0.12: the first open release

From open beta to 0.12

0.12 is out: our first open, stable release. It ships on every platform at once — Linux, macOS, Windows, Android and iOS — because Nucube has been multiplatform from the start. What is new is where iPhone and iPad users can get it: Nucube is now on the App Store, worldwide, EU included, and on AltStore PAL (EU, Japan, Brazil).

On Android, 0.12 installs from Zapstore or as an APK from the download page. The Google Play listing is still in closed testing, for paperwork reasons.

Here is the whole package. Nucube finds the music on your network by itself: DLNA servers, as before, and now Samba and NFS shares too. It scans them into one album-first library, without moving or tagging a single file. It plays that library on the device, or sends it to a UPnP / OpenHome renderer in the room. And the same library follows you from the desktop to your phone.

How we got here is short. Builds through 0.9 were private. The 0.11 builds were the open public beta, the run-up to 0.12.0. Odd numbers are where we build, even numbers are stable — the old Linux way. In Nucube starts here we wrote down the path and the principles; this post is what the beta cycle fixed.

Your NAS, now a first-class source

The cycle had one main job: make music on Samba and NFS shares play properly, everywhere.

Playing from a share used to work — mostly, until it didn’t. Slow starts, dropouts on a bad Wi-Fi day, the occasional album that refused to behave. Now every platform plays share audio through the same solid path as local files, streaming it as you listen instead of copying it first. Gapless works. It keeps up on slow networks. NFS is a full library source next to Samba: connect, pick your export, scan, play. Cue-sheet albums import as proper albums, and both kinds of share scan much faster than in the private builds.

Sending share music to a renderer works properly too. Skipping around while the music comes from the NAS no longer trips over playback, and Android keeps renderer playback going in the background. Share music is not the awkward cousin anymore. Same app, same rules, same sound.

What else is in it

• The screens. Playback, Audio, Add library, network discovery, Settings and the album page got a real pass, not a coat of paint. The app icon finally looks like an app icon.
• Renderer manners. Switching renderer, or coming back to this device, keeps queue and position. A phone used only as a remote no longer steals the renderer.
• Scanning. Cancel a running scan, retry only the failures, copy every error at once.
• Formats. APE and WavPack scan from folders and shares; for now, they play through a UPnP / OpenHome renderer.
• Look and language. Official light and dark themes. Italian is a complete second language.
• Tablets. Nucube runs on Android tablets and on iPad.

None of this turns Nucube into a server. There is no library to migrate into, no daemon to babysit. The files stay on the share. The desktop does the first scan and can then be switched off.

Try it

If your library is on a NAS: install 0.12, point it at the Samba or NFS share, scan once, and play an album gapless at the desk. Then sync the library to your phone and send the same album to a renderer in the room.

Get Nucube 0.12 — for desktop, Android, iPhone and iPad.

Work on 0.13 is already under way. If you want new builds before they are public, iOS has a TestFlight beta.

Current build: 0.12.0 (17 September 2026).