The Apple Podcasts app is reportedly getting a facelift. The version debuting in iOS 14 will supposedly include a “For You” tab with suggestions based on podcasts the user is already subscribed to.
Stuck at home? Time to start a podcast [Deals]
Even before the pandemic, podcasting showed that great content can come from anywhere, even your living room. So if you’re twiddling your thumbs, use them to press record and get your thoughts out to the world. This massive bundle of lessons will show you how to do it right.
We talk AirPods X, Apple Face Shield and the (incoming!) 14-inch MacBook Pro, on The CultCast
This week on The CultCast: A tipster says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro is right around the corner! We’ll tell you what we know. Plus: Apple is readying its secret over-the-ear headphones, and a mysterious little product called the AirPods X. We discuss! And we wrap up with a USB-C charger that can charge it all, Logitech’s new StreamCam and a double-duty iPhone/Apple Watch stand in an all-new Under Review.
Take your mind off COVID-19 with Relic Radio vintage radio podcasts [What We’re Into]
The nonstop onslaught of coronavirus news is making me a little crazy. Headlines asides, COVID-19-related content even infects the stream of shows in my Podcasts app. To ease my coronapanic, lately I’ve been binging on something a lot more relaxing: vintage radio podcasts from Relic Radio.
Served up through a variety of free podcasts, these old-time radio dramas really help take my mind off the rapidly unfolding COVID-19 horror show.
How to make private, at-home podcasts for family and friends
You’re stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic, and maybe you’re spending lots of time keeping up with family and friends. But here’s an idea: Why not make a podcast? Not that you should stop actually talking to the people you like and love, but as a home project, making a podcast is a lot of fun.
And if you’re a musician, or you have kids, you can do a lot more than just monologuing into your iPhone’s mic. You can talk, add music, interview other family members, and anything else you can think of. Then, your friends and family will have a cool show to look forward to every day, or however often you publish.
iPad Pro’s been supercharged, but not how you think … we discuss! On The CultCast
This week on The CultCast: Forget the A12Z and LiDAR Scanner, it’s iPadOS and the new Magic Keyboard that just supercharged the iPad Pro — we discuss! Plus, we’ll tell you the best new features in iOS 13.4. And Tim Cook, aka The Cookie, uses Apple’s massive supply chain prowess to deliver hugely needed supplies for medical workers — we got the story for ya right here!
Our thanks to LinkedIn for supporting this episode. A business is only as strong as its people, and every hire matters. So head to LinkedIn.com/cultcast and get a $50 credit toward your first job post.
Google Podcasts bags a brand-new look and key features on iOS
Google in recent days began rolling out a brand-new look for its Podcasts app on iOS for mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad. The overhaul integrates a number of new features into a cleaner user interface that’s split into just three tabs.
The changes are designed to make using Google Podcasts easier and more enjoyable — and to bring it up to speed with rivals.
Apple Podcasts puts COVID-19 coverage front and center
Apple is making it easier for Podcasts users to discover new shows focused on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The app’s new “Coronavirus: Stay Informed” section highlights content from the likes of CNN, NPR, BBC and ABC News.
ConnectionOpen is like Skype for musicians
If you sit in front of an iPad typing up Apple-related how-tos all day long, then working from home is no problem. In fact, it’s simply the next step up from “working from bed.” But for some professions, like musicians, working from home is difficult if not impossible. You might have a home studio, but you still need to get the band together to record them.
Or do you? ConnectionOpen is an app that lets musicians play together over the internet. The wild thing is, it’s a standard plugin for Logic, Ableton, Pro Tools and other audio-editing apps. And now, it’s also available for the iPad.
iOS 14 leaks, and it’s packed with great features. Catch the discussion on The CultCast
This week on The CultCast: iOS 14 leaks! We’ll run you through the best new features. Plus: Corona has hit the tech industry hard, and will mean delays for some of your most anticipated gadgets. Is Apple’s rumored March event canceled too? We’ll tell you what we know.
Spotify wants labels to pay for playlist promos
Spotify is reportedly making a big push to get record labels to pay to promote artists’ music in its service as a new way to generate revenue.
Despite having nearly double the number of paid subscribers as Apple Music, Spotify still isn’t a profitable company and is looking to the music industry to help it create new revenue streams. Although the talks are still ongoing, you could soon see sponsored songs in your playlists and other areas of the app.
More details emerge on Apple’s ARM Mac and AirTags — catch the discussion on The CultCast!
This week on The CultCast: Apple’s first ARM-based Mac is headed our way — we’ll tell you what we know. Plus, Apple’s new AirTags tracking tiles will be unlike anything we’ve seen, and way more powerful than we thought. We discuss! And stay tuned — we’ll tell you the weird rule Apple makes big movies follow if they want to put iPhones or Macs on the silver screen.
Out thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast, and use offer code CultCast at checkout for 10% off your first purchase.
How to make music like the Apple fan who made Steve Jobs dance
Few of us know what it’s like to have our music played at an Apple keynote, but 37-year-old Apple fan Jonathan Mann does. Way back in the days of the iPhone 4, he composed a song about Apple’s Antennagate PR disaster. Not only did it get played at an Apple event, it actually made Steve Jobs dance.
For the past 11 years, Mann has recorded a new song every day, using his trusty Mac setup. That’s more than 4,000 songs in total. Now he’s launched a new podcast revealing his creative process. And, true to form, the latest episode features a song about the Mac Pro.
“My first computer, when I was just a toddler, was an Apple IIe,” Mann told Cult of Mac. “My mom used it for work, and my favorite activity was just to hold down different keys on the boot screen and watch the letters go and go.”
Apple may be prepping a super-charged gaming Mac. Seriously. We discuss, on The CultCast
This week on The CultCast: According to a new report, Apple is prepping a new super-charged gaming Mac for WWDC! We discuss… Plus: full-screen TouchID will be replacing FaceID in a notch-less 2020 iPhone, at least according to a new rumor.
Our thanks to Linked In for supporting this episode. A business is only as strong as its people, and every hire matters… head to LinkedIn.com/cultcast and get a $50 credit toward your first job post.
Record a podcast or vlog straight from your iPhone [Deals]
Podcasting and vlogging are the platforms of our age. So if you want to reach people, you want to be able to easily record high quality audio and video. Our iPhones already record pretty great video, but the little built-in mic struggles with quality audio. That’s where this compact condenser mic comes in.
macOS Catalina is out with new apps, Apple Arcade, Sidecar and more
Apple’s big update for Macs, macOS Catalina, is finally out today bringing with it a host of new features, apps, privacy improvements, and much more.
Developers just received the gold master version of macOS Catalina last week, but today’s launch was a bit of a surprise. Anyone that has a compatible Mac can grab the new update from the Mac App Store for free.
Pocket Casts goes free with optional ‘Plus’ subscription
Pocket Casts, one of the best third-party podcast apps on iOS, is now available for free.
It won’t cost you anything to download the app anymore, and you’ll get to enjoy some of its best features — like cross-platform syncing and the dark theme — for absolutely nothing.
An optional Pocket Casts Plus subscription, priced at just $0.99 a month, gets you even more.
iPhone photo contest winner dishes on Apple in new podcast
Each finished work of art has a backstory and Andrew Griswold’s podcast Just Outside the Artboard focuses on what happens between idea and creation.
His first episode, launched Aug. 23, gave him plenty to talk about as one of the 10 winners of Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” challenge.
How to search podcast transcripts in iOS 13
Apple added full transcript search to its podcast directory in iOS 13. 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 adds fantastic new podcast recommendations feature
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.
These 8 words persuaded Angela Ahrendts to join Apple
It took Apple nearly a year to convince Angela Ahrendts to ditch Burberry join Apple as the company’s head of retail.
Ahrendts discussed Apple’s recruiting process in a recent podcast interview and said a 2012 Fortune magazine feature put her on Apple’s radar because Tim Cook was on the cover. Cook apparently tried to get Ahrendts to join Apple shortly after but Ahrendts felt like the timing wasn’t right. Months passed and she had another meeting with Cook who said eight words that completely changed Ahrendts’ life.
Apple explains iTunes changes in macOS Catalina
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.
How to subscribe to a podcast from the beginning
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.
Mac’s new Music app won’t be ported from iOS
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.
How to share podcast clips with Overcast
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.