Harry Potter, shuttle drivers, 10 Mac games, Uber China, Mac OS figures, iTunes 12.4.3

Apple launched an official iBooks Instagram account, promotes latest Harry Potter story — Over the weekend, Apple quietly debuted an official Instagram account for the iBooks Store, promoting various new releases including the highly-anticipated stage script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Apple shuttlebus drivers vote in favor of first contract after unionisation — More than 30 drivers who ferry Apple employees to work from off-site parking will not only get previously negotiated wage increases, but will be granted health benefits, pension contributions, vacation time, and overtime.

Ten Mac games — A Macworld slideshow.

Didi buying Uber China could spell opportunity for Apple — Apple’s US$1 billion investment in Didi Chuxing just became more interesting because the ride sharing company is buying rival Uber’s China business in a deal valued at $35 billion. Didi is also investing in Uber outside of China, which means Apple’s interest in the ride sharing market may get a lot bigger.

Mac OS X down, iOS up in July — According to the latest market share survey from NetMarketShare, the market share for Mac OS X dipped again in July, but iOS rose a bit.

iTunes 12.4.3 update — This appeared this morning with very little supporting information apart from a fix for Playlist changes across devices.

Cook’s hard line, shuttle drivers, net neutrality, iWork online, Smartflash

Apple has introduced a free level of iCloud service for anyone with an Apple ID, including even people who don’t own or use Apple devices. This includes access to Pages (Apple’s word processor), Numbers (Apple’s spreadsheet), and Keynote (presentation software, like PowerPoint) for iCloud with 1 GB of free storage for any documents created.

Apple’s Tim Cook takes hardline stance against consumer data sharing, government snooping and terrorism — In an interview published last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook reaffirmed his commitment to customer data privacy, saying most consumers likely do not know how dire the situation is, but will be “very offended” when they find out. He says data sharing is a practice that goes against Apple’s core philosophies.

Shuttle drivers at Apple, other Silicon Valley tech companies vote for Teamsters representation — In the ongoing Silicon Valley shuttle bus saga, contracted drivers serving five local tech firms, including Apple, voted on Friday to seek representation by the Teamsters union.

Understanding the FCC’s net neutrality rules— Advocates for open access to the Internet were popping champagne corks on Thursday after the Federal Communications Commission in the US  voted in favour of reclassifying broadband Internet as a public utility. In addition to regulating fixed broadband lines that go into your home, the FCC vote also extended public utility rules to mobile broadband for the first time.

Apple introduces free, web-only version of iWork for the public — Apple launched a web-only version of iWork that allows anyone to use Pages, Numbers and Keynote as long as they have an Apple ID. This online-only version is free, includes 1GB of storage and does not require the user to have an Apple device.

Fresh off $533M victory, Smartflash files another patent suit against Apple — Just a day after Smartflash won a $533 million jury decision against Apple, the intellectual property holder filed another patent case against the company seeking even more damages for alleged infringement.