Chris Petescia contributed to this report

After decades of research, countless Erlenmeyer flasks, and several weeks of hapless finger-painting, we’re finally able to announce the launch of The Onion Microfiche. The first-ever iPhone app that delivers a world of Onion headlines directly to your Oxford shirt pocket.

Onion aficionados know the true essence of any story lies in its headline. In fact, many headlines are so brilliant they stand alone without any article associated with them. We worked closely with the creative minds at The Onion to build an application that took the most advanced mobile platform on the market today and saddled it with the tactility of a cold-rolled steel, dust-ridden library microfiche machine. Flick through recent headlines, as well as 20 years worth of vintage Onion gold. Flag your favorites for viewing offline or share them with your friends via Twitter, Email, or Mobile Facebook Connect. We’ve even included authentic microfiche sound-effects (cough, Mr. Parr).

It was thrilling to not only work with the folks at The Onion, but refreshing to find they’re as hilarious and good natured as you’d expect; we’d often spend half of our calls just making witty puns. What cunning linguists we are. We hope you enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed working on it.

You can read through the rave reviews from Mashable, The Guardian, and Read Write Web or experience it yourself by heading over to the iTunes App store.

PS We dropped in a slight nod to some of our more seasoned geek followers on the opening screen of the app—can you spot it?

Edit 3:34p: We’re now the number one paid news app in the iTunes app store!