FIXZR

The processor in you mobile device is getting faster …  making you want to use it for more …  making your mobile network feel slower than ever. At the same time your unlimited data package has just been withdrawn by AT&T / O2 and everyone else probably. Either for technical reasons, or commercial ones, you may now be in the market for a cached ‘browsing’ experience. The cache could be external to your applications, operating near the network layer, or (at the other extreme) it could be a whole new application acting as an offline-portal. Caching runs somewhat contrary to the ‘realtime’ web phenomenon but you can always augment the cache with a trickle, picking up the best of both worlds.

With feed aggregators moving on from Newsgroup style minimal lists to flashy magazine style UIs (see flipboard.com) you can see how a compelling offline browsing experience could be constructed from existing APIs/RSS feeds (even in this world of ever more dynamic websites). With networks unlikely to expand bandwidth at a pace capable of stemming the rise of such services (indeed they should encourage them) the future’s bright for the time being for those able to jump on the wave.