Your own Pokémon

GM, legends. Welcome back to another edition of the Leaderboard. We've got Pokémon for developers, an emotional AI, a tool for all you list addicts, and of course the rundown on yesterday's top launches. Let's get into it.

Pearl: An AI journal that reflects with you.

The AI journaling space is packed, and let’s be honest, most options are just ChatGPT with a $3.99 price tag. Pearl, though, manages to break the mold a bit. Instead of generic reflections, it gives you an emotional graph of your entries, connects them in a mind-map style (think Roam Research vibes), and even wraps things up with a weekly recap—complete with stats and a horoscope-like summary. I’m still not sold on AI replacing therapy, but as a tool for day-to-day introspection? Pearl feels like it’s onto something more thoughtful than just slapping a chatbot into your diary.

vscode-pokémon: An extension that brings Pokémon into your IDE.

Whatever it is, slap Pokemon on it and I'm there (except maybe a vape). And vsc-pokemon is no exception. As soon as I saw it, I downloaded and tested it in Curosr...and oh god it worked beautifully. It does nothing other than allow you to choose Pokemon to wander around your IDE but let me tell you it's great. Computers and internet should be fun, not just full of productivity apps - so I thank builders like Jakob who release little fun things that also tie in a bit of our childhood. Btw I have Pidgeot, Pikachu, Mew, Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur as my 6 roaming around. Strongest? no. Cute? yes. Who are yours?

Hypelist: Get personalized recommendations of everything you love

Hypelist lets you create, share, and discover AI-enhanced lists about basically anything. Top coffee spots in Barcelona, best 80s horror movies, tips for finding good flea markets in LA…the possibilities are endless. The goal here seems to be creating a central hub for recommendations that are currently scattered across lots of different apps like Letterboxd, Reddit, Yelp, TikTok and IG. Of course, apps like these live or die on the strength of their networks. My advice to Hypelist? Start by trying to corner the 18-21 year old market. Everyone else will follow.