This week we block pesky privacy-invading trackers with Guardian Firewall, make sweet (weird) melodies with Ioniarics, and discover the next best thing to the keytar with Roxsyn.

Civilization offers a digital playground for anyone to build powerful nations from humble beginnings. The game series has continued growing and evolving, so if you haven’t played it lately, this is a great time to get back in, or get introduced.

Apple’s record-breaking revenues weren’t the biggest surprise in this week’s earnings call. Usually tight-lipped Apple execs Tim Cook and Luca Maestri actually uncorked a few shocking revelations!

Read all about it in this week’s totally free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Grab the iOS version now to enjoy it on your iPad, or hit the links below to read in your browser.

You’ll also find plenty of other Apple news, analysis and opinion, including a call for transparency in the wake of Siri’s eavesdropping problem. Plus, we’ve got product reviews and how-tos — like one on cleaning the lint from your filthy iPhone.

New MacBooks are true processing powerhouses, with tons of features for creating and consuming content of all kinds. But when it comes to connecting to other devices, they come up short. After all, most just have one or two Thunderbolt ports.

Just two companies saw increased tablet sales in the second quarter of this year. Both Apple and Amazon enjoyed strong improvement, while all their rivals dropped.

Apple further increased its dominance of this market, as iPad now makes up 38.1% of all tablets sold worldwide, gaining 4 percentage points year over year.

Brilliant and inexpensive charging stands that make your Apple Watch look like an iconic iMac or retro Game Boy are just some of the awesome accessories made by Elago.

The San Diego company also offers Watch bands that let you carry your AirPods on your wrist, ear hooks that prevent them falling out of your ears, and silicone cases that keep them protected.

And they’re all available now from the Cult of Mac Watch Store for less than $20 each! Check out Elago’s terrific range today.

Apple wants you to know that, at least for now, it has stopped listening to Siri queries made by users. It’s the right move to make. But it’s the unnecessary result of a backlash Apple brought upon itself.

The Siri eavesdropping controversy perfectly illustrates why Apple needs to be more transparent with users — even if that means sacrificing some ease of use.

The credit card Apple will launch in a few weeks will reportedly make it cheaper for users to make large purchases. Plus, there’s good news for iPad users with an Apple Card.

The Control Center on your iPhone or iPad comes with a bunch of preset icons so you can quickly open the Camera app, toggle Do Not Disturb and do plenty of other tricks. But you also can customize it, adding your choice of one-swipe shortcuts. You can even set the order of the icons.

Today we’ll see how to add Low Power Mode, and take a look at the other options available.

No matter what President Trump keeps insisting, his upcoming tariffs on all Apple products will be paid for either by the company or by Americans who buy iPhones, iPads and Macs.

A market-analysis firm warns that If Apple chooses to pass the cost of these import taxes onto its customers, sales of iPhone could drop 20%.

Verizon Wireless just did something telecoms almost never do: It lowered the cost of wireless service. This is part of the carrier’s renaming and changing of what it includes in all its unlimited plans.

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating a business deal between Amazon and Apple that may have hurt several independent sellers of refurbished Apple products.

Apple struck a deal last year to sell products on Amazon as a way to combat counterfeits and block dubious sellers.

iPhones may not be the only 5G-enabled product Apple introduces next year. According to a new report, Apple is planning its first ever cellular MacBooks for launch during the second half of 2020.

The cellular laptops will use the super speedy new mobile connectivity standard. They will supposedly use a ceramic, rather than metal, antenna component to improve reception and transmission performance.

Apple is continuing its low-key rebranding of Apple Music playlists. Its latest move is to change the name of its name of its “The A-List: Alternative” alternative music playlist.

This comes a couple weeks after Apple switched the name of the “A-List: Hip-Hop” playlist to “Rap Life.”

When you’ve got a set of over-ear headphones you like, you’ll want to take care of them. But you’ll also want them to be available at a moment’s notice. With this classy leather headphone stand, you can do both.

This week on The CultCast: Apple’s working on something BIG, and their massive increase in R&D spending proves it. Plus: we discuss all the surprises Apple unveiled in their recent earnings report, and it was another record breaker. And if you think your conversations with Siri are private, think again! Apple’s been caught reviewing your most personal sound bytes. And a new Moviepass competitor has emerged with a very interesting offer, but is it worth the price? All that and more!

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain..

As always happens this time of year, Apple is gearing up to mass-produce its iPhones ahead of September’s launch.

However, a new report — citing “industry source” — says that momentum for touch panels and other components have been weak so far. If true, the report of “low order visibility” suggests that Apple’s not viewing 2019 as the year iPhone sales turn around.

Apple has stopped its process of listening to a certain portion of Siri recordings for “grading” purposes.

This is the result of a backlash against the privacy-oriented company, after news broke that Apple shares recordings made by Siri with third-party contractors.

Jony Ive told the world in June he’s ready to stop being Apple’s Chief Design Officer but it seems likely he told his employers months before that. New research shows Apple went on a hiring spree in its design department early this year.

At the same time, the company has apparently been following a general “fewer suits, more hoodies” hiring strategy.

Anyone who’s fed up with iTunes can put the latest pre-release version of macOS Catalina on their Mac now and start using the new Apple Music, Apple Podcast and Apple TV apps instead. Of course, today’s public beta, the fourth in the series, comes with a long list of known problems so it might not be worth the hassle.

Apple is hoping to inject some inspiration into the lives of college students around the country with a new ad celebrating the return to school this month.

The fantastic new Behind the Mac ad celebrates the creation of art by telling students that they have no idea what they’re doing. And this is great.

Prepare to be inspired:

As a Mac user, you already know how to take a quick screenshot with the ⌘⇧3 and ⌘⇧4 shortcuts. But did you know that you can also capture a video recording of your screen? If you’re running macOS Mojave, making a Mac screen recording proves as easy as hitting a shortcut, just like grabbing a screenshot. Older Macs can do it, too, albeit with a little more futzing.

The iPhone is about to be caught in President Trump’s trade war with China. A month from today, the US will begin charging a 10% tax to import iPhone, iPad, and other devices. They are part of $300 billion dollars worth of imports getting new tariffs.

Trump’s decision caused a 2.0% drop in Apple’s share price.

Clear cable clutter with the brilliant HiRise Duet stand from Twelve South. It charges your iPhone and Apple Watch simultaneously, and it looks darn gorgeous while it’s doing it.

Order yours today and get $20 off the usual price. This deal ends tomorrow, August 2, so take advantage of it while you can.

Move over Madonna. Apple is bringing in pop teen sensation Billie Eilish for the second session of its Remix Music lab.

Eilish, whose song “Bad Boy” has been tearing up the music charts all summer. Now you’ll be able to visit an Apple store to learn about her song “You Should See Me in a Crown” and learn how to remix it.