Apple's upcoming iOS 145 update offers a number of high-profile changes that were revealed during the months-long beta process, with features like the ability to unlock your phone with the Apple Watch and a new voice for Siri getting the most attention, but some familiar built-in apps have also been enhanced

Maps will probably get the biggest overhaul, with the addition of the ability to report traffic accidents and speed traps However, less heralded changes have been made to apps such as Podcasts, Reminders, and News, which are already present in the current iOS 145 beta version

Let's take a closer look at the enhancements Apple is making to some of the built-in apps in iOS 14

The built-in Podcasts app received the most significant changes in iOS 145, with Apple introducing a redesigned shows page for podcasts From the show page (think of it as the home screen for each podcast), you can control playback Scroll down to see the episode list, and swipe left to automatically save individual episodes to your library

The Up Next screen has also been refreshed, with more menu commands for managing and sharing downloads and jumping to other episodes

On a personal note, the iOS Podcasts app is not my favorite of the built-in tools However, the changes in the full version of iOS 145 should make Apple's Podcasts more competitive against some of the best podcast apps out there

Reminders saw some major changes when iOS 14 debuted last fall That was when Task Manager got the ability to share to-do lists with others

The changes to Reminders in iOS 145 are of the more housekeeping variety, but they should make it easier to manage your tasks in the app Tapping the Details button in the iOS 145 version of Reminders - it's a circle with three horizontal dots in the middle - will reveal a new sorting option that allows you to sort reminders by everything from due date to title to priority Previously, if you wanted to sort tasks, you had to drag them manually

If you prefer paper lists to on-screen to-do lists, the updated version of Reminders also allows you to print task lists This is another new option added to the "Other" menu

Searching in the News app will get better once Apple releases iOS 145 to more users First, the app now has a dedicated search tab; prior to iOS 144, users had to first tap the "Follow" tab to search

Search results have also been cleaned up, and news now displays stories, topics, and channels Gone are the top results displayed in the current version of News Search

If you subscribe to News Plus - Apple's $999/month subscription news service - the appearance of tabs in the News app will also change The tabs at the top of the page have been renamed and reorganized with an eye toward making browsing and discovery easier

We are currently in beta 8 of iOS 145, with only a slight promise of a spring launch for the full release It could come as soon as this week, when Apple will hold a special press event to showcase new products An updated iPad Pro and the long-awaited AirTags key finder should be the focus of the Apple Spring Loaded event on April 20, but the company could take this opportunity to finally give us a definite date on the release of iOS 145

Otherwise, the next regularly scheduled Apple event will not take place until June, when Apple holds its annual Worldwide Developer Conference That event is expected to begin on June 7 and include a preview of iOS 15, so we would expect iOS 145 to have arrived before then