Thursday, September 20, 2007

Offline J2ME Google Reader / Gears

Since I do not have much time to implement all crazy ideas by myself, at least I can dedicate some time to describe them for future elaboration in case somebody decides to do something similar and stumble upon a search engine to find out what is already done.

This time it is an idea about bringing Google Reader to J2ME mobile platform, so that feeds can be read and marked offline mode (marked as read or for check in online mode later), preferably downloaded through data cable to keep synchronized with Gears read/marked feeds on PC.

Why mobile and offline? Most of the time we spend time plugged in the Internet, but things are different when you on the move. Theoretically you may use mobile phone to access the Net, but practically it is not always true.

First of all, mobile Internet is quite expensive in many countries. I can say that in my country (located in Europe) 100Mb of mobile traffic may cost from 5% (with monthly fee on dedicated plan) to 105% (use on demand) of average salary for the same operator. 5% is too expensive for just 100Mb.

Second reason is that there are hours underground and airborne where mobile phones are either do not have internet connection or switched to offline plane mode. There are also cases when you run out of money and have nothing to do until nearest ATM. Time spend by mobile in offline is much greater than of working station. If there is a Google Gears for PC then there should be a Gears for mobile, at least a part of mobile Gears.

Well, "maybe" not a "should", but "would" be nice.
Just to keep track of the issue, here a link for original proposal.
http://groups.google.com/group/google-reader-feedback/browse_thread/thread/d9bf21e1b341d38c