There are two big problems with online applications. One is a limited UI - you do not have the rich controls and interoperability that you do with desktop applications. The other is connectivity - you need an internet connection, and given there's no connectivity on the Tube or most flights this can make many applications useless during such periods of time. Google have today gone someway towards solving the latter with Gears.

Gears offers two things that previously you'd have been looking at something like Apollo or Silverlight to provide - threading (rather than a single JS thread) and offline data storage. Hence appropriately enabled application, like the new version of Google Reader, can be toggled into an offline mode and used in the absence of connectivity. Also, Gears is really cross-platform and cross-browser, with IE, Firefox, Safari and Opera support promised, and it works very nicely on my Linux box at work (unlike Silverlight).

It also fires a salvo in the direction of Microsoft, clearly stating Google's desire to provide an application platform that threatens their core business. Further, once Google Docs is enabled it suddenly becomes rather a greater threat. Interesting times.

Now if they'd only release a synchronisation API for Reader I'd be chuffed silly. While Reader is a superb, quite possibly the best, web feed reader, it doesn't yet match up to NetNewsWire. Unfortunately that leaves me stuck using NewsGator as a synchronisation server, which has a rubbish web interface and no client whatsoever for Linux.

Just to prove that I can accomplish more work on the Tube than the tits at Metronet, I've finally update my Tube on Google Maps application.

We now have the complete Misery/Northern Line, mostly smoothed (apart from the Charing Cross branch), the dusty dusty Drain aka Waterloo & City Line, the rather jagged (for the moment) Circle Line and the central part of the District Line.

There have also been code improvements: it now uses the Google Maps API V2, interchange stations are differentiated from stopping stations, lines on the same path do not completely overlap (in progress, still a bit dodgy around Paddington) and it works again (an API change had broken a dodgy bit of code, whoops).

Still a little way away from being useful, but getting there. Slowly.

Yes, Flickr now has geo-tagging (i.e. the ability to specify where your photos were taken by way of a map). The problem is that this worldwide in the same way the World Series is - yes, US only. It's using Yahoo Maps, and unfortunately out of the way places like Paris and London are represented by a couple of squiggly lines and some low resolution satellite imagery. Hence geo-tagging the back streets of London becomes an exercise in frustration.

This is in marked contrast to the excellent maps of both via Google Maps. Yahoo please take note: this is a fine example of integrating with the worst service just for corporate warm-and-fuzzies. Mind, given Google still haven't managed a mobile version for the UK and Apple still think 'English' is equal to 'American' it's hardly a bias particular to Yahoo.

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I have my digital life split in two. At home I have my PowerBook. It's all set up as I like it and has the master copies of all my code, e-mail, calendar, RSS feeds and so-on. I've also got my dinosaur at work - a old P4-2200 with WinXP - with which I try to remain on top of things while at work. I've also got my PocketPC smartphone (although the 'smart' part is highly debatable). And as such I prefer not to duplicate work between the lot. However, this is harder than it should be.

I'll start by ignoring the PPC phone: until synchronisation is available for the Mac it sort of exists outside the loop.

E-Mail - I keep my personal e-mail in GMail. This is, however, winding me up somewhat at present. Firstly (and this is a general criticism) I have to file everything twice. I have to set up filters twice. POP lets me replicate, but for the fact it's dodgy as hell - sometimes messages are missed for no apparent reason. Google say they're working on it. And so I really need to find myself a decent IMAP service. This is on hold at present as a) it's hard to find someone trustworthy and b) I don't want to have to go though all my e-mail again.

Yahoo Mail has improved with the new interface but it won't let me import from GMail. And there's no IMAP support (which I'd gladly pay for). So that's out. As for Hotmail/Windows Live Mail - the new interface only supports IE6, which rules it out for Mac users immediately. Silly MS...

Calendar - this should be easy once I have PPC sync. iCal/Entourage can sync with the PPC, which can then sync with my Windows box. Easy. But for the fact that Lotus Notes is, well, plain sucky and keeps duplicating things. Whoever thought Notes was even half decent can and should be shot.

Tasks - much the same as calendar. One day anyway.

Address Book - as above. I maintain iSync is one of the best things about the Mac.

RSS - I did use NewsFire. I've now jumped to NetNewsWire, purely for the NewsGator sync. The online web reader is pretty rubbish though and I haven't found a free offline reader for Windows yet (well I have, but RSSBandit doesn't synchronise read states which is the important bit really), but it does make life easier.

I'm afraid there is a theme here - synchronisation is just too hard. It's approached as an afterthought, instead of as a necessity. Online e-mail is great, until you lack internet access. Likewise, the online calendars are nice toys, but how do I make sure my appointments are up to date on my PPC and my laptop while I'm disconnected? And why do I need to maintain seperate address books on GMail and my Mac?

Alarm bells should be ringing for anyone developing in this area - why is it harder to maintain contact details in the digital world than in the good old days with a note book? How times have changed...

Microsoft have finally released an update for Entourage to provide iSync and Spotlight support. It's been a while but at last the only reasons I haven't tried Entourage have been solved. And so I've switched from Apple's mediocre Mail to Entourage.

The good - there's a wide-screen layout, it's a full group-ware client, its icons aren't as appalling as those of Tiger Mail.

The bad - I have managed to get it locked up with two modal dialogues...

The main problem is GMail. For some reason the GMail POP access (flakey at the best of times) has decided to not make all my new e-mail accessible. Most of it is, but two messages to date haven't been. As you can imagine, this is somewhat vexing. And so I'm going the long route to start with - GMail has been reset and all my archived e-mail is downloading freshly into Entourage. Fingers crossed.

The other option is to find a new e-mail provider. I'm not ready to jump to a web client as my main e-mail application - I prefer having spotlight integration of e-mail, offline access and the extra speed of the desktop client. Once Yahoo release their new interface it may worth a look, and with Hotmail (whoops, Windows Live Mail - who comes up with these names?) also revamping the field could well be worth some fresh integration. Or I could even bite the bullet and pay someone for a decent IMAP account...

Yes, if you want the shiny new features like Chat and Clips in GMail you'll have to change your language to en_US. And before you can link three times you have new features galore.

Ah the joys of living beyond the borders of the 'Land of the Free'. But at least our tea is better.