Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a multiuser cloud app for creating custom databases (see article below), a service that connects you with low income people and provides you with technology to profitably represent them, a device for creating your own private cloud, and a research tool for patents. Don't miss the next issue.
THE DATABASE MEETS THE CLOUD
Most apps from accounting to document management to ediscovery to practice management have a database at their core. Sometimes no app exists for a specific information storage need of yours. In these situations, you need to create your own database. Excel may seem like an obvious choice, but it fails at the slightest hint of complexity.
Airtable … in One Sentence
Airtable is a cloud database that runs in desktop and mobile web browsers and also in an iOS app on iPhones and iPads.
The Killer Feature
Airtable is multiuser. You can share a "table" (database) with others. Changes instantly become available to everyone with access. An audit log lists every change, including author, date, and time. You can restrict users to read-only status if they only need to access the information.
Other Notable Features
While a table can mimic a spreadsheet for simple lists, Airtable has a relational database under the hood. This enables you to link records. Linking prevents a record from becoming bloated.
For example, you could create a contacts database with Company records and People records. Within a Company record, you can link to the People who work there. The Company record then lists all the people you add. When you tap a person you go to their record with all their information.
Airtable offers full-text searching and filters. You can hide and sort columns to create a custom view. Saving these views enables you to toggle among them.
Airtable offers a number of integrations with cloud services such as Box, Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Evernote. Thanks to the API, you can create your own custom integrations and even build your own app on top of Airtable. You can export a table into CSV and other common formats.
What Else Should You Know?
The company provides several templates to get you started in areas such as project management and sales. The Free plan of Airtable includes unlimited databases but limits you to 1,200 records per database and 2 GB of attachments. The Plus plan ($12 per user per month) raises these limits to 5,000 records and 5 GB, while the Pro ($24 per user per month) and Enterprise plans are unlimited. The paid versions also provide granular access controls and other business-friendly features. Learn more about Airtable.
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