Most of the tools I've used have been glorified table/spreadsheet builders that have rudimentary form capabilities with search and grid views of your data. Some are more sophisticated like Caspio, but things just don't flow. I'm not sure if these systems need a bigger picture approach that lets me mockup or flow out my app and then build from the top down first or if they need to take me by the hand more. Some seemed like they might be decent, but I didn't give them a shot, because their pricing model wasn't right for me to create a public application. They were more oriented to enterprise internal applications.

In terms of the form building capabilities of an app, look at JotForm.com for a really usable interface.

Here's some I have encountered. Can't remember them all. Happy to help with your beta.
Caspio
Scriptcase
Zoho Creator
ironspeed
phprunner
Dabble DB - but can't remember what was good and what was bad...
AppGini - BigProf

Great post and lessons there.

I am VERY interested in AppIgnite. Just submitted my email address for testing. I've tried every variation on this theme that's ever been produced and so always hopeful to find one that will let me get my ideas out. I am a marketing/tech guy without the development skills and would love to finally see something that worked.

Brad
clickbrain.com

It is always amazing to see such passionate debates about.......... Scholarly this, studied that, debunked when, you are right and I am right and Buddha did care and Buddha didn't care, and he believes, and I believe, and you believe, and she doesn't believe, he is offended and he is offensive, because the evidence points to.... sigh. Is anyone else exhausted from all this "thinking" and "believing"?

And you will be posting beta invites.... when?

That is both awesome and annoying at the same time.

If the word cautious comes out of your mouth or even enters your head and you are in a Marketing position(especially in a startup), then get the hell out and go work for the county! Seriously. Who even funds a CEO capable of saying the word? What CEO hires a marketing person....? You get the idea.

Failure is all about perception(so is the rest of your interpretive life). What you perceive as failure becomes failure. Your failure may be someone else's success and isn't success just another perception and fantasy of the mind. If you decide something is a failure, then you now get to define yourself as a failure and "enjoy" the indulgence of anger, sadness, and pity that the ego thrives upon.

Ultimately though, how do you define the instant of failure? When was the exact moment that you failed? Was it layoff number 1, number 20, number 800? Was it when the stock price hit 20 cents or was it when it dropped to $30?

In what moment were you a success? Where does success end and failure begin? When you created a brilliant piece of earth changing software were you a success? Did you become a failure after 6 months of miserable sales or were you a failure when you hired the wrong marketing guy?

Ultimately you have decide whether it is you or your ego and perceptions that are in control of how you feel. I realize this sounds overly simplified, but if you really look at yourself and the chatter in your brain, it's the simplest truth you will ever know.

You can never fail at this moment and it is the only moment you have.

I agree that RSS as it is now will not replace all email and of course adoption issues make that even less likely with how we currently compute, but I believe that RSS as it is and RSS as it could be are entirely different things. If you treat RSS as personal bi-directional channels of data exchange, then you have an entirely new paradigm of secure, close channel communications. The key will be adopting what is into what can be when it comes to the tools we already use. Make RSS personal and group based and you have something very exciting and powerful that eliminates the problems of email, because every connection with other people is based upon a subscribed and shared channel as opposed to a publicly available email address. The values of this model though, go far beyond the reduction of the problems of email. Email need not be eliminated either and could be incorporated into such a system.

Switching our use of technology to being ME centric and corporations allowing it are difficult as well, but the ability for a corporation to shut down the channels I discuss above, means it becomes far easier to allow me to centralize my computing environment to my needs personal and corporate and create my own views to data. A smart channels based system then would let companies present data to users how they want it and pull it back when the employee leaves.

The recession may very well push the computing environment further along as more people are laid off, become freelancers, and corporations use more outsourcing, etc. We'll see.

It's bad enough when companies like this pursue ridiculous patents, but its even worse when scum bags like J2 Global/Catch Curve decide to make a living off obviously bad patents. Their model is the worst form of patent abuse. They claim patents on Internet Fax services, which the patent office screwed up on granting, when there is a TON of prior art from MCI and several others. Now, they sue anyone offering Internet Fax services for patent violations, but have made an art form of suing/licensing for just under what it would cost to fight it. Only a few brave folks have decided to fight them and it drains their coffers (J2's goal). Throw the whole damn system and these companies out with it.