This Week's Sponsor:

Kolide

Ensure that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta.


Meet Swearch: The Coolest Web App Your iPhone Has Ever Seen

There are many websites out there that offer iPhone-optimized views. But I bet you haven’t seen anything like Steve Streza’s latest creation, Swearch.

Swearch is a neat little web app that lets you search on a variety of search engines: Google, Twitter, Wikipedia and Flickr. As you search through them, the app will display results in full screen - cool. But that’s not the big deal about Swearch: you can switch back and forth between these services with a simple swipe on your iPhone, and the developer also made sure to include some beautiful, Retina Display-ready, custom backgrounds for each service. Check those clouds in the Twitter page - neat.

But then again, there’s even more. Swearch is entirely based on HTML5, CSS and Javascript to ensure an amazing user experience - the thing almost feels native, except for a webview-related bugs Apple still hasn’t fixed. The magic of HTML5 and offline caching allow the iPhone to store almost all the code and images of Swearch locally, so that when you’ll relaunch it you won’t have to wait for the whole app to load. It’s fast.

The app uses HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript to give you a fantastic user experience, the number one priority when building this app. It runs at 60 frames per second on an iPhone 4, even with animating elements in the background (protip: check out the background on the Twitter page). The scrolling has been tuned over several weeks of fiddling with horizontal iPhone paging. The end result: it feels more native than any iPhone web app I’ve ever used, and my testers have had similar acclaims.

Swearch might not be the app you spend all the day playing with, but it’s well worth a webclip icon on the homescreen. Anytime you need to search for anything on the supported services (Streza promises that even more are coming in the future, together with iPad support) you can just fire it up and start typing.

Again, open Swearch.me from your iPhone and enjoy. I’m pretty sure this is one of the most clever web apps I’ve ever installed on my iPhone.

Unlock More with Club MacStories

Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for over six years.

In that time, members have enjoyed nearly 400 weekly and monthly newsletters packed with more of your favorite MacStories writing as well as Club-only podcasts, eBooks, discounts on apps, icons, and services. Join today, and you’ll get everything new that we publish every week, plus access to our entire archive of back issues and downloadable perks.

The Club expanded in 2021 with Club MacStories+ and Club Premier. Club MacStories+ members enjoy even more exclusive stories, a vibrant Discord community, a rotating roster of app discounts, and more. And, with Club Premier, you get everything we offer at every Club level plus an extended, ad-free version of our podcast AppStories that is delivered early each week in high-bitrate audio.

Choose the Club plan that’s right for you:

  • Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with app collections, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, a Club-only podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;
  • Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus exclusive content like Federico’s Automation Academy and John’s Macintosh Desktop Experience, a powerful web app for searching and exploring over 6 years of content and creating custom RSS feeds of Club content, an active Discord community, and a rotating collection of discounts, and more;
  • Club Premier: Everything in from our other plans and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.