Apple:
Podcasts app is the easiest way to discover, subscribe to and play your favorite podcasts on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Explore hundreds of thousands of free audio and video podcasts from the Podcasts Catalog, and play the most popular podcasts, organized for you by topic, with the all-new Top Stations feature.
How awesome is this?
Peter Kafka, All Things D, regarding a possible new Podcasts app for iOS 6:
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.
The future of media lies with independent content producers:
“What we found, and what the advertisers found, is it’s incredibly powerful when the person is speaking to you, whether you’re in the car or making dinner,” Alderman told me. “The conversational tone of podcasts and especially the Slate podcasts make it a truly personal connection.”
The model is not unlike commercial talk radio, or television newscasts of the 1950s. Hosts drop sponsored product mentions into the middle of conversation. They are encouraged to describe their personal experience with the product. Because the ads fit no particular formula, they are hard to tune out.