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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.

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..

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.

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.

You’re going to L-O-V-E this tip. You know how sometimes you see a folder on your iPhone’s home screen, and there’s a red notification badge on the folder itself? That badge is a summary of all the unread notifications of the apps inside the folder. Of course, at this point you just ignore it, because you don’t want to swipe through the pages of never-used apps inside the folder, just to see which apps have unread alerts.

But what if there was a way to quickly see which apps in that folder have outstanding notifications. Well, there is! And you’re going to kick yourself when you see how easy it is.

The total number of all Apple computers in active use is growing strongly, and is about to pass the 1.5 billion mark. This includes Macs, iPhones, and iPads.

That said, most of the total are iPhones. An industry analyst predicts there will be a billion of these in active use by early next year.

If you’re not already using a VPN when you go online, you’re doing it wrong. But lucky for you, this is one of the best opportunities you’ll find to get one.

The top-secret group at Apple developing a pair of Augmented Reality glasses reportedly has a new leader. Kim Vorrath has been with the company for many years, and is now in charge of all Apple’s AR efforts.

The debut of macOS 10.15 took a step nearer with the release of macOS Catalina Developer beta 5.  Catalina is intended to let third-party software developers test if their apps are ready for the new version, which will bring significant changes including the end of iTunes.

Shiny new Apple Watch? Why not deck it out with a classy leather Apple Watch band — the Crocodilus band from Strapa, available in the Cult of Mac Apple Watch store?

Strapa’s Crocodilus band is luxurious and timeless, and we filmed an unboxing video to give you a closer look at the band. Don’t worry — no crocodiles were harmed in the production of this strap!

Apple shares recordings made by Siri with third-party contractors, according to a recent report. The goal is to improve Siri’s responses, but the fact is, you probably didn’t know that this was happening — and almost certainly want it to stop.

Today, I will show you how to prevent these diagnostic recordings from going to Apple. The good news? You can do it using only Apple’s tools. The bad news is that you’ll have to get your hands dirty in the process.

B&H Photo’s big discount on the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display is now even bigger. This super-speedy model is now down $700 for a limited time — and it’s just one of the awesome offers in today’s Deals & Steals roundup.

You can also bag an unlocked iPhone for under $205, an Amazon Echo Show for under $60, and the Netgear Orbi whole home Wi-Fi mesh system for under $200. Plus, you can save $17.50 on the stunning Twelve South HiRise stand for MacBook.

You would have to ride in a time machine back to 1976 and that garage on Crist Drive in Los Altos, Calif., to find 10 Apple 1 computers in the same space.

But this weekend, 10 or more will be displayed at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., for the annual Vintage Computer Festival West.

About half the machines will be working.

LG’s UltraFine 5K monitor is back in the Apple Store, and it’s even better than before. Or at least it does more than before. The 27-inch, Retina-quality monitor now works with the iPad Pro as well as the Mac, so you could use it as a single screen for all your devices.