I wasted far too long debugging this.

codex, kept insisting we throw more javascript at it.
It didnt think about making a simple example, to test, verify.

Only once I pushed back and we dived into it, did we start to peel back the bug, and the paper trail on the internet.

This was only reproducible on a physical device.

What this experience highlighted for me, keep using AI, but if they fail to fix it after the first bug fix attempt, do an old fashioned search to see if the problem has any history.

As sure enough, signs were there.

Hi everyone! I'm a solo developer, and I've turned the street game I grew up playing in India, Lagori (Seven Stones / Pithu), into a chaotic little party game for iPhone and iPad.

How it plays: one team throws a ball to knock down a stack of seven stones, then races to rebuild it while the other team tries to tag them out with the ball. Finish the stack and you score: LAGORI!

What's in the beta:

• Play against bots (Classic, Quick Stack, Survival and a Daily Challenge)
• Nearby party: play with friends in the same room, no internet needed
• Online matches through Game Center: quick match, invite friends, or SharePlay. Empty seats fill with bots.
• Team voice chat in multiplayer
• 4 arenas with hazards (spinning sweepers, slippery ice, wind)
• A game speed slider, if you want more time to react

What I'd love feedback on:

• Is it fun? Are the controls clear?
• Multiplayer: does joining work, and does it stay smooth?
• Anything confusing, broken or annoying

If something goes wrong, tap the 🐞 button on the main menu to send me a log, or take a screenshot and use TestFlight's feedback option.

Needs iOS 18 or later. No sign-up needed (online play uses your Game Center account). Free.

Thanks for helping! I'll be in the comments.

So basically I’m building an iOS/ipad os app.
It’s a video editor.

My question is:

I want to make some functionality to be downloadable through a server, like presets, new packs, luts etc…
Maybe some new features etc…
Also handle user data like credentials, information etc…

Can I do it with a home server like running on a Mac mini for free ?
Or do I need to use 3rd party servers and services?

How is the local alternative handle the users, like more than 10k users simultaneously downloading stuff, updating their apps etc…

Is it possible to run this idea on a home server completely for free or almost free, or do I need to pay for this service ?
And how much will it cost me +/-?

Can someone help me please?

I ship a few small apps on my own, and localization was always the task I put off. Pasting strings into a chat window "works" until a translation drops a %@ or turns %1$@ … %2$@ into something String(format:) doesn't like, and you find out from a crash report.

Here's the approach that finally made it boring (in a good way):

1. Only translate what's missing. .xcstrings is just JSON. For each key, check localizations[lang]: no entry, an empty value, or state == "new" means it needs work. Skip shouldTranslate: false. If there's no source localization, the key itself is the English text. That one tripped me up.

2. Send comments, not just strings. I batch around 40 strings as JSON {id: {text, comment}}. The comment field (the one you set with String(localized:comment:)) is what stops "Delete" and "Save" from being translated as the wrong part of speech. Strings with no comment get noticeably worse translations.

3. Validate placeholders with code, not trust. Count the placeholder tokens in source and target with a regex (%@, %lld, %1$@, %.1f, %%, \(name), tags) and compare them as multisets. Reordering positional ones is fine; missing or extra ones are not. On a mismatch, retry that single string once with the error in the prompt. If it fails again, leave it untranslated and report it.

4. Plurals need the target's categories. English has one/other. Russian and Polish need one/few/many/other, and Japanese only other. Ask for exactly those keys and validate them.

5. Write it back the way Xcode does. json.dumps(data, indent=2, separators=(",", " : "), sort_keys=True, ensure_ascii=False) matches Xcode's own formatting, so the diff only shows real changes.

6. Mark everything needs_review. Then you can see in Xcode what no human has checked yet.

The system prompt I use:

You are a senior software localizer translating iOS app UI strings from English into {language}.
- Keep EVERY placeholder and markup token exactly: %@, %d, %lld, %1$@, %.1f, %%, \(name), <b>.
  You may reorder positional placeholders for grammar, never drop or add one.
- Use the developer comment to understand where the string appears.
- Buttons/tabs stay about as short as the source. No added punctuation.
- Follow the glossary exactly; never translate brand names.

Happy to answer questions about edge cases (device variations and substitutions I still do by hand).

I’m working on a personal Card Vault app using React Native, which I’m planning to support on Android, iOS, and Windows. I want to add a feature that lets me read EMV data from my own bank cards using NFC, rather than having to enter everything manually.
I’m developing on Windows, and unfortunately, I don’t have access to a Mac or Xcode. Since this is just a personal project, buying a Mac or paying for the $99 Apple Developer Program subscription isn’t really an option for me right now.
I’m hoping to find someone with a Mac and Xcode who’d be willing to help me get the iOS NFC functionality working.
Here’s what I need help with:
Implementing NFC reading for compatible EMV bank cards using Apple’s Core NFC.
Connecting the native Swift code to my React Native app.
Setting up the required NFC capabilities and figuring out what data can actually be read.
Building and testing it on a physical iPhone.
I’m handling the rest of the app myself, so I mainly need help with the iOS-specific parts that I can’t properly work on from Windows.
I understand that bank cards have security restrictions and that not all data will be accessible. I just want to explore what’s possible with my own cards, not clone them or bypass any security.
I’d be happy to collaborate through GitHub and share a small test project to make things easier.
I can’t offer paid work at the moment, but if anyone could spare some time to help, offer guidance, or let me use their Mac/Xcode environment briefly, I’d really appreciate it. If you’ve worked with Core NFC or EMV card reading before, I’d especially love to hear about your experience.
If you have any suggestions or know of an affordable way to get this working, feel free to comment or DM me.
Thanks for reading! Any help would mean a lot.

TL;DR: I’m building a personal React Native Card Vault app on Windows and need help implementing and testing iOS NFC reading for EMV bank cards. I don’t have a Mac or Xcode and can’t afford one right now. If you have Mac/Xcode access or experience with Core NFC and EMV cards, I’d really appreciate any help or guidance!

I’ve always ignored the size of my app. But now that I’m approaching 1gb I’m imagining how many potential users I’m losing at the download phase. Perhaps a metric I’ll never truly have visibility into. How do others view this topic?