how is it any different from the myriad of clip-on lenses? or is it literally that, just with proper materials, like lenses made of glass instead of jello?

This is a pretty crappy article, and the “35mm” in the title seems to refer to the lens angle being about the same as it is on most other phone cameras (i.e. moderate wideangle, comparable to 35mm focal length on old 35mm full frame film cameras). I had to read most of the article to understand that they were talking about a conventional phone camera with some accessories, and not a film camera built into a phone or anything like that.