Almost. Appcelerator Mobile is a cross compiler with a component framework. It takes Javascript and compiles it into Objective-C and links it against their framework. You can build completely native apps in it.
It's a little confusing in Justin's case as he is using it to host a UIWebView which is running his game. You can do the same thing in Objective-C with a few lines of code and some magic mousedrags in Interface Builder. However, I believe he is also using Appcelerator's sqllite bindings to save game state from the UIWebView. You can also do this in Objective-C by making your own bridge from the UIWebView using intercepted custom URLs (which always feels like a dirty hack - not as clean as Flash's DOM injection using ExternalInterface).
Btw, Justin is part of a two person podcast I listen to regularly. I'd recommend subscribing:
It's a little confusing in Justin's case as he is using it to host a UIWebView which is running his game. You can do the same thing in Objective-C with a few lines of code and some magic mousedrags in Interface Builder. However, I believe he is also using Appcelerator's sqllite bindings to save game state from the UIWebView. You can also do this in Objective-C by making your own bridge from the UIWebView using intercepted custom URLs (which always feels like a dirty hack - not as clean as Flash's DOM injection using ExternalInterface).
Btw, Justin is part of a two person podcast I listen to regularly. I'd recommend subscribing:
http://techzinglive.com/