Wow.  Just WOW!  This is really the end of an era.  One of the first apps I ever used on a Windows Mobile device was AvantGo.  That was way back on my HP Jornada. 

Back then, in the dark days before Internet data plans and mobile RSS readers became customary, there was a real question of how do you get your news onto your device so you could enjoy it on the go.  AvantGo provided that solution,.

The way it worked was simple, but powerful.  Just subscribe to any channels you wanted, and when you connected your device, AvantGo would sync your channels to your mobile device.  This allowed you to view all of your favorite content offline from your mobile device.

While this worked great in the early days of the Pocket PC, it began to fade away as more devices became connected to the Internet via Wi-fi or data plans.  I will even admit that I have not used this fantastic service in several years.  Still, it was with some sadness that I noted the following announcement:

After June 30, 2009, AvantGo will no longer be providing mobile Web content for sync or online access, and you will not be able to access or update your AvantGo content or account.

Even though I have not used AvantGo in a long time, having long since replaced it with an RSS feed reader, it still upset me to read the above announcement. To me, it remained like a favorite toy which had been outgrown.  Every time I found it at the bottom of the toy box, I could play with it and enjoy some pure nostalgia as I relived earlier times,   Well, those days are gone.  As the above quote indicates, when I opened the toybox today, I found my old AvantGo toy sitting at the bottom, broken into pieces.  Truly a sad day for mobile users. 

[via MobilitySite]