If you looked at Cult of Mac this week, you saw loads of news about the release of iOS 14.5 (with its controversial App Tracking Transparency feature) and about Apple’s astonishing earnings.

But did you miss all the useful tips in our Control Center Week series?

For those not familiar, Control Center is one of the most powerful and underutilized features on Apple devices. The how-tos, written by our own Killian Bell, explain how to get the most of this useful toolbox on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac. In case you didn’t see them all — and there are a lot of them! — we rounded them up in one place.

Hit that link, or read them in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Time to seize control!

Have you ever seen a language app translator get frazzled? It happens often: Every language is filled with nuance, so copying and pasting a paragraph of text often results in funny mistranslations. Translating a language with algorithms is difficult, and computer languages are no different.

This week, Cult of Mac is giving away one Ultimate Ears’ fantastic Wonderboom 2 portable speakers. You have a chance to win this small-but-mighty outdoor speaker that costs $99 and is available in four colors.

If you win, you can take the Wonderboom 2 on all your outdoor adventures this summer. The road-worthy Bluetooth speaker is the size of a softball but pumps out sound the size of a giant beach ball. With 13 hours of battery life, you can rock on well into the evening. If you want the party to never end, be sure to enter this giveaway.

Apple’s AirTag sales pitch is that you can attach the item tracker to your keys and you can find it with your iPhone, whether it’s in the couch or Canberra. That’s true, but the wireless range of these gizmos is so limited that finding a nearby AirTag in the next room isn’t easy as it should be. And the hardware is missing an obvious feature.

I’m a long-time user of rival Tile trackers. I was expecting Apple’s offering to be significantly better. In reality, both have their strengths. And Tile comes out ahead in some critical ways.

Maotoam Pro is two popular desktop accessories in one. It’s both a laptop/tablet stand and a USB-C hub with 13 ports. It can prop up a MacBook or iPad at your preferred angle, and connect it to up to a monitor, three USB devices, Ethernet and more.

I used the stand/hub in my everyday life for days. Here’s why I like it so very much.

We want to help you master Control Center, one of the most powerful and underutilized features on Apple devices. Cult of Mac’s Control Center Pro Tips series will show you how to make the most of this useful toolbox on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.

Make your favorite Control Center tools and shortcuts easier to find by reorganizing and cleaning up your Control Center window. It’s easy on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch — and we’ll show you how.

Illustrator and graphic designer andygigante_82 knows how to place his computer setup in an entertaining context. The fantastical space is his “Little Hobby Hole” — which he writes with a trademark symbol — as depicted in his Reddit post.

Looking at his photos, you might not notice the computer gear. That’s understandable, given every shot’s explosion of dynamic graphics, colorful action figures, skateboards festooned with his own graphic designs and more.

We want to help you master Control Center, one of the most powerful and underutilized features on Apple devices. Cult of Mac’s Control Center Pro Tips series will show you how to make the most of this useful toolbox on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.

Can’t remember where you left your iPhone? Use Control Center on your Apple Watch to “ping” it so that you can quickly track it down. You can even have your iPhone light up so that it’s easier to find in the dark.

We’ll show you how.

We want to help you master Control Center, one of the most powerful and underutilized features on Apple devices. Cult of Mac’s Control Center Pro Tips series will show you how to make the most of this useful toolbox on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.

Switching between different AirPods audio modes is simple with Control Center on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. You can activate or deactivate Transparency and active noise cancellation in just a couple of taps.

We’ll show you how.

What’s something every successful business needs these days? An app. That’s why app designers are so in-demand — and you can become one for less than $50.

It’s preorder day for the new iMac, iPad Pro and Apple TV 4K — and we learned a few unexpected things.

For starters, the rumored May 21 shipping date for the devices looks confirmed.

Secondly, the Magic Keyboard for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is on sale again in both black and white color options, via the Apple Online Store.

We want to help you master Control Center, one of the most powerful and underutilized features on Apple devices. Cult of Mac’s Control Center Pro Tips series will show you how to make the most of this useful toolbox on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.

Control Center puts a ton of useful toggles and shortcuts at your fingertips, and you can access all of them while your iPhone or iPad are locked. If that’s not something you want, you can change it.

Here’s how to block Control Center access from the lock screen on iOS and iPadOS.

The Mosquito Coast, the original cautionary fable about off-the-grid living, gets a shiny new update on Apple TV+ just as we’re all itching to get back out in the world after a year in quarantine.

Shepherded by director Rupert Wyatt and starring Justin Theroux, the show is an interesting addition to the ever-growing Apple TV+ lineup. It’s paranoid, fraught and full of personality.

We want to help you master Control Center, one of the most powerful and underutilized features on Apple devices. Cult of Mac’s Control Center Pro Tips series will show you how to make the most of this useful toolbox on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.

Activate Live Listen for AirPods and Powerbeats headphones inside Control Center to make it easier to hear other people in a noisy environment. The feature is built into iPhone and iPad and easy to use.

We’ll show you how.

The European Commission accused Apple on Friday of wielding an unfair advantage over Apple Music rivals because of Cupertino’s tight control of the App Store’s commission system.

“By setting strict rules on the App Store that disadvantage competing music streaming services, Apple deprives users of cheaper music streaming choices and distorts competition,” said Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager in a statement. “This is done by charging high commission fees on each transaction in the App Store for rivals and by forbidding them from informing their customers of alternative subscription options.”

Need an ultraportable Mac that’s not going to break the bank? Check out Woot’s latest sale on MacBook Air refurbs, where prices start at a mere $379.99 for an Intel Core i5 machine with 128GB of storage.

Various models are available but supplies are limited, and this sale runs for today only. Don’t miss out!

It’s not just U.S. tech giants that fear iOS 14.5’s new App Tracking Transparency feature. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, with a market cap of $646.84 billion, is supposedly very worried, just like Facebook.

A report from The Information says Alibaba invited half a dozen marketing execs to its Hangzhou headquarters to discuss how to react to the new feature, which stops apps from tracking users across websites and third-party apps.

Turns out the 2020 version of Apple Magic Keyboard does fit the slightly thicker iPad Pro set for release in May. Apple said Thursday the accessory is “functionally compatible” with its newest tablet.

The clarification was necessary because previous statements from the company seemed to indicate that only a new, larger version of keyboard case was usable with the 12.9-inch version of the 2021 iPad Pro.

Whether you want to revive your long-lost musical talent or pursue a long-held dream of learning the piano, this lifetime subscription to Skoove Premium Piano Lessons will teach you to tickle the ivories.

The highly rated app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch uses an engaging blend of interactive lessons, songs and artificial intelligence to help you learn to play the piano. Plus, you can get this subscription for an additional 20% off with Mother’s Day coupon code WELOVEMOM.

Apple’s colorful new M1-powered iMacs, the new iPad Pros (also with M1 chips) and the faster Apple TV 4K go on sale Friday. If you want to ensure you get yours on launch day, you need to get ready to preorder the right way.

Check out our preorder tips before this new Apple gear goes on sale at 5 a.m. PDT on April 30.

iPad shipments increased a whopping 75% during the first quarter of the year over same period of 2020, according a market analysis firm. It’s the result of people needing computers to work and learn from home as the pandemic drags on.

Other tablet makers saw strong Q1 2021 growth as well, but iPad continues to dominate the market.

We want to help you master Control Center, one of the most powerful and underutilized features on Apple devices. Cult of Mac’s Control Center Pro Tips series will show you how to make the most of this useful toolbox on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.

Schooltime is a handy new feature, introduced in watchOS 7, that keeps Apple Watch quiet and prevents it from being a distraction in the classroom. It can be added to your Control Center options so that enabling Schooltime at any time takes just a swipe and a tap.

We’ll show you how.

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Videos are a part of our daily lives, whether for blasts of knowledge or pure entertainment. But while we rely on them for work and pleasure, the file formats of some videos can present a problem. For example, the increasingly popular WebM video format — which was designed for the web, as you probably guessed from its name — doesn’t work on all devices.

If you need to convert WebM to MP4 or another widely used audio or video format, conversion tools are your friend. However, you should choose a video converter wisely. You want a user-friendly app that can change the video format within a few minutes.

Procreate 5.2 will let iPad users paint in 3D and then view their creations with augmented reality. That’s a significant  step beyond traditional 2D creation.

And Savage Interactive says its digital tool will be up to four times faster on the 2021 iPad Pro thanks to the M1 processor.

A trusted Apple analyst recently predicted MacBooks would never use OLED displays, shutting macOS laptops out from the best-looking type of screen. But an expert in display technologies disagrees, as do several other analysts.

iPads with OLED screens have been rumored to be on Apple’s drawing board. And iPhones and Apple Watch already use this type of display. It’s possible the tech will spread to all Apple products. There are advantages and drawbacks to OLED, though.