google Mail interface to use cutting-edge HTML5 and CSS3 features available to WebKit-based browsers and the upcoming Firefox 3.5.
The new interface provides new functionality such as offline access – you can load Gmail in your browser even if you go offline, then reply to e-mails, etc, and it’ll all be synced back to the ‘cloud’ when you’re next online. The new Gmail also uses the <canvas> HTML element (a region of a web page defined in HTML code, which can then be drawn on with JavaScript) to draw various graphic – thus preventing the need to download images – as well as CSS animations and transformations to make the interface more dynamic. Clever stuff.
It’s amazing that this kind of stuff is leading the way is on mobile devices, where the most popular browsers (Safari on the iPhone, and the Android browser on Android-based phones) are generally more capable and advanced than the current versions of the most popular desktop browsers.
For more information, see:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-mobile-gmail-experience-for-iphone.html
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2009/04/html5-and-webkit-pave-way-for-mobile.html
- James