Apple drops another hint at standalone podcasts app for Mac

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The hints that Apple is planning to break up iTunes offerings into distinct apps just keep coming. The latest: Apple has added its own hints at what's to come with an update to its Podcasts.Apple.com page, as reported by 9to5Mac.

We've previously reported on the iTunes breakup for Mac expected to coincide with the major update known as macOS 10.15.

This new hint comes in the form of a changed button within iTunes. Previously, when viewing podcasts on Apple's website, a button offered a jumping off point to listen to the podcast in iTunes. Now, that button has been replaced with a "Listen on Apple Podcasts" button.

Though this new button still directs to iTunes, it's highly likely that the button will direct to a standalone Apple Podcasts app when macOS 10.15 launches with said app.

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More coming to macOS 10.15

The Apple Podcasts app is just one of the components broken off of iTunes that's expect with macOS 10.15. Standalone apps for Apple Music and Apple Books may also come, and they'll likely be developed using Apple's Marzipan technology. This would leave them feeling mostly similar to their iOS versions.

Beyond these apps, macOS 10.15 may come with some other cool features. One is the integration of Siri Shortcuts, which allow for voice-triggered, automated tasks. When it comes to productivity, this feature could let Mac users get routine tasks done much quicker.

Apple Sidecar is another expected feature. This would enable use of an iPad as a secondary display with a Mac. Not only would the extra screen real estate benefit productivity, but the feature should allow touch and stylus use on the tablet. This would effectively make the tablet double as a convenient pen display backed by the full desktop versions of software like Photoshop.

We'll have to wait and see how many of these rumors pan out, but there are strong hints for all the ones mentioned here. Apple will likely debut macOS 10.15 at WWDC 2019 and release it toward September this year.

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