It has just been announced that Castro, a podcast app for iOS will receive a very hefty overhaul in the form of Castro 2.

With the official launch being on the 15th August (my birthday), they have released a trailer video which shows how Castro 2 will work.

When I first heard about another podcast app coming, I was initially hesitant to even check it out, because how good Overcast has been to me.

But after watching the video myself, and also checking out the more in-depth article they have on their blog “Castro 2.0: The Servers”, I’m really impressed with the work that has gone into Castro. It also doesn’t just copy the standard conventions of listening to podcasts, especially with the idea of having a general inbox for new episodes, and then a queue for ones you want to listen to.

Even Marco Arment, the creator of Overcast praised Castro:

Competition is matching a feature checklist. Innovation is defining the roadmap. @supertopsquid, true innovators: http://supertop.co/castro/#trailer – Twitter – @marcoarment

If it was just another podcast app, I probably wouldn’t care too much about it, but I’m definitely looking forward to playing with Castro.

It could well become my next favourite podcast app.

Just so I can have it "in writing" if they turn out to be correct.

As I mentioned on Twitter, the dates for the next iPhone (probably iPhone 7):

• Announcement: 7th September
• Pre-Order: 9th September
• Launch: 16th September
• Launch: 16th/23rd September (Updated: 20th August)

Stephen Hackett has written his thoughts on the rumoured OLED touch bar, which could be replacing the function keys of the next line of MacBook Pros.

The iPhone’s solution was to get rid of all of these plastic buttons, and make the entire experience — keyboard and all — take place in software running on a touchscreen.

I think this flexibility has a lot to do with what Apple is up to with this probably-new MacBook Pro.

He puts forward some reasonable concerns, and it’s a point of view I haven’t seen from anyone else.

Recently, John Voorhees reviewed Notebooks for iOS on MacStories, and I decided to give it a try.

From about a week of testing it out, I can see it becoming a very helpful and fundamental app to how I study, research, and organise my third year at university. I will be doing a major project, along with some smaller modules, so the flexibility, document structure, and organisation will suit this well.

It’s way different to any other text editors, and I probably wont directly do my typing in Notebooks, but it will used for more collating. If you deal with any type of project, then I would suggest giving it a quick look.

I have only downloaded this on my iPad so far, but I’ll probably end up getting it on my Mac as well soon.

You can read John’s full review on MacStories, and download Notebooks from the App Store.

Since the first seven Harry Potter books, and the 8 films, we’ve all been dying to sink our teeth into something Potter. Thankfully there’s another film on the way, but there’s also this play – “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”.

The play will receive it’s world premiere in London’s West End on the 30th July, and the book, which is in fact a “Script Book” will be available digitally and physically in print the next day.

This release isn’t the final version, as the definitive version will be released later this year. However, this is the “Special Rehearsal Edition”, and will be whatever the play script it at the time of the play’s preview performances.

If you want to know more about the story, then here is a small description of what you can look forward to:

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes darkness comes from unexpected places.

I’ve already preordered my copy, as I just can’t miss out on it. You can do the same via the iBook Store, or if you want it for another platform, or even in print, then check out Pottermore for more details.

Dieter Bohn writing for Circuit Breaker on The Verge:

Today I did two things I do nearly every day. 1) I bought something using a credit card, and 2) I complained about something on Twitter. But today, the complaint on Twitter was related to payments, and now my replies are blowing up. They’re blowing up because I said a very obvious thing: in the past couple of months, buying something with a credit card in America has become an absolutely awful experience.

This is really stupid. The UK has had chip and pin payments for years, and the US is supposed to be more advanced?

Relay FM have launched another great show, where Jason Snell and David Sparks talk about how they became independent.

From the Relay FM blog:

Last year at WWDC, I had tea with Myke, Jason Snell and David Sparks.

At the time, I was on the fence about leaving my job to work on Relay FM full-time. It made sense on paper, but I was nervous about taking my fate into my own hands.

All three of them were already independent, and were very open about the challenges and rewards that working for yourself brings. (I think they’ll admit there was a little peer pressure going on to, but that’s beside the point.)

Today, Jason and David are launching a new fortnightly podcast named Free Agents. It’s all about work, and while they are both self-employed, the topics on Free Agents are applicable to all sorts of people. – Relay FM Extras

I’m a big fan of both what Jason and David do for their blogs, Six Colors, and MacSparky. So I’m really looking forward to hear everything they have to say about going independent, and any tips they have for the rest of us!

Anyway, the first episode is titled "The Temptation of Yes", where they discuss the problems when saying Yes too much, and also how to narrow your scope when it comes to work.

You can find more about Free Agents, and the first episode on Relay FM. There’s also links to follow them on Twitter, and also on your favourite podcast app.

As you may already know, Scrivener, the great writing app for Mac/Windows, has now come to iOS!

I’ve heard about Scrivener a lot before, and it seems to be the most popular app for novelists. Well as you would presume, it’s pretty feature packed. And I didn’t really know where to start when trying to learn about it. Now it’s on iOS, it seems like that’s version I would use myself.

Fortunately for all potential Scrivener users, the developers, Literature & Latte, have released a 10 minute video which goes over all the features in the iOS app!

Scrivener for iOS – Feature Overview from Literature & Latte on Vimeo.

If you want to read a bit more about Scrivener, here are some articles I found:

• Six Colors – Hands on with Scrivener for iOS
• TidBITS – First Look at Scrivener for iOS
• VentureBeat – Hands-on with the Scrivener writing app for iOS
• 9to5 Mac – Review: Scrivener for iOS app is finally out next week, and it’s worth the wait

Scrivener for iOS will be available on the 20th July in the morning (UK time). So you can either just search Scrivener on the App Store, or use this link which will direct you to the app once it’s live.

I wrote a piece/rant about notifications and how I deal with emails over on Medium.

For a while now, I’ve been slowly turning off notifications on my devices, but today I made the decision to switch off my email notifications as well.

It all comes down to my growing need to focus.

It’s about a 7 minute read, so you may want to put it aside for when you have time. But I hope I can change your mind about how I (and maybe you in the future) deal with notifications.

Read the whole piece on Medium.