[chaley]

FWIW: calibre companion is a native android app and it uses digest authentication and ajax. All we needed to do was set up the correct security environment in the http connection.

		// Set up authentication. Try digest before basic
		List<String> authpref = new ArrayList<String>();
		authpref.add(AuthPolicy.DIGEST);
		authpref.add(AuthPolicy.BASIC);
		httpClient.getParams().setParameter(AuthPNames.TARGET_AUTH_PREF, authpref);

Of course, if you do not have access to the underlying http connection then this scheme will not work.