CoreData is Apple’s answer to EOF. A standardised way of saving local data which should be addressable in several ways, not least through a sqlite interface.
Google Gears is a method of storing “web data” in an offline mode. For example, making it so that GMail could be available when not “connected”. It’s got similarities but it’s very different.
Wouldn’t that be neat? I’d see that as really being useful to a device like iPhone. When your “low cost” WiFi connectivity might be unavailable, you have an offline cache which saves you having to use your per-MB 3G connection.
A product we’ve got on the drawing board is a a trouble-ticket system. Initially we’ve designed it to support an Apple Authorised Service Provider so it handles booking in machines for repair and goes through the whole process for them. Next, we’re going to be integrating it with Apple’s online systems for checking warranty status and ideally, part availability. After that – a remote rich client so that engineers can work on repair documentation while not in the office (rich clients are so much nicer than web interfaces). After that, an offline mode so that the engineer can create and update repairs on the system and have them synchronise with the server when a link comes up again. There’s more to this, enough to keep us busy.
Google Gears looks very interesting in this light. Even moreso when you realise that it also uses sqlite…