Today, Apple released a new stand-alone Podcasts app for the iPhone and iPad, breaking the podcast feature out of the Music app.

The new Podcasts app features the refreshed design language that Apple is applying to all of its stock apps for iOS 6 coming this fall, and lets users stream podcast episodes to their mobile devices over Wi-Fi or cellular connections.

Alternatively, episodes can be downloaded to the devices for offline viewing or listening.

Users can browse available episodes in over 40 languages, choose between Audio or Video podcasts, sync playback status between devices, sync favorite episodes with iTunes on a computer, and share favorite episodes with others through Twitter, Messages, or Mail. Podcasts also features a sleep timer that will automatically stop the playback after a set time.

Podcasts for iOS is free and available in the iTunes App Store now.

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