Podcasts

There may be another streaming war over the horizon, but instead of movies and television, service providers such as Spotify are looking to scoop up popular podcasts. While Apple has typically stayed away from creating its own podcasts, the two companies may be looking to acquire third party creators to entice more listeners to subscribe to their music streaming services. According to The Wall Street Journal, Spotify's first big move will be to purchase the Ringer, a network of sports and pop culture podcasts headed by ex-ESPN analyst Bill Simmons.

If you are an avid podcast fan then you should know how to queue episodes from a variety of shows, just as you would make a playlist of your favorite music. You may not want your show to end and automatically start playing the next episode, especially if it is a hit-or-miss type show. Even worse, you don't want your show to end and then start playing another episode that you've already heard. Curating playlists is essential for long car trips and flights - who wants to have to spend time searching for another interesting podcast to listen to, especially when they are driving?

The native Podcasts app on the iPhone, while completely functional, leaves a lot to be desired for some users. It does not offer the most intuitive user interface and the layout just seems a bit confused, but the real deal breaker is the woefully underdeveloped playlist system - you can't even view your playlist! If it works for you, by all means stick with it, but if it grates on your nerves a bit, there are plenty of other third-party options out there. Here are five to check out that might suit your tastes better than Apple's Podcasts:

The Podcast App

Many iPhone, iPad and iPod touch owners don't realize how many podcasts are downloading automatically and are stored on their devices. These podcast episodes take up valuable storage space, but they can be easily managed. Checking to see how much storage has been used by the iOS Podcasts app and deleting unwanted podcasts only takes a few steps.