The apps are going native.
Nintek started as web apps, and they are still here. But over the last few months four of them grew real SwiftUI counterparts for iPhone and iPad — not wrappers around a website, but proper native apps that use the camera, the Lock Screen, Siri, Game Center, and a shared Swift foundation underneath.
All four are in TestFlight beta right now.
A browser tab can only do so much.
None of these ports exist for the sake of having an app in the store. Each one earns its place by doing something the web version genuinely cannot.
The app before you open it
Every one of them puts something useful on your Home Screen — a study streak, tools that need attention, a build in progress, a game you were halfway through. Some of them go further and let you act on it right there, without launching anything.
Live on the Lock Screen
A timed exam counts down in the Dynamic Island. A cut list sits on your Lock Screen so you can tick off parts at the saw. Live Activities are the difference between an app you check and an app that keeps up with you.
A camera beats a keyboard
VisionKit reads a barcode off a box, a QR label off a drawer, or a fraction off a tape measure. Every one of those is a form field you no longer have to fill in with sawdust on your hands.
Compute that moved on device
The cut-plan optimiser and the spaced-repetition scheduler were ported to Swift and unit-tested against the originals. What used to be a server round trip now happens instantly, offline, in your hand.
Siri, Spotlight and Shortcuts
Ask for a study session, jump straight to the scanner, pull up a project by name from system search, or wire any of it into a Shortcut. The apps became part of the system instead of sitting behind a browser tab.
Less infrastructure, not more
Going native let two of these apps drop their backends entirely. Cairn has no account and no server. Cortex has no network at all. Fewer moving parts is a feature, not a compromise.
The utility apps share NintekKit.
A dependency-free Swift package that the native utility apps all build on — shared data models, the API clients, the widget snapshots, the Live Activity definitions, and the algorithms that used to only run on a server.
The first port taught the expensive lessons. The second one reused them. By the third, most of the plumbing already existed — which is the entire point of building an ecosystem instead of a pile of unrelated apps.
Zero dependencies
Around two thousand lines of Swift 6 with nothing pulled in from outside. Networking and auth are protocols, so platform SDKs stay in the app and the package stays testable on its own.
One set of models
Tools, projects, cut lists, exam attempts — defined once and decoded the same way in the app, the widget and the share extension. Nothing drifts between surfaces.
Widgets share the source
Snapshots are written to a shared App Group, so widgets and Live Activities render real data without a network call, a login, or a private copy of the theme that quietly goes stale.
Algorithms moved on device
The cut-plan optimiser and the spaced-repetition scheduler were ported to Swift and unit-tested against the originals. What used to be a round trip is now instant.
Note Cortex is the exception — it is a self-contained game hub with no backend and no shared package. It gets to break the rules because it does not need any of them.
ShopKeep
TestFlight betaThe camera is the feature. Point it at a barcode or a drawer label and the shop inventories itself.
ShopKeep on the web is a good filing cabinet. ShopKeep on iPhone is a scanner you already own. It signs into the same account and reads the same inventory — it just stops asking you to type in things a camera can already see.
Live barcode scanning
VisionKit reads QR plus nine barcode formats — EAN-13 and EAN-8, UPC-E, Code 128, 39 and 93, Aztec, DataMatrix and PDF417 — straight off the box, with a haptic tap the moment it lands.
QR-code your drawers
Print a label, stick it on a drawer, scan it. Location and sub-location get filed in one motion instead of two dropdowns.
The shop at a glance
Home Screen widgets for totals, categories and recent tools — plus Lock Screen and StandBy accessories showing how many tools need attention. Tap one and land on that exact filtered list.
Straight to the scanner
“Scan a tool in ShopKeep” from Siri or Spotlight opens the camera without a single tap on the way.
Reports you can drill into
Swift Charts renders yearly spend, cumulative investment, monthly and quarterly breakdowns — filterable by brand and category, and tappable all the way down to the individual tool.
Sign in with Apple
Use your Apple ID or your Microsoft account. Either way it is the same inventory you already have on the web, not a second copy of it.
iOS 17 or later · iPhone and iPad · About ShopKeep
DeWalt DCD791 Drill/Driver
Power tools · Excellent
Cairn
TestFlight betaNo account, no network, no excuses — the entire exam library lives on your phone.
Cairn was the first port, and it went furthest. There is no sign-in, no server and no sync service: your progress lives in your own iCloud account, and every question, flashcard and study guide ships inside the app. It is the version of Cairn that works in a basement, on a plane, or in the twenty minutes before a test.
No login. Ever.
Your progress lives in your private iCloud database and follows you to every Apple device you own. There is no sign-up form, no password to lose, and no server holding your study history.
Every exam, offline
The full question bank, flashcards, study guides and glossary are bundled into the app. Nothing to download, nothing to wait for, nothing that breaks when the signal drops.
Your streak on the Home Screen
A small or medium widget keeps your streak, cards due, focus exam and best score in view — so the habit does not depend on remembering to open an app.
A timer on the Lock Screen
Start a timed sandbox exam and a Live Activity puts the countdown in the Dynamic Island and on your Lock Screen. Check the clock without leaving the question.
Ask Siri
“Study with Cairn” opens straight to your exams. “How am I doing in Cairn” jumps to your activity. Both work from Spotlight and inside Shortcuts.
One reminder, at your hour
A single daily nudge at a time you choose, scheduled on the device itself. No notification server, no engagement campaign.
iOS 17 or later · iPhone and iPad · About Cairn
Exam sandbox
Question 34 of 60
Workshop
TestFlight betaThe cut plan runs on your phone, and the cut list lives on your Lock Screen while you work.
Workshop is the app that needed to leave the desk. Nobody plans a build at a keyboard — you plan it standing at the saw with sawdust on your hands. The native version puts the optimiser in your pocket and the checklist on your Lock Screen.
Cut plans computed on device
The guillotine packing optimiser is a direct Swift port of the web algorithm, unit-tested against the original so the layouts match exactly. It runs in your hand — no round trip, no spinner, no signal required.
Check off cuts from the Lock Screen
A Live Activity keeps the cut list on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. Tick parts off at the saw without unlocking the phone or switching apps.
A shopping list you can tap
Three widgets: project stats, builds in progress, and a shopping list you can actually tick off from the Home Screen. The app reconciles the change next time you open it.
Add to Workshop
Share a link from Safari or a photo from your library straight into the app. Inspiration gets captured where you find it, instead of in a note you never revisit.
Sketch with Apple Pencil
On iPad, draw the plan directly onto the project instead of photographing a napkin.
Read the tape measure
Point the camera at a tape or a printed cut sheet and tap the dimension you want, instead of typing “27 1/2” with one clean finger.
Find a build from anywhere
Projects are indexed in Spotlight, so a system search lands you on the right build — and Siri can open your dashboard or shopping list on command.
Insights the web does not have
Swift Charts breaks down spend over time, cost by project, and how often you are actually out in the shop.
iOS 17 or later · iPhone and iPad · About Workshop
Walnut Bench
- Leg 27 1/2 × 3 × 3
- Apron, long 46 × 4 × 3/4
- Apron, short 14 × 4 × 3/4
- Top slat 52 × 5 1/4 × 7/8
Cortex
TestFlight betaEight games, Game Center, and nothing to sign into.
Cortex is not a port of Puzzlebox — it is what happened when the games that belong on a phone got rebuilt for one, and then the work kept going. Five puzzles came across. Three more were written for iOS from scratch, including one running on a game engine embedded inside the app.
Eight games in one hub
Sudoku Fight, Number Sums, Word Search, Word Rush and Scrabble came over from Puzzlebox. Pixel Flow, Neon Drop and Block Blast exist only here.
Game Center, properly wired
Fifteen leaderboards ranked by game and difficulty — best time where speed matters, high score where it does not. Achievements span the whole hub: play every game ten times, or log twenty hours across all of them.
Pixel Flow
A conveyor-belt colour matcher where every board resolves into a piece of pixel art. 532 hand-baked pictures feed a tiered thousand-level run, and the generator guarantees every level can actually be cleared.
Neon Drop
A falling-block game done properly — SRS rotation with wall kicks, a seven-bag randomiser, T-spins, combos and back-to-back scoring. Core Haptics gives every lock and line clear its own texture.
Block Blast
A full Godot 4.7 engine embedded inside the SwiftUI app, booted on demand and handed its own Metal surface. A game engine living in a tab.
No account, no network
Everything runs on the device. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to sync, nothing that stops working when the plane doors close.
Widgets to pull you back in
Quick Launch drops you straight into a game from the Home Screen. Stats shows your totals and how close you are to the next achievement.
iOS 18 or later · iPhone and iPad
Achievement unlocked
Twenty hours across every game
Cortex
Tare is the next port.
Tare is the next app to go native. It is the one that most wants to live on a phone — logging happens in the moment, and the numbers it tracks are the kind you want on a Home Screen rather than behind a browser tab.
Everything else is still on the web.
The web apps are actively developed and going nowhere — going native was about adding a surface, not replacing one. Have a look at the whole catalogue, or read how any of this started.