web apps

Google announced recently that the Google home page will now be location-aware when accessed on an iPhone. Now, whenever you go to Google.com on your iPhone, Google will tap in to the device's GPS capabilities to determine your location and give you location-relevent results. The ability to search with My Location has also been added to the Google Mobile App [$0.00 | App Store].

Glyphboard, a small web app that's seemingly more than a web app, just might change the way web apps are looked at. Previously web apps could only be used while in Safari and connected to the Internet, but this application is much different. That's because Glyphboard can install itself as a webclip on your iPhone or iPod touch and launch just like a native application.

While web app development for the iPhone has been mortally wounded by the launch of the App Store, it still has a home at Apple. It was discovered recently that they have a web app for Apple employees to view what's on the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day at the main fuel source of Apple employees, Caffè Macs. Not surprisingly, the app was removed from the URL it was located at shortly after it was leaked to the public.

Yahoo! has announced that they are dropping development of their Blackberry app to focus on native iPhone app development and web applications for other handsets. The move is an attempt to restructure in a way they think will be more effective.

Today Google rolled out a major update for both Gmail and Calendar for iPhone. The most obvious improvements lie in the new Gmail and Calendar interface. Labels are much more visible, search is easier to get to, and a new floating menu appears when performing batch tasks. All of the improvements stem from the updated engine which is significantly faster and more powerful. In addition to interface tweaks, the new engine also improves the speed of Gmail mobile and even allows you to compose a message even when cell service drops out.

Check out the video walkthrough below!

Google has refreshed Google Spreadsheets with the ability to edit documents from mobile devices, including the iPhone and iPod touch. With the List View in Google Spreadsheets, users can now view, edit, sort and filter data, and enter new data into spreadsheets. You can try it out by going to m.google.com/docs on your iPhone or iPod Touch, or if you already use Google Apps, by going to docs.google.com/a/your-domain.
[via Google Docs Blog]

Roughly a year ago Google created an iPhone-optomized version of their iGoogle homepage for easier and more pleasant viewing on an iPhone. Unfortunately, for reasons they haven't disclosed, they have reverted it back to their standard web interfaces for mobile devices, going back to a stripped-down low-bandwidth version. We don't know why they did it, but we're sorry to see it go.

At Macworld 2009, Widget Press debuted their new application called ModelBaker. This Mac app allows anyone to create database-driven web applications with zero coding required. The app can be used to create anything from a blog to complex sites for holding tons of info for business applications. The cool part is that ModelBaker automagically creates iPhone versions of every site it spits out.

A new tool has been released for your iPhone and iPod Touch that use bookmarklets to add the same kind of functionality you can get with a desktop browser. Safari+ bookmarklets use specialized JavaScript (much like Pastebud, Instapaper and iPastelet) bookmarklets that let you do things like open a link in a new window, translate between languages, speed-scrolling, and more.

Walmart has launched a new version of their website that has been formatted to fit the iPhone's screen. Now when you visit Walmart.com on your iPhone or iPod touch, you'll be redirected to an iPhone-specific version that will let you browse products by catigory, view specials, and get a list of approved $4 prescriptions.