Web Apps

Is Apple Intentionally Handicapping Web Apps?

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 27, 2018

Whether you love them or hate them, no one can deny the success Apple has had with its iOS devices and the App Store. Although they are selling these products in record numbers, many still refuse to buy in due to multiple factors. The omission of Flash support, a technology used in many popular websites, is the first one that comes to mind.

But it doesn't stop there. Apple has also been attacked on its strict App Store policies, such as, denying applications for odd and unclear reasons. In fact, their unyielding control over their ecosystem is what leads many people to jailbreak...

Google Translate Now Available on the iPhone

Alex Heath ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

Google's popular translate tool now has its very own iPhone app. The company has had a Google Translate HTML5-based web app for quite some time, but Google Translate has now been given the full app treatment.

Among other enhancements, Google Translate for the iPhone allows users to speak their translation requests. With speak-to-translate support for 15 languages at launch, the Google Translate app makes a big splash in the mobile translation niche...

Gmail’s “Priority Inbox” Now Available on the iPhone

Alex Heath ∙ February 8, 2011

Gmail's "Priority Inbox" feature has been implemented into Gmail's web app on the iPhone. Priority Inbox is a relatively new feature in Gmail that helps show you the most important emails in your inbox.

Google's Priority Inbox algorithm studies your email habits, and determines which messages deserve your attention first. If you've enabled Priority Inbox in the standard web version of Gmail, the same functionality will now be available in Gmail's iOS web app...

Infographic Confirms That iPhone Users Prefer Regular Apps Over Web Apps

Alex Heath ∙ January 28, 2011

Well, that's a big shocker. Apparently iPhone users care more about native apps than web apps.

The guys over at Appsfire, a cool app discovery service, made an infographic report demonstrating how most users like regular apps over web apps. Appsfire analyzed 1,000 of its user's devices to determine some insight into the web v.s. native app debate.

Web applications are becoming more and more advanced everyday, but they still can't replicate certain functionalities of native iOS apps. The infographic from Appsfire is pretty self-explanatory. Let's check it out...

Apple Approves Another BitTorrent iPhone App

Alex Heath ∙ Updated February 16, 2018

Apple has been making some surprising app approvals for the App Store. Several months ago, a BitTorrent app called IS Drive snuck into the App Store. It didn't stay there for long, but Apple still approved it at one point.

Another BitTorrent application has tiptoed its way into the App Store catalog. iControlBits is a mobile client for the popular OS X BitTorrent utility called Transmission. For many Mac users, Transmission is the BitTorrent client of choice. Transmission already allowed users to manage torrents through a web interface, but the process was a tad cumbersome.

iControlBits allows you to manage your torrents in a native environment for the iPhone. Let's just hope it doesn't get pulled before you finish downloading that new episode of Glee...

Veggie Samurai iPhone App Review

Guest Author ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

Veggie Samurai created by QuantumSquid Interactive, is a slice and dice upgrade from the popular Fruit Ninja game. While the name is almost a blatant rip off (e.g. does iPed ring any bells?), that’s as far as it goes because it brings a lot of fun and uniqueness to the table.

This game is all about slicing vegetables and Veggie Samurai offers 6 chaotic modes Samurai, Hardcore, Harmony, Chaos, Sort, and Match modes.

The first game mode has 3 similar styles. Samurai mode will throw vegetables and poison vials in the air. You will have three uncut vegetable drops, 3 broken poison vials or a mixture of the two before it’s game over. Chaos mode is similar to Samurai except that the speed is twice or three times as fast. And Hardcore mode will give you no second chances before the game is over...

An Interesting Infographic On The App Store

Alex Heath ∙ Updated March 9, 2016

The folks over at App of the Day have put together a nice, comprehensive infographic on the state of the App Store. Their work is based on the App Store as of December 7, 2010.

The infographic addresses overall statistics and some insightful numbers on the mechanics of how the App Store operates.

For instance, out of the 300,000+ apps in the App Store, 85% are for the iPhone only. 67% of apps are paid and 33% are free. There are more universal apps than there are iPad apps. Out of all apps, 50% are between $0.99 and $2.99...

Ben the Bodyguard Will Protect Your iPhone’s Secrets, Coming Next January

Alex Heath ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

"A Frenchman protecting your secrets. Yes, seriously." Ben the Bodyguard is a mysterious password manager and vault for the sensitive data on your iPhone. The app is scheduled to release in January of 2011.

What stood out to me about this app was how awesome its website is. As you scroll down from the masthead at the top of the page, you begin to take a journey with Ben the Bodyguard through the deserted streets of a dark downtown...

Filopanti Does Simple and Pretty Time Zone Conversion

Alex Heath ∙ Updated November 16, 2017

Time zones are a pain. There are 40 time zones in the world, and 4 in the United States. There are so many instances when it's necessary to know what time it is somewhere far away. I've been looking for any easy way to convert time zones on the iPhone for a long time, and Filopanti fits the bill perfectly.

"Filopanti" is named after Quirico Filopanti, who was the first person in history to propose a worldwide system of time zones in 1858. Filopanti's interface is elegant and dead easy to use. With Filopanti, you'll never be wondering what time it is across the country or on the other side of the world...

Create Your Own Fullscreen Web Apps With Fullscreen.me

Alex Heath ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

Fullscreen.me is an interesting service that allows you to create iOS web apps that run in fullscreen mode. You can create little web apps through mobile Safari using Fullscreen.me's website interface.

This is nice if you have a lot of websites that you visit on your iPhone, and you don't want to have to navigate through Safari tabs to try to view them all. You can instead create little icons on your home screen of all your favorite sites...

Google Docs Comes to the iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ November 18, 2010

Google Docs users rejoice as you're now going to be able to edit all your Google Docs documents, right from your iPhone (or any other mobile device for that matter). Simply pointing your iPhone to http://docs.google.com/ will take you to the mobile version of the site.

I think it's worth noting that you're only going to be able to edit documents. You will not be able to create new ones, at least for the time being. Have a look at the video below. It's actually pretty impressive...

Swearch – A Swanky Startpage for Your iPhone

Alex Heath ∙ Updated January 22, 2016

Swearch.me is a web app created by Steve Streza, a web and mobile developer. The app uses HTML5, CSS, and Javascript to deliver an elegant search engine experience in mobile Safari. Everything is retina display-optimized and lighting fast.

The current engines offered are Google, Twitter, Wikipedia and Flickr. When you visit Swearch.me on your iPhone, you see the Google engine first. Simply swipe your finger from right to left to switch between Twitter, Wikipedia and Flickr’s engines...