Andrew MIller at YourSearchAdvisor attended a Google Apps presentation in Ann Arbor, MI:
Will users be able to edit docs, spreadsheets and presentation offline?
Scott’s answer was yes, and that the Google Gears plugin would handle the offline work. In addition, Google Gears support is in the works for Gmail and Google Calendar.
Well if they’re talking about it in public, chances are it’s closer to release than we suspected.