Show HN: Propeller - Create native mobile apps, just drag and drop

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.<p>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.<p>Would love to hear your thoughts!

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.

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...<p>The check-list demo is really cool, but I would suggest adding another app type.<p>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.<p>This will allow many people to incrementally pay to get the app they are trying to build.<p>Let me in!

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)).<p>Also, a minor correction in your demo: "parking break" should be "parking brake".<p>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!<p>[1] <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5029035/how-do-we-add-css-animation-in-jquery" rel="nofollow">http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5029035/how-do-we-add-css...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5462275/animate-element-transform-rotate" rel="nofollow">http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5462275/animate-element-t...</a>

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!<p><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtROtg3duDfzdFpxd29pVlRfVUtEQS1ZNzhIRy1raUE#gid=14" rel="nofollow">https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtROtg3duDfzdFp...</a>

Very neat! Congrats on launching!<p>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.<p>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.<p>Obviously that's minor: the product as a whole seems solid.

The landing page IMO is missing a few important pieces of information:<p>- this will not be free post-beta but there's no mention of pricing at all<p>- the text says 'native' but not which OSes and if the apps can be deployed through the various App Stores<p>- 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.<p>Good luck!

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

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.<p>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.

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?

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

When I read Propeller my first thought was <a href="http://www.parallax.com/propeller/" rel="nofollow">http://www.parallax.com/propeller/</a> which is a 8 core micro controller.

Awesome landing page. I immediately dragged and dropped just from seeing the control wiggle.<p>Small detail, is the logo spinning backwards? I'm not an expert on propellers, it just feels wrong.

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

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.

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