Tasks on a plane

One of the highlights of Google Developer Day in Sydney last week was the announcement of Google Gears, a browser plugin that enables offline web applications. We were excited to see one of our favourite applications, Google Reader, become the first to use Google Gears to provide offline access.

So, we started to do some thinking. Thinking turned to coding (as it often does), and after a caffeine-fuelled weekend, I’m happy to announce that you can now use Remember The Milk to manage your tasks offline.

What exactly does “manage your tasks offline” mean, you ask? Just about everything that’s possible online with RTM now works offline too – not only can you access your lists, but you can add new tasks and notes, edit existing tasks (complete, postpone, prioritise, tag, and change due dates to your heart’s content), use your own personal tasks search engine, create new Smart Lists, and more.

Anything that you do offline will be synchronized when you come back online. You can move seamlessly between online and offline modes – RTM will automagically detect when you don’t have an Internet connection, and will have your tasks ready for you. If you’re expecting to go offline (for instance, those fun-filled 14 hours flying from Sydney to San Francisco), you can also manually switch into offline mode. Then, when you’re bored of the repeating in-flight movies, you can pull out RTM and methodically tag and locate all of your tasks.

To get started, just click the “Offline” link in the top right of Remember The Milk. Please keep in mind that the current version of Google Gears is a developer release, so there could be a little bit of occasional quirkiness. We’ll be continuing to improve our offline support, and we’d love your feedback.