In iOS 6 Apple has made some quite interesting changes, one of them having to do with podcasts because they no longer have a dedicated menu in the application iTunes from our iDevices. It seems that Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), removed that section from the iTunes application because would be interested to launch a separate application in which to offer users more options for discovering, downloading and viewing podcasts. The same thing happened in the case of iBooks, iTunes U or Videos applications, and this year it was the turn of podcasts.
So why have podcasts disappeared from the new version of iTunes that Apple started showing to developers this week? Because Apple plans on giving the recordings their own bit of digital turf. People familiar with Apple's plans tell me that when its new iOS 6 software becomes widely available this fall, podcasts will have their own app, where users will be able to discover, download and play them on mobile devices. Users who access iTunes via laptop and desktop machines will still find them in that version of iTunes, though.
However, the new application for Podcasts will not have the functionality of displaying only the podcasts available in iTunes, but she might allow users to make their own Podcasts. Apple is currently working on the development of such an option for the application and we should have it available in the fall when iOS 6 would be officially launched. Finally, I will tell you that the iTunes U/Audiobooks sections have also disappeared from the iTunes application, but only for the latter we might have a dedicated application in iOS.
