After launching NostalgicPod on Android three weeks ago, reaching more than 1,000 downloads and releasing several updates based on community feedback, the iPhone version is finally ready for external testing! (and honestly, I’m just as surprised as you are that it passed Beta App Review)

This is the first public iOS beta, so there may still be bugs and things that need polishing, but the core experience is already working. The current iOS version includes around 90% of what is available on Android. The main features still missing are song search, custom playlists and the Solitaire game, and I’m hoping to release an update this weekend to bring both versions even closer together.

Version 1.0.2 already lets you import and play the audio files stored on your iPhone through the Files app. I’m currently waiting for approval of version 1.0.3, which adds Apple Music library support, so users will also be able to access the music already available in their Apple Music library.

I’d really love feedback from people who used and loved the original iPod, especially on how the click wheel feels, how the app performs across different iPhone models, how local file importing works with larger libraries and whether the overall experience feels close to using a real iPod.

I’m also working on audiobook support, more games, additional customization and, in the future, compatibility with personal music servers such as Jellyfin, Plex and Navidrome. The Android community has helped improve the app enormously in only a few weeks, and I’m hoping the iOS community can help me do the same with the iPhone version.

The TestFlight beta is currently OPEN to everyone:

https://testflight.apple.com/join/T3k9TQPu

For anyone who wants to see the current Android version:

Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nostalgicpod.app

Website:

https://nostalgicpod.com

I’m all ears if you have any requests, technical feedback or suggestions. I really want to make this the best possible modern dedicated music-player experience for the community.

After only 23 years, Xcode 26.4 has stealthily added the option to display vertical indentation guides. These are handy vertical lines that let you easily see where each scope block begins and ends.

Xcode calls them "scope guides". Enable them in Settings > Editing > Display > Scope guides.

Just received mine a few minutes ago.

Keep a look out for that PayPal email!

The Analytics tab is no longer buried in the main global section, it now lives inside each individual app page.

Honestly, this feels like one of those small UX tweaks that makes a huge day-to-day difference.

Before:
• Jump to Analytics
• Select app
• Wait for context to switch
• Repeat for every app

Now:
➡️ Open app → Analytics is right there
➡️ Context stays locked to that app
➡️ Faster debugging, growth checks, release monitoring

If you manage multiple apps, this removes a lot of friction. It also subtly encourages thinking about performance per app, not as a portfolio blob.

Feels like Apple is finally optimizing App Store Connect for real workflows, not just reporting.

do you like this change or miss the old global view?

(Also hoping this means more per-app insights and tools are coming)

UPDATE (April 2026): A lot has changed since the original post. Here's where things stand:

Native macOS app is now the recommended way to use RespectASO. Download the .dmg, drag to Applications, done. Code-signed and notarized by Apple. Docker still works if you prefer that or don't have a Mac to run the tool.

New website: https://respectaso.com download the app, read the docs, everything lives here now.

New: Agentic ASO: I added 3 agentic AI tabs to the app:

• AI Niche Researcher: Enter a seed keyword representing a niche in which you are thinking about developing a new app in. It analyzes the top 25 competing apps, discovers related keywords, scores them, and generates optimized title, subtitle, and keyword field.
• AI Competitor Analyzer: Paste an App Store URL. It reverse-engineers their keyword strategy, finds gaps, and generates a counter-strategy with validated metadata.
• ASO Score Simulator: Paste your metadata. Get a Readiness Score (0–100) with keyword-by-keyword breakdown and improvement suggestions.

All these new agentic solutions aim to automate the ASO work into minutes that otherwise takes several hours when done manually.

Btw, these aren't one-shot generators, the engine validates output against Apple's character limits and rules, then self-corrects across multiple rounds until everything passes.

For agentic features, you use your own API keys (OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Gemini supported). Your keys and data never leave your Mac. You only share that with service providers (OpenAI, Anthropic and Gemini) when you send requests to them.

The free version stays free and open source, all 15 research features, no limits. The AI features are a paid yearly upgrade. Same app, license key unlocks Pro (like Sublime Text, if you are familiar with that).

GitHub: https://github.com/respectlytics/respectaso

Thank you all for the feedback on the original post, it's what kept this project going. And I appreciate continued feedback.

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I built a free, open-source ASO keyword research tool that runs locally via Docker. You don't need any API keys or accounts; and no data leaves your machine.

WHY FREE & WHY OPEN-SOURCE?

What any ASO tool gives you are just algorithmically calculated estimations. I have tried many and often ended up being disappointed. And I can say they are not consistent at all. I feel like they probably over-complicate things in their solutions where over-complication does not necessarily create a better solution. This tool has its own logic for finding popularity and difficulty, and it comes with additional insights which is not available in other tools I tested, i.e. how hard it is to rank in Top 5, Top 10 and Top 20 in the search results for a given search term in a given country.

Repo is available here:
https://github.com/respectlytics/respectaso

Feel free to leave a star if you find it valuable so that more people can benefit.

WHY SELF-HOSTED?

I wanted to provide this as free. If I hosted the whole thing at a site, I suspect that abuse would be one of the things I would need to deal with, and it would also come with lots of infrastructure costs. And users would share their data suspecting how the hack this is possible for free of charge. Hosting locally is extremely easy, can be done in less than 2 minutes.

HOW IT WORKS IN A NUTSHELL?

It uses the public iTunes Search API to estimate keyword popularity (6-signal model), difficulty (7 weighted factors), and downloads per ranking position. You can scan 30 App Store countries, track your app's rank, and export to CSV. It has all the core functions one can ask for.

Installation:

git clone https://github.com/respectlytics/respectaso.git

cd respectaso

docker compose up -d

And then just open http://localhost

Feel free to give it a try. I appreciate any kind of feedback.

Helps you answer: "Does my app look good in search results?".

So you can optimize your icon, screenshot font size, etc. accordingly. And improve conversion.

[Edit: try it here: https://ezscreenshots.com/tools/app-store-search-preview ]

You might have heard Xcode 26.3 added Agentic Coding support. But Apple has also introduced an official MCP if you want to continue using Claude Code / Codex! 😍

So you don't have to switch your workflow to benefit—just teach Claude/Codex. Something for everyone in this release, really neat! 🙌🍎🤖

Here's the doc explaining it in detail: 👇

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/giving-agentic-coding-tools-access-to-xcode

#Xcode #ClaudeCode #MCP #AgenticCoding #iOSDev

Edit: Sorry for stating "silently" – it's not highlighted in the news article, and I missed the short mention in the video, so thought people might have missed it (like I did). Wish I could edit the title and remove it!

Hey everyone! 👋

I kept running into the same issue when preparing for app releases - you spend all this time perfecting your screenshots, but you never really know how they'll look in the actual App Store search results until after you submit.

Since App Store screenshots are often the first (and sometimes only) thing users see when deciding whether to download your app, I built this simple tool to solve this.

It allows uploading your screenshot and seeing a live preview of how it will render in the App Store Search results. You can even export the result as an image file, to AirDrop to your iPhone to see it on-device.

Try it out here: appstoretester.anthopak.dev

I hope it can be useful to some of you!

Enjoy ✌️

https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=agq42lxe

Did they manage to fix MCP server popups I wonder =)

edit: looks like yes and no, I'm no longer getting multiple popups from the same instance of VSCode, but opening a new window still makes a new popup. Well at least somewhat usable I guess

App Store Connect Analytics just got a serious update.

100+ new metrics added, the ones that caught my eye:
• MRR
• Active subscribers
• Install-to-paid conversion
• Cohort analysis (by country, source, download date)
• 7 filter combinations

Also the UI has completely changed. Analytics is no longer a separate tab, it's moved directly inside the App tab.

We used to rely on third party tools for all of this. Apple is finally offering them natively.

Details: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/252/

Maybe it's just me but I cringe when I see a lot of obviously AI-written text in an app or web UI. It just reeks of laziness and makes apps/websites seem all alike.

So, I made this open-source Mac app that lets you review every user-facing string in your project. It won't "fix" them - you have to do that - that's the whole point.

For each string, you can approve, ignore, or tweak. And it intelligently tracks string status across launches. Then if anything later touches that string, it appears back in the review queue.

It's a native Mac app, free & open source, with no dependencies. Hope you find it useful!

https://github.com/madebywindmill/string-into-action

Swift Charts makes it straightforward to put a basic chart on screen. Once you’re working with more complex data, custom presentations, interaction, or accessibility, it helps to understand how the framework interprets and renders the content you give it.

Natalia and I have just released Swift Charts Beyond the Basics. We wrote it for developers who can already build a basic chart and want a deeper understanding of the framework and the decisions involved in turning data into a clear, effective visualization.

The book covers topics including multi-metric visualizations, calendar layouts, heat maps, custom composition and rendering, accessibility, selection, scrolling, responsive updates, and animation. Our aim is to explain the mechanisms behind Swift Charts so that you can apply them to your own datasets and requirements, rather than only reproduce specific examples.

The page includes the full table of contents and a free sample chapter:

books.nilcoalescing.com/swift-charts-beyond-the-basics

We’d be happy to answer any questions about the book or the Swift Charts topics it covers.

It works surprisingly well

This function's powered by swift-format

no signup or paywalls.

built this because i got tired of other ASO tools -- expensive subscriptions and too complex.

this one is simple: research keywords, audit competitors, and compare screenshots side-by-side.

try here: https://ezscreenshots.com/aso