Overcast

$Free ($12.99/year premium); App Store

SPEND TIME LISTENING TO PODCASTS? THEN THIS IS PURE PODCAST PERFECTION

The best podcast app out there just got even better with a major revision and jump to version 3.

Playback settings can be accessed by swiping left or right, rather than having the controls hidden in the corners of the screen. The control to change the playback order has an explicit label, instead of a tiny triangular icon. And best of all, you can – at last! – create proper playlists. Before, the only option was for Smart Playlists, which added new episodes based on rules you set (such as adding every new episode from one playlist, and a handful from another). That was fine in some cases, but there was no way to make a playlist of cherrypicked episodes.

Now you can create a list of favorites that isn’t updated with every new episode. It’s a minor change, but so good. Our only gripe is that there’s no way to quickly add an episode to a playlist from the Now Playing screen, which would be great for playlist management on the go.

But with all the new interface changes – plus the app’s clever features such as silence shortening and voice boosts – it’s still the best podcast app out there.

ABOVE Interface tweaks don’t sound exciting, but they make a great app near-perfect