During quarterly earnings calls, executives often deploy language designed to puff up, excuse or obfuscate their companies’ recent performance. The goal is to make investors pant with delight over implied future success. And ultimately to give the company more money. Always. More. Money.

But when you’re Apple — with a mind-blowing market cap and a seemingly never-ending supply of hit products, including phenomenal growth in services — you typically don’t need to craft hopeful-yet-non-material statements or deflect questions designed to get at the bottom line.

Apple’s next earnings call takes place this afternoon. CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri will report on all the numbers. Analysts figure there will be a drop in revenue and earnings for the quarter ending in September (third quarter by the calendar but Apple’s Q4 because it starts its fiscal year in the holiday season).

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Which gets you more excited, an AirTag with new AR capabilities, a pink Apple Watch or a black titanium Apple Watch Ultra? This week’s top Apple rumors fuel our imaginations …

Also on The CultCast:

• Apple touts 1 billion paid subscribers, a gigantic number that pushed the company to record-high revenue for its services division last quarter.
• Leander cooks up a cheap-and-dirty way to add CarPlay to any car, even an old beater. (Still can’t get him to come on the podcast, though, because … 👀.
• Tim Cook finally plays the AI card as Apple tries to cash in on the latest tech buzzword.
• Griffin proves he’s a total nerd the consummate tech collector by revealing what he uses an ancient Apple Newton for these days.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.

Apple has been conspicuously quiet about its plans for artificial intelligence, even as rivals like Google and Microsoft made headlines touting the latest tech buzzword. But CEO Tim Cook leaped to his company’s defense Thursday, pointing out that AI is already used by many Apple products.

And he also listed upcoming software and services that wouldn’t be possible without machine learning and AI.

Apple is about to reveal the financial results of its most recent quarter, and Wall Street analysts are preparing for a whole lot of ho-hum. They’re predicting a very slight drop in revenue and earnings, during a traditionally slow time of the year for Apple sales.

That said, Apple has a habit of beating analysts’ predictions. So Thursday’s earnings call could be more upbeat than expected.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: The latest benchmarks make Apple’s M2 chip sound better than we thought. In fact, the new MacBook Air that the processor powers might be the perfect laptop for almost everyone.

Also on The CultCast:

• The iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on screen looks sweeeeet.
• How does Apple keep pulling off earnings miracles?!?
• What not to do when a creep steals your AirTag-equipped scooter.
• Somebody built an Apple Store time machine.
• And a truffle tangent to end all tangents.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video livestream, embedded below.

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Apple earnings calls with analysts can offer fascinating glimpses behind the scenes at the iPhone-maker. Most of the time, though, they are dull as toast. That’s true even for the June quarter, when Apple managed to snatch financial success from the jaws of supply constraints.

But we endured the tedium of the call so you don’t have to. Just read on to get the interesting details almost lost in all the talk of basis points and CAPEX.

Apple’s next quarterly earnings report and call with analysts take place on Thursday. (It’s Q3 for Apple’s fiscal year despite being Q2 on your calendar.) And the company has already warned it may take an up to $8 billion revenue hit for several reasons.

As usual, after the fiscal results come out and the stock market closes for the day, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri will talk with financial analysts on a public call about the results and future expectations.

Apple made a record $20.6 billion in profits last quarter but is getting punished because $83.4 billion in revenue didn’t meet Wall Street analysts’ expectations. Turns out even the Cupertino juggernaut is not immune to supply chain problems — $6 billion worth of them.

Here’s the bad news — and the good — from Apple’s September 2021 earnings report and a Q&A session with analysts afterward.

Apple’s stock is tanking in after-hours trading, despite the company’s announcement of yet another record-breaking quarter. The problem? Wall Street expected it to make way more.

Apple just revealed that its made heaps of money last quarter. It broke all kinds of revenue records, and Mac, iPhone and iPad contributed strongly to the total.

But there are also some dark clouds in Apple future. Read on to get the good news and bad from the company’s most recent financial earnings results.