Zimbra going offline
I haven’t been using online collaboration- & email-suite Zimbra until now, but todays announcement sure sounds interesting: Zimbra is about to receive a local cache-feature, which will allow users to access email even when being offline - auto-syncing included. however, the official blog-entry doesn’t go into detail on how this will be implemented. recently introduced online-PIM Scrybe seems to realize similar functionality by using a flash-based cache.
solving the offline-dilemma might be crucial for the success of web-based office-apps in the nearer future (”network anywhere, anytime” doesn’t seem very realistic, esp. considering airplanes). what seems to miss is a general, standards-based approach on solving this issue (mabye browser-integrated?). while this spawns lots of different, incompatible on/offline-synching mechanisms, it’s at least a way for upcoming products to differnetiate themselves. 
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