
Show HN: Propeller - Create native mobile apps, just drag and drop - 10char
http://usepropeller.com/
======
10char
Hey HN, we're really excited to announce Propeller. It's the absolute best
tool for non-technical folks to build mobile apps for themselves or their
businesses.

All of the other "app builder" tools are limited to prototyping UI or generate
really subpar webview-based experiences. We're going to change that by letting
you build fast, native apps and will store the data you care about.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

~~~
rogerbinns
I wish the overreaching claims were more honest. In reality tools like this
are focussed on a particular subset of application types. For example you
couldn't make space invaders using this, and probably not dropbox either.

I far prefer claims saying explicitly what it is good at, rather than implying
it would good at any application type.

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tikhonj
This is probably the best landing landing page for any product I've seen in a
while, if not ever. I immediately had a good idea of what the product does,
how it works and how easy it is to use. All without having to read too much
text or watch a video.

~~~
Falling3
Agreed, but like bmelton it took me longer than usual to figure out it was
interactive. The little "try it" could definitely have been more obvious.

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samstave
You have only a couple elements to drag on your landing page (killer landing
page demo BTW) -- but how many more elements will you have? Transitions/new
pages/ maps? etc...

The check-list demo is really cool, but I would suggest adding another app
type.

What is the business model? I would love to see womething where I can create a
native app through your platform - but if I want to extend it with more
complex features and functions I can work with your team and get those quoted
and pay you to add thingsthat would require more coding.

This will allow many people to incrementally pay to get the app they are
trying to build.

Let me in!

~~~
10char
Yup, we have more elements in the full builder right now, but we kept the demo
limited for aesthetics. More data entry types, more types of media, other
goodies :) You won't be able to make anything under the sun, but what you can
make will look and feel top notch.

There's lots of monetization models we could use, and part of the reason we're
doing the current beta is to find out what makes sense for us. Doing specific
tweaks to individual apps is on the table, but it's not as appealing because
it's hard to scale and keep the quality high.

~~~
todd3834
You might want to consider making it clear that there is more than the demo
shows. The demo is great but I was under the impression that I was looking at
the full version and quickly discounted it thinking I need more tools than
that. I think just a line of copy explaining that would be helpful.

Awesome demo btw.

~~~
samstave
Yeah - I would keep the demo, maybe add another one - or show an app that was
built by the platform that has a unique look and feel.

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peterjmag
I love the short effective intro copy and animation. To nitpick a bit though,
the font-size animation on your h2 heading is a bit clunky in Chrome, since
Webkit rounds font-size values to the nearest integer. I would suggest
animating on -webkit-transform: scale(...) instead, starting with scale(1) and
animating down to scale(0.66ish). Then the animation will be nice and smooth,
and the text will still render nicely (since you're not going above scale(1)).

Also, a minor correction in your demo: "parking break" should be "parking
brake".

EDIT: I'm realizing that jQuery's animate() method doesn't work natively on
CSS3 transform properties[1][2], so this would probably require some
additional tweaking that may or may not be worth it. Anyway, something to
think about at least!

[1] [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5029035/how-do-we-add-
css...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5029035/how-do-we-add-css-
animation-in-jquery)

[2] [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5462275/animate-
element-t...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5462275/animate-element-
transform-rotate)

~~~
10char
Ah yeah, using CSS3 would be a lot smoother, We'll definitely tweak it. Thanks
for the info, really appreciate it!

------
binxbolling
I signed up and will be eager to try. However, you have a lot of competition,
so I'll really be looking for some big differentiators. Good luck!

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtROtg3duDfzdFp...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtROtg3duDfzdFpxd29pVlRfVUtEQS1ZNzhIRy1raUE#gid=14)

------
spartango
Very neat! Congrats on launching!

One thing you might try: in the demo, dragging items is missing a bit of
"pop"; this is slightly intangible, but it doesn't quite feel like you are
picking up something and putting it down.

Not sure if it's this way in the actual app, but you might check out the way
that Trello slightly tilts cards when you pick them up, and drops a bit more
shadow.

Obviously that's minor: the product as a whole seems solid.

~~~
10char
I definitely know what you mean, Trello has a really nice effect. Right now
we're using vanilla HTML5 drag-and-drop, so that experience is basically
controlled by the browser, but we're working on customizing it.

------
BillSaysThis
The landing page IMO is missing a few important pieces of information:

\- this will not be free post-beta but there's no mention of pricing at all

\- the text says 'native' but not which OSes and if the apps can be deployed
through the various App Stores

\- the rationale for limiting the on-page demo is fine but shouldn't prevent
you from linking to a full-feature demo on a secondary page.

Good luck!

~~~
10char
Thanks for the feedback! We want (and plan) to have some type of free tier,
but we don't have enough data to announce anything concrete yet. It's probably
better to wait on that than to redact later =\

iOS + App Store for now, more later after we nail that workflow.

~~~
coolnow
I would use a free version with ads for yourselves after a certain amount of
elements are used. Also, is there any way these apps will compile on a Windows
machine? I don't need to be deployed to the App Store, i could install via
Cydia (.deb) or iFunBox (.ipa) depending on how it works.

------
miles_matthias
How it is native, yet instantly shows any changes you make to all of your
users?

~~~
jackhlaw
I'm betting everyone gets basically the same vanilla app and then the
interface you're using generates a property list (similar to XML) that
provides the configuration that the app uses to figure out how to lay out
elements. The app simply copies this property list on launch. They mention
that you can run your app within one that they will have on the store so I'm
assuming that's how they're doing that as well.

This is one of the ways that the iTunes Music Store/app store work to keep
content dynamic. Notice that when you're on a poor connection and you open the
app store that the icons and names at the bottom of the screen take a while to
show up. This is because the app is just a shell and it's loading its
configuration over the network.

------
haihaibye
Good luck but beware - there are quite a few of these products, and so far
none are successful. I think this is because they are trying to solve the
"lowering the barrier to entry on the app store" problem.

I think this is the wrong problem, the real problem is how to get your app
noticed, and this is down to being high quality and individually themed. These
two problems are somewhat at odds with each other.

~~~
dsirijus
ShoutEm [1], a Croatian startup, is doing pretty well in this area. And it's
actually quite powerful when you dig into it.

[1] <http://www.shoutem.com/>

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zupreme
I think I know the answer to this already but, just to be sure, can this be
used to create Android apps, or is this IOS-only?

~~~
andybak
I found it pretty strange that there was no mention at all of the OS this
targeted.

------
tehwebguy
This looks VERY cool, might be exactly what I'm looking for. Just signed up
for beta access!

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X-Istence
When I read Propeller my first thought was
<http://www.parallax.com/propeller/> which is a 8 core micro controller.

------
fold
Awesome landing page. I immediately dragged and dropped just from seeing the
control wiggle.

Small detail, is the logo spinning backwards? I'm not an expert on propellers,
it just feels wrong.

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nickler
Small Biz is screaming for this type of thing. A lot of diy'ers that will
learn how to use a tool, but not how to code.

nice one, signed up for the beta, can't wait to try it.

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atacrawl
I rarely sign up for betas but this is pretty intriguing. Great job, I look
forward to giving this a more in-depth tire-kicking.

------
francov88
Really cool, can't wait to see this evolve.

