You may have heard of Airtable. It is the software toolkit that lets your everyday, non-technical person create custom software. No programming knowledge is needed. We first mentioned it back in the spring as part of a compilation of DIY tech projects. It’s really the perfect thing for information and organization junkies.
Well, the folks at Airtable have been busy and recently made some pretty big announcements. About a month ago they released their iOS app, and even more recently they brought the app to iPad. Now people can use the Airtable database to create customized software from their iPads and iPhones.
If you’ve ever wanted to build a database powered app from your phone or tablet (or maybe you haven’t because you didn’t know it was even a possibility), now here’s your chance. It gives you full control over your database and the information you want to collect and filter. The app also allows you to share and collaborate on projects.
“This is a big step in the direction of Airtable’s vision of bringing increasingly powerful tools for software creation into everyone’s hands — starting with databases,” said Howie Liu, co-founder and CEO, in a statement “The world is becoming increasingly filled with highly specific and inflexible apps that expect users to bend to the app’s workflow. We think it should be the other way around.”
Now with the new iPad app, Airtable is able to use the form and function of the iPad as the ideal platform for their tool. A recent blog post announcing the newly designed iPad app, talks about why this tool is so fitting for iPad users:
“But there are some things the iPad just does better than the desktop. It has the portability of the iPhone but the power of the desktop. You can multitask without sacrificing the intimacy and intuitiveness of the touch interface. It’s free from distraction and encourages focus. It makes browsing content feel magical.”
When you sign up for the app it takes you through an interactive tutorial of setting up a database and all of the features and possibilities it offers. Although i suppose it can’t really show you all of the possibilities because there are just so many. There are also dozens of built-in templates if you find yourself completely overwhelmed and in need of some guidance.
