T
hevisualsplashthatcomeswith
eachpodcastepisode(1)is
immediatelyobviousandbrings
withit a sensethatthereis a lottolearn
andenjoywithintheappandthroughthe
thousandsofavailablechannels.Ontop
ofthisApplehasmadeeffortstoensure
thattheappfeelsfamiliarwiththesidebar
reminiscentoftherecentlydeparted
iTunes(2). ThefactthatPodcastsis now
a singularappalsomeansthatthereis a
cleanerlookandthatthemediastands
in thecentrereadytobeaccessedatany
timewithonlya fewsimplecontrols(3)
carefullyplacedforyoutointeractwith.
Thisin turnleadstheusertoseewith
easewhatis availableandtodiscover
newpodcasts(4)thatmaybewortha
listenwhichcanleadtosubscribingand
hoursoffutureentertainmentcompletely
forfree.Podcastsis a bigdealandit will
onlygetbigger,andAppleis coveringthe
baseswellin macOSCatalina.Podcasts move forward
Weareonlyatthebeginningofthe
podcastsphenomenonandApple
is centrestageIntroducing macOS Catalina
Reminders is no longer the poor relation of third-party
offerings. Apple has completely changed how it worksReminders
U
p until now Reminders has been
a very basic app for quickly
capturing things you need to do
and overall it has done what it needs to
effectively. It is very reliable and simple
in its visual presentation, but it has been
severely limited for anything other than
simple checklists for stuff that needs to
be completed.New and improved
In iOS 13 and macOS Catalina this has
all changed because the app has been
rebuilt from the ground up to keep the
overall reliability while bringing much
more advanced functionality to the
experience. The entire way you create
and edit reminders has been changed to
make it feel more natural in use and the
quick toolbar is especially useful once youget used to what it can do. It also allows
Siri to suggest new reminders based on
information found in your Messages
and the smart list feature will ensure
that any number of reminders are
organised in a logical way. The
presentation of the app remains very
clean, even when you are editing lists
of reminders which brings a sense
of calm to the experience which is
not present in competing apps that
are designed to also deal with busy
reminder schedules.Handy notifications
One more simple addition is that
you will be notified of a reminder if
you tagged someone the next time
you are communicating with them
in Messages. The app still doesn’treach the highly complex feature set
of some third-party apps, but it really
does not need to. If you take the time to
understand how it works you will never
forget anything again.4
2
3
1