Apple Daily Report: new Amber Lake chips may be used in upcoming MacBooks, more

Since Steve and I can’t cover everything, at the end of each week day, we’ll offer this wrap-up of news items you should check out.

Apple’s 12-inch MacBook lineup is expected to receive a refresh in 2018, and the revamped laptops may use Intel’s upcoming 8th-generation 14nm++ Y-Series Amber Lake chips. 

Apple has released the fourth developer betas of iOS 12, tvOS 12, and watchOS 5. Registered developers can download them via Apple’s developer portal. Or they can be downloaded over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

Apple has pulled “QDrops,” an app meant to alert adherents to new developments in the fringe conspiracy theory. The app was dropped from the App Store Sunday, after reporters from NBC News discovered it and alerted Apple. 

According to CIRP, Android accounted for 63% of mobile phone activations in the U.S. during the June quarter. iOS accounted for 36% of activations. Compared to the last quarter and the year ago quarter, Apple managed to improve its share of activations.

In an effort to reinstate net neutrality provisions, Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) introduced a bill today that would codify free internet regulations into law. Titled The 21st Century Internet Act, the measure would institute the basic outlines of the Federal Communication Commission’s 2015 Open Internet order, which banned the throttling and blocking of content as well as harmful paid prioritization practices. Surprisingly, the Republican congressman has signed on to a Democrat-led effort to reinstate the net neutrality rules that the FCC voted to repeal late last year.

The advances in the field of artificial intelligence threaten to make many human jobs obsolete. But there’s no reason to panic: AI will also create many new jobs, with the net result actually being a slight positive for humans, according to a new study by PwC, which focuses on the job market in the United Kingdom.