Google unveils offline Gmail

Google has released a new version of Gmail that operates without an Internet connection, and it plans to offer similar offline versions of Google Docs and Google Calendar over the coming week, reveals The Register.

However, these tools will only work in tandem with Google's own Chrome browser.

The company had promised offline versions of its Google Apps soon, saying they would complement Chrome OS, the Google OS that puts all applications inside the browser. But this is the first indication that these apps would only work with Chrome.

The Financial Times has withdrawn its app for iPhones and iPads after a dispute with Apple over ownership of customer data, reports Reuters.

Apple insisted sales must take place via its App Store, giving it ownership of the data and a 30% cut of revenues.

However the newspaper, owned by media group Pearson, will continue to be accessible by Apple devices via a browser-based Web app. The decision to pull its apps followed months of negotiations.

In a bizarre repeat of a high-profile incident last year, an Apple employee once again appears to have lost an unreleased iPhone in a bar, according to Cnet.

The errant iPhone, which went missing in San Francisco's Mission district in late July, sparked a scramble by Apple security to recover the device over the next few days, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

Last year, an iPhone 4 prototype was bought by a gadget blog that paid $5 000 in cash. This year's lost phone seems to have taken a more mundane path: it was taken from a Mexican restaurant and bar, and may have been sold on Craigslist for $200.

Almost half of UK Internet users are going online via mobile phone data connections, according to the Office for National Statistics, reveals the BBC.

Some 45% of people surveyed said they made use of the Internet while out and about, compared with 31% in 2010.

The most rapid growth was among younger people, where 71% of Internet-connected 16- to 24-year-olds used mobiles.