u/Protocontext

With all due respect to the mods, I just wanted to share that NostalgicPod is finally live on the App Store!!!

It's a music player inspired by the iPod Classic, built to work with Apple Music. You can browse your library, playlists, albums and artists with the click wheel, just like back in the day. It runs on the native iOS player, so it keeps working with the screen locked, in the background, and from Control Center.

There's even Cover Flow for flipping through your albums the old-school way.

It's not just Apple Music, though:

• Local music stored on your iPhone
• Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and Navidrome
• Internet radio and podcasts
• The classic iPod games: Music Quiz, Brick, Snake and Solitaire

The default look is slightly modernized. That was actually one of Apple's conditions for approving the app on the App Store. But you can switch to the Classic Ring style anytime from Settings, and I show how to do it in the video.

No subscriptions, no hidden extras, No ads. You pay once and it's yours forever!!

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nostalgicpod/id6781631808

Website: https://nostalgicpod.com/

Want to try it for free first? The TestFlight beta is open: https://testflight.apple.com/join/T3k9TQPu (Heads up: it's the beta version)

Feedback is super welcome, especially from Apple Music users ❤️

A quiet moment from my game! :)

How I made it: The characters and props are built from small voxels, the architecture uses simple low-poly shapes, and the floors and walls have pixel-art textures. A post-processing filter renders it all at low resolution with ink outlines and a tilt-shift blur, so it reads like pixel art: the HD-2D look

I’ve been working on this game for the past few months and I’m hoping to release it on iOS and the Play Store!

The idea is simple: you fly a rescue helicopter over flooded cities, pick people up from rooftops and balconies, form a human chain, and get everyone to safety before the water rises.

It’s level-based, with different cities around the world, plus storms, lightning, tornadoes and other hazards. I’m trying to keep it simple, fun and very “pick up and play”.

Here’s some gameplay :)

I've been working on this for the past few months because I really wanted to bring back a music experience I missed: the Zune HD / Windows Phone 8/10 era.

That's how NostalgicFlow started!

A big part of Flow was actually built with the help of testers from r/Zune here on Reddit. Their feedback during development helped me get a lot of the little details right, so a huge thank you to everyone there who tested it, reported issues and gave me ideas along the way!

The idea is pretty simple: bring back that music experience, but without being stuck in the past

It supports local music, Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and Navidrome, plus live radio and podcasts, with lossless and Hi-Res playback, all wrapped in an interface heavily inspired by Zune and Windows Phone (Android Auto support is coming soon too)

Some of you might also know me as the developer of NostalgicPod, my iPod Classic-style music player. Working on Pod and getting feedback from its users taught me a lot about what people still want from a dedicated music player, and a lot of those lessons went directly into Flow.

I also wanted to keep the same philosophy here. There are no subscriptions, no ads, no accounts and no tracking of any kind. The app doesn't even use push notifications. I really wanted it to just be a music player and nothing else

That's also why I made it a simple one-time purchase. I hate ads, I don't want to collect or sell user data, and I don't think an app like this needs another monthly subscription. A small one-time payment helps me keep working on it, maintain it and add new things over time!

And actually, Flow is only part of what I'm working on:

I'm currently building a much bigger Windows Phone / Zune-inspired launcher for Android. But I don't want it to be just another launcher that puts some Metro-looking tiles on the home screen and stops there.

The idea is to integrate it as deeply as Android allows so that using the phone actually feels like using Windows Phone again, not only the home screen, but as much of the overall system experience as I can realistically recreate. Navigation, animations, typography, app interactions, notifications, system surfaces and the little details that made Windows Phone feel like one coherent OS, basically, I want to see how far I can push Android toward feeling almost completely like a modern Windows Phone rather than simply looking like one on the home screen

It's still in development, but if everything goes well I'll probably come back here in the next few weeks looking for testers. I honestly think this community will be the perfect place to help me get it right :)

For now though, Flow is the first part of that idea, and it's already available.

Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nostalgicflow.app

iOS TestFlight (you can connect your Apple Music account):
https://testflight.apple.com/join/AArmYhd8

The iOS version is currently under review by Apple, but you can already try the beta through TestFlight. I'll update this post as soon as the App Store version is available.

And most importantly, if you buy the app and have any problem with it, or it simply doesn't work properly on your device, please don't hesitate to request a refund or just message me here and I'll take care of it manually. I don't want anyone paying for something they can't use!

it's basically done. waiting on google to approve my new developer account so i can publish it.

stuff i added since the first post:

• lossless FLAC up to 24-bit / 192 kHz
• external folders (sd card, usb, wherever your music lives)
• cover art that pulls in automatically, like itunes used to do
• lyrics that pull in automatically too

nostalgicpod.com

one thing i wanted to ask. i'm planning to make it paid. one-time, somewhere between 4 and 6 dollars, yours forever. no subscription, no ads, no microtransactions, no "pro tier", no unlockable extras. everything included from day one. trying to make it a real ipod experience brought a little bit into the current year.

does that price feel fair for what it is, or off?

also — if anyone wants in on the private beta before launch, drop a comment or dm and i'll add you to the list. android only for now.

new:

quick summary for anyone arriving now:

• still waiting on google to approve my developer account. hoping a few days, maybe up to a week max. then the beta opens.
• around $5 one-time (with launch discount), no subscription, no ads, no microtransactions, no tracking. free trial first!
• private beta sign up here: https://forms.gle/csMwaPK5zkun33nE6
• whatsapp + telegram groups for updates on the landing: nostalgicpod.com

honestly didn't expect this many requests — i can't reply to every dm individually anymore. the form is the cleanest way to keep track of everyone. picking around 20 people for the first round to keep things manageable since it's just me building this. thanks for being here.

i'm just tired of every music app right now. mainly spotify since that's what i use.

it keeps pushing podcasts in the middle of my songs. wants me to scroll, to discover, to engage with stuff i didn't ask for. all i want is to listen to the music i already have.

i had an iPod Classic years ago. don't even remember exactly what happened to it, probably in a drawer somewhere or dead by now. but i remember how it felt to use it. you put your songs on, it played them, that was the whole thing.

i've been missing that for a long time.

so i'm making an android app that tries to bring that feeling back. you drop your mp3s or flacs into a folder and the app plays them. no streaming, no account, no recommendations. cover flow because i missed it. the wheel because the wheel.

still building it. still rough in places. close but not done.

https://nostalgicpod.com

asking here because maybe nobody else feels this way and i'm making a thing for an audience of one. would you actually open something like this, or does it sound stupid out loud.