Apple updates iOS Podcasts app

With the launch of iOS 6, the podcast feature in the music player app was dropped in favor of a standalone app that had to be downloaded separately from the App Store. As is the trend with recent Apple apps, the Podcasts app made heavy use of skeuomorphism for the UI, with a very realistic looking tape deck UI that had moving elements that kept track with the playback of the podcast.

Unfortunately, all that is gone now with the latest update. The new v1.2 brings with it quite a few new features but gets rid of the tape deck UI for a more conventional playback screen that looks like any other music player. Of course, it still has all the functionality from the previous app but it looks nowhere near as cool. Those who hate excessive skeuomorphism UI elements, however, now have a reason to rejoice.

Here are the other changes that are introduced in this new update:

• Create custom stations of your favourite podcasts that update automatically with new episodes
• Choose whether your stations begin playing with the newest or oldest unplayed episode
• Your stations are stored in iCloud and kept up to date on all your devices
• Create an On-The-Go playlist with your own list of episodes
• Playlists synced from iTunes now appear in the Podcasts app
• Addressed an issue with resuming playback when returning to the app
• Additional performance and stability improvements

As before, the app is free and can be downloaded from the link below.

Download