Apple Reduces Functionality of Podcasts Recorded on Magnetic Tape ⇥ 9to5mac.com

Apple updated the Podcasts app today with a couple of nice new features, but they replaced my beloved reel-to-reel playback interface with a flatter interface reminiscent of the pre-iOS 6 Music app. I loved the old-school look, though.

No, really.

What are you looking at me like that for?

This release comes on the same day as a Wall Street Journal report which claims that Apple’s software and hardware design teams are working much closer together than they ever have, with Sir Jony Ive guiding the whole process:

Some suggested that in Apple’s next mobile operating system, Ive is pushing a more “flat design” that is starker and simpler, according to developers who have spoken to Apple employees but didn’t have further details.

Hence this satirical reaction from “Policastro the Gouty”:

WAIT OMG JONY IVE REDESIGNED IT, iOS 7 WILL BE THE SECOND COMING OF FLAT/BOLD CHRIST

While I’m excited to see what Ive can do with both OS X and iOS, I’m hesitant to think anything significant will happen to the design or appearance of either this year. It’s a slow change necessitated by not wanting to disorientate the hundreds of millions of users of both.