From our daily newsletter, the latest from podnews.net with Podscribe. We have so much to cover today. Apple made a number of announcements at WWDC, and among those relevant for us in podcasting, Apple Podcasts will add a new enhanced dialogue feature in playback, just like independent apps like Overcast and Pocket Casts have had for some time. The description is amplify just the voices in an episode for clearer listening.
Apple Podcasts will also offer more playback speeds, anything between 0.5x and 3x. More importantly, the app will let you save your preferred speed per show. Again, a feature already present in other apps. Overcast's Marco Arment jokingly reacted by saying, I'm screwed, but it should be noted that Apple Podcasts still lacks silence, skipping a key feature of Overcast. The browse button in Apple Podcasts has been renamed new as well.
It now says, discover the best of what's new and what's popular in podcasting. The new themable icons perhaps mean that Apple Podcasts won't always be the purple app. Probably will be by default, though. In other audio-related news, newer versions of Apple's AirPods will be upgraded to add studio-quality audio recording. That's good for interviewees who insist on using AirPods to chat with you.
iPad OS 26 will include audio input controls, allowing you to choose different microphones for each app. If you're listening to a podcast using AirPods while you're in bed, the audio will pause while you fall asleep. And finally, there's an animated now-playing widget for the lock screen. And if we're really lucky, it might work with podcasts in the future, maybe. Elsewhere, an exclusive for you.
Former U.S. Navy SEAL Sean Ryan is working with Ironclad on a new audio docu-series due for release later this year. The podcaster who hosts the Sean Ryan Show with Cumulus beat Joe Rogan's show to number one for a time last year and was also contacted by the person suspected of the Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion. The 2025 winners of the New Zealand Radio and Podcasts Awards were announced.
The podcast of the year was Sports Cafe-ish, which appears to have lost the ish in the last year, from NZME's iHeartRadio New Zealand. And public service broadcaster RNZ won the most awards, gaining six winners. Xenomedia has just been certified for the IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines version 2.2. The New York Times reports that YouTube has relaxed its moderation rules following the lead from Meta and Musk's ex. The podcasting 2.0 website has undergone a rebuild.
To allow anyone to edit and improve it using the power of Markdown, it's at podcasting2.org. Indie podcast show Goalhanger has announced a new free monthly masterclass called Goalhanger's Greenroom. Sessions from the company's producers, editors and commercial leads will be streamed live and free to watch. Sports podcast producer Sports Social has partnered with Audacia Audio to boost podcast advertising across the Asia-Pacific region.
So you'd like to add some podcasting 2.0 features to your podcast, but your podcast host doesn't support them. Or maybe you just like to keep your RSS feed under your own domain rather than the podcast hosting companies. Proxy Feed is a new service that says it'll give you back control of your own RSS feed. We'll link to that in our show notes today.
And in January 2023, Vice Audio's Havana Syndrome and Project Brazen and PRX's The Sound Mystery of Havana Syndrome were both launched with the Project Brazen show winning international awards. But a story about a mysterious unexplained sound that made people ill in Cuba is clearly too good to pass by for podcast commissioners. So it's the BBC's turn from today with the Havana Helmet Club. The first episode is exclusive to BBC Sounds.
For now, the rest of us have to wait a week for it to be available on BBC Audio and Open RSS. Or, you know, we could just listen to the Project Brazen one. In People News, Alex Watson has joined Platform Media's Listen. As Senior Executive Producer, he joins from Pixiu Podcasts. And in podcast news, Russia knows our weaknesses. But do you? Starting today from Sky News and Tortoise Media, The War Game is something unusual from a news organisation.
It's a new podcast series that simulates a Russian attack on the UK. The scenario may be fictional, but the people involved in the podcast are all highly experienced people from the British government. And a $1 million reward has been offered to help solve the case of a crime in Giles County in Tennessee. And the case is the subject of True Crime Reporter, a podcast from Peabody award-winning investigative journalist Robert Riggs.
Investigators have discovered more than 200 possible connections. But is this a perfect crime that nobody will be held responsible for? And this podcast is sponsored by Podscribe. Just launched is the Quarter 2 2025 Podscribe Performance Benchmarks Report. For the first time ever, you can see international benchmarks and the top performing audience segments. You can download the report. It's free to learn how to maximise your campaign performance. There's a link in the show notes.
And that's the latest from our newsletter. To read all the stories and subscribe for free, we're at podnews.net.