Apple added full transcript search to its podcast directory in iOS 13. If you’re running the iOS beta on your iPhone or iPad, and also on the Mac, you can take advantage of this new feature right now. Even though you can’t actually read the podcast transcripts, this is still huge. You can search across the content of podcast episodes the way you can search websites with DuckDuckGo (or other search engines) today.

Overcast, the podcast app of choice for lovers of good design, powerful-yet-straightforward features, and the color orange, just added a brand-new recommendations feature.

Previously, Overcast used a Twitter-based recommendation engine. But developer Marco Arment says almost nobody used it. Now, he’s replaced it with recommendations based on users’ personal listening habits, and the result is amazing. I already added a few new podcast subscriptions based on its suggestions.

Apple’s plan to ditch iTunes starts this fall with the release of macOS Catalina, which will offer standalone apps for Music, Podcasts, and TV.

WWDC offered a brief glimpse at how other things — like syncing iOS devices — would work after the update. Now Apple has published a new support document that explains everything for those who are still confused.

The document promises that “all of your favorite iTunes features” will still be available in Catalina. And it tells you where they will be.

With a podcast like the CultCast, you can drop in and start listening at any time. News-based podcasts are meant to be listened to, and then discarded. Another one will be along soon. But what about more structured podcasts? Podcasts that work episodically, like a TV series? With those, you want to listen from episode one, and listen in order — episodes 2, 3, 4, etc.

But podcast apps don’t let you do this. They’re geared towards disposable, periodically-updated podcasts. They may show you a list of previous episodes, so you can tap to download them manually, but then it’s no longer a podcast.

What you need is a service that takes any podcast feed and rejigs it, serving you a new episode each week as if the series had just started.

The Mac’s next-generation Music app will be based on iTunes, not ported over from iOS.

Some sources previously stated that the app would be made using Marzipan, which lets developers easily port iPad apps to the desktop. But new information reveals that won’t be the case.

You’re listening to an awesome podcast, and one of the hosts makes a super-smart point about a fascinating subject. It’s so good that you just want to share it with people. But how? Tweet a link to the podcast along with a timecode so folks can hunt down that pithy quip themselves? Good luck! People on Twitter are too lazy to… well, they’re just too lazy.

But if you use the Overcast podcast player app, then you can now share a short audio or video clip of any podcast, to Twitter, Instagram, or anywhere else. It’s dead easy, and it might be the best thing to happen to podcasts in quite a while.

Evidence of Apple’s plan to break up iTunes has been uncovered ahead of the next major macOS update.

Icons for new Podcasts and TV apps have leaked out early. They’re expected to be accompanied by a new Music app and a redesigned Books app — all based on their counterparts for iOS.

Apple is walking back yesterday’s warning to podcast producers that putting episode numbers in titles risked the podcast getting kicked out of Apple’s service.

It’s likely complaints from users brought about the change in this policy.

Apple is contacting podcast producers requesting that they optimize the metadata for their shows — or risk having them removed from Apple’s podcast service.

The cautionary email mostly concerns guidelines on including detailed, nonredundant written descriptions of episodes. However, the Apple Podcasts email contains a few surprising directives — like the fact that titles should not include numbers. Provided that’s read as intended, this could cause a few problems!

Scoring a top spot on Apple’s podcast charts is a lot easier — and a lot cheaper — than most listeners probably realize.

Many podcast fans use Apple’s charts on iTunes and its iOS app to find new shows and gauge what’s popular right now. However, an intriguing new report reveals that some shows are paying for a place at the top and its shockingly inexpensive to game the charts.