Filed under: Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK, iPod touch
AppLoop brings automated application development to the iPhone
With the iPhone SDK, Apple is pioneering a new mobile development platform that is ahead of it's time; however, this innovation comes with a major caveat: It requires Cocoa (or Objective-C) programming knowledge. You may ask "Why is this a problem?" Well, someone might have a really great idea for an iPhone application, but not have the programming knowledge to back it up and follow through with the idea. This is where AppLoop comes in.
AppLoop is a brand-new service that allows anyone with a web browser and RSS feed to create an application similar to the AP News app and submit it to the App Store -- without ever writing a single line of code. Their service works by generating a .plist file on the server side (based on your choices). The file is then passed through a couple of AppleScripts that generates the code based on the choices, and compiles it.
The entire app-creation process takes less than a minute to complete, and you have an application ready to be deployed to the App Store. Ad-hoc versions can be requested in advance of the app being placed on the App Store. Currently, AppLoop is offering the RSS reader application, but they have plans to add additional paid features down the road.
You can find out more information about this service by visiting their website, or by watching the video [link here] above. You can also see a gallery of screenshots from one of their applications.
Gallery: AppLoop demo applications
Thanks for the information, Eric!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
robb said 7:11PM on 10-20-2008
That's great if the app were just for you. I'm concerned that the app store will be besieged by low quality cookie cutter apps because of this. The review process is already slow and the app store is already filled with low quality apps.
If you want to write a computer program you really should expect to have to know something about writing computer programs.
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mex said 12:39PM on 10-21-2008
I agree
zsports said 7:11PM on 10-20-2008
this is rlly cool but very limited
I dont think customers would use individual apps to read rss feeds - they are more likely to buy a single rss reader for the iphone and use it to read multiple rss feeds
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Sahil said 7:24PM on 10-20-2008
What many of us forget is that society (namely non-tech iPhone users) are unaware of what an RSS Reader, let alone RSS is. The idea of an RSS reader is too complicated to use. So when you look at sites like NYT and the like, they want to broaden the scope to everyone, not just tech savvy folk.
I do agree that in the long term RSS will most likely become a mainstream phenomenon but it is nowhere near as simple to use and manage as it should be. So until then, AppLoop is doing Newspapers, Magazines and Prominent blogs without the resources for developing iPhone apps, a huge service.
Once they roll out 3rd party plugin integration, this will surely be a killer service.
julian said 7:20PM on 10-20-2008
be prepared for the app story to fill up with multiple basic rss feed apps
many of them will have a bad color palate and there will a million duplicates
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Craig said 7:29PM on 10-20-2008
Widgets went through this stage too, with RSS widgets being the easiest to customise.
And why would you want an app for RSS reading anyway? Just go to the website concerned, view their RSS feed and save it to the Home Screen. No App store involved.
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Ernie Oporto said 10:19PM on 10-20-2008
The tsunami of duplicate garbage iphone applications has just eclipsed the sun.
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Nate said 10:35PM on 10-20-2008
Exactly. More complaints about lame applications getting accepted and good ones rejected ahead.
Brandon said 10:59PM on 10-20-2008
This is ridiculous! Some developers work hard to get their apps in the App Store. Not only will this fill the App Store with crap, but it will also make it difficult to find good apps. I really hope this company makes thousands of these and Apple rejects every last one of them.
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Alex said 11:24PM on 10-20-2008
Totally agree with Brandon on this one: this is just what AppStore needed: to be filled with useless crap, so that earnest apps get drowned in the garbage.
If one isn't capable of developing an iPhone app, he definitely shouldn't be allowed to publish one - now everyone who can click a web browser button will call himself an iPhone app developer and wait to become millionaire by selling a rss reader; which, as I said, wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the damn noise - there are already too many apps on the AppStore, adding useless apps to it is a sure way to render it useless.
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shane said 5:34AM on 10-21-2008
Had a look at it and it asks you for an email at the domain of the blog. So you would need to own the rss to create the app. Or at least have an email at the same domain.
So its not open to all.
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David said 10:15AM on 10-21-2008
No offense to the programmers, but a tool to create a stand-alone RSS feed reader that just accesses one site is really lame. This really is equivalent to creating a flashlight app generator where you get to change what color the flashlight displays.
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Jash Sayani said 10:17AM on 10-21-2008
Wow! Its a great step into Quick Software Development. Nice to see innovation in the field of Development for Mobile devices.
Waiting to see the plug-in support in the new version....
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Johnny said 10:58AM on 10-21-2008
I have to agree with most others that this is crap and I hope Apple rejects all apps from this project. They aren't even really apps. The app is the RSS reader being packaged with the supposed 'app' and the 'app is just a configuration of that app. I really pity the fool who tries to put a price on their non-app. This is not good.
@Sahil,
If they don't know about RSS, why would they go to this site and create an RSS app? That seems more difficult to me than just downloading a REAL RSS app and configuring it to work with any RSS you want, instead of having an entire screen (not to mention the app store) full of single feeds. Furthermore, if you don't know what RSS is, why would
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Sahil said 1:23PM on 10-21-2008
It seems 90% of the people reading this post are missing the fact that you have to own the domain (and prove that you do via email verification). And building on that point, you seem to have missed the point I was making. Those people who don't know what RSS is aren't the ones building the Apps, people like Techcrunch, TUAW, Newspaper websites, magazines, publishers that want to make a branded app, that allows for OFFLINE browsing of posts (something I'm pretty sure you can't do anywhere else). Not to mention their future plugin platform for the reader which would possibly allow for comments, sharing on basically any site (i think i saw twitter, facebook etc in the vid).
I can't believe people really think AppLoop is going to be the tipping point for making the AppStore full of garbage... If anything it's actually allowing legitimate blogs to reach a larger audience.
RSS is way behind in terms of being mainstream enough for regular people to care about: http://www.inquisitr.com/5800/rss-adoption-stalling-because-it-isnt-joe-six-pack-enough/
Johnny said 2:01PM on 10-21-2008
I see your point, but I still stand behind mine that one is not really building an app by using this method and therefore have no right to charge for it. I guess for 'Joe Sixpack' (I just puked all over my keyboard as I typed that stupid term), something like this will make it easier for them to have easy access to those blogs. I forget that there are people who read blogs that aren't tech related, where everyone should know how to configure an RSS reader. I personally do not want a different icon for every blog I read. One reader is far more efficient.
It's kind of like those stand-alone web browsers. They have their place, but most people don't want to use separate browsers for each website they visit. Then again, I have seen PC users with favorites icons all over their desktop (in addition to every other app and file they possess). To each his own. I digress.