Over the past year, I’ve been thinking about ways to expand the scope of my podcasts at Relay FM. In addition to our weekly coverage of all things Apple and technology with Connected, I wanted to cover the changes in my iPad workflow more in depth, as well as revitalize our discussion of games and the gaming industry with Virtual.

After a few months of work behind the scenes, I’m excited to announce two brand new shows where I’ll try to do just that: Canvas, with yours truly and Fraser Speirs; and Remaster, where Myke, Shahid Ahmad (former head of Strategic Content at PlayStation), and I will discuss what it means to play videogames and be a game maker today.

Both Canvas and Remaster are two projects I truly believe in, and they’re the kinds of podcasts I’ve been meaning to co-host for a long time. I’m incredibly thankful for the support by Myke and Stephen in providing a terrific infrastructure with Relay FM, and I feel like all the work I’ve been doing with podcasting over the past three years has led me to an exciting new starting point today.

Canvas

I’ve wanted to have a podcast about getting work done on the iPad for a while. Too often I hear from readers who would like to take their iOS setups to the next level using an iPad as their primary computer, and yet many of them still don’t know how certain tasks can be possible on an iPad. I’ve also known Fraser for several years now, and it only made sense to collaborate on a new show all about the iPad: Fraser led the first 1:1 iPad program for pupils at the Cedars School of Excellence back in 2010, and in the past five years he’s continued to explore the intersection of technology and education with his writing, Out of School podcast, and work at Cedars.

With Canvas, our goal is to help as many people as possible find ways to use their iPads and iOS devices more. From the show’s description:

Hosted by Federico Viticci and Fraser Speirs, Canvas is a podcast all about mobile productivity. Armed with iOS, Federico and Fraser will be walking through workflows, exploring the best apps for the iPad and iPhone and helping users solve problems.

On each episode, we’re going to tackle a different task or workflow, and we’ll try to produce information-packed shows that stay within 30-45 minutes, released every two weeks. Episodes will include links to recommended apps, workflows, and other tips to get the most out of your iPad, and we’ll encourage everyone to experiment, remix, and get in touch with us for feedback and questions.

Here’s what Myke wrote about Canvas on the Relay FM blog:

With the iPad Pro, more and more people are considering switching their tasks to iOS, but it requires some new thinking to recreate the workflows you’re used to having at your fingertips.

This is something Federico Viticci and Fraser Speirs know all too well. These lovable Europeans have both famously made the switch to using iPads as their main computers, and have both learned an awful lot along the way.

And now they want to share this knowledge with you. Canvas is a new fortnightly podcast that will help you tackle common tasks with iOS, to help you dive deeper in to a more portable working set up. Fraser and Federico will give you examples of apps, systems and workflows that they use to get their work done.

We have big plans for Canvas, with an outline of future topics and use cases we want to discuss and share with our listeners. Our first episode – which was previewed to Relay FM members last week – is now available for everyone to listen to, and it’s about a question I receive on a daily basis: how can you download and upload files on iOS? You can listen here.

If you’ve considered the idea of using an iPad as your main computer, I think you’ll like what we have in store for Canvas. You can subscribe via RSS with the Relay FM feed or via iTunes. You can also follow us on Twitter at @_CanvasFM.

Remaster

Remaster is the evolution of Virtual, the videogame podcast Myke Hurley and I have been co-hosting since Relay’s launch in August 2014. We’ve had a lot of fun discussing videogame news, our favorite games, and, perhaps more importantly, our fondest videogame memories on Virtual, but we felt like we could do more and grow the show further.

A few months ago, we knew what that step would entail: bringing Shahid Ahmad on board, with his decade of experience at Sony and in the videogame industry, where he collaborated on some of the biggest launches of PlayStation titles.

Here’s Myke again:

Ever since we interviewed Shahid Ahmad on our first gaming show Directional, Federico and I dreamed of one day getting to work with him.

‘Today, we’re proud to announce Shahid is joining Relay FM to help us launch a new podcast named Remaster.

We have decided that we are going to end Virtual so we can put all of our efforts in to this new show. Our love for gaming, coupled with Shahid’s knowledge of the industry is going to lead to something awesome.

And:

In 1985 Shahid released a game called Chimera), this started a long and varied career for him in video games, including a decade-long stint at Sony PlayStation, where he was in charge of signing deals for games like Nuclear Throne and No Man’s Sky.

Now Shahid is going indie again to continue to pursue his dream of making games. And this is where Remaster begins. We want to talk about the games and experiences we love, whilst looking at what it takes to actually make games. This is what you’ll get from us every fortnight. We think you’re really going to enjoy it.

I couldn’t have said it better. Thanks to Shahid, we’ll be able to offer a unique perspective on what it means to make games from the sides of publishers and developers – especially because Shahid has decided to return to indie development and share his journey with us. In the first episode, we talked about changes in the games industry for team sizes, indie game makers, and abundance of choice over the past 20 years. You can listen here. Remaster will also be released every two weeks.

You can subscribe to Remaster on Relay FM or via iTunes. You can also follow us on Twitter at @RemasterFM.