Apple has told suppliers to make between 70 million and 80 million combined 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 units by December 30, The Wall Street Journal has learned from sources familiar with the matter, in anticipation of what will be its biggest iPhone launch ever. Foxconn and Pegatron will start production of the smaller iPhone next month – something recent rumors also claimed – and Foxconn will be the exclusive maker of the 5.5-inch model, which will head to mass-production in September. Both companies are on a “hiring binge,” the Journal says, with Foxconn “hiring workers by the hundreds a day to staff production lines” at their factories in China.

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Apple pushed out its fourth beta version of iOS 8 on Monday, and the update came right on time. iOS 8 beta 4 is a huge improvement over earlier betas in a number of ways, offering several new features such as a redesigned Control Center, as well as plenty of bug fixes that make it easier for iOS developers to test their apps ahead of iOS 8’s public release this fall. Of course, the fixes are also greatly appreciated by non-developers who pay $99 for the opportunity to get their hands on Apple’s unreleased iOS software before any of their friends.

As it turns out, iPhone and iPad owners don’t even need to pay for a developer account to install iOS 8 beta 4.

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Samsung has a new Galaxy S5 ad out that makes fun of the iPhone. But instead of mocking the existing iPhone 5s, which outsold the Galaxy S5 in the latter’s first full month of sales despite being eight months old at the time, the company chose to have its fun at the expense of a product that doesn’t yet exist: The upcoming iPhone 6.

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One of the main features Windows 9 is expected to offer users is the return of the Start menu, which Windows users are anxiously waiting for, and Myce has obtained new screenshots showing it. Initially expected to arrive in Windows 8 Update 2 that’s said to launch on August 12, the Start menu is now said to only be ready next year, when Windows 9 “Threshold” is released.

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There’s no doubt about it, the MacBook Air is one of Apple’s most iconic products, a very successful addition to the company’s laptop line. To further remind users how popular its ultra-slim laptop is, Apple on Monday released a terrific new ad that focuses entirely on the Air.

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Verizon on Tuesday posted second-quarter results that topped Wall Street’s expectations as huge tablet sales offset the continued decline of cell phone contract additions. Verizon posted earnings of $1.01 per share, or $4.34 billion in profit, which is down significantly from the $5.2 billion profit it recorded in the year-ago quarter. Revenue climbed nearly 6% to $31.48 billion, however. The nation’s top carrier only added 304,000 net new cell phone subscribers in the quarter, but 1.15 million new tablet additions certainly helped to bolster the company’s results.

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An extensive research paper from a security specialist revealed earlier this week that governments and other third-parties with malicious intentions would be able to use certain tools in iOS to extract information from iPhones and other iOS devices, without the user’s consent or knowledge. Apple has already issued a response on the matter, denying the existence of backdoors in its products, and further emphasizing the security and privacy features of iOS.

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Over the past few years, the two top wireless carriers in the United States have been working tirelessly to push subscribers away from unlimited data plans and onto capped plans that provide a certain amount of data each month, after which overages are charged. The reasons for the shift are fairly obvious — as more data hungry mobile services proliferate, carriers make more money. Which carrier has been the best so far when it comes to monetizing data and shifting subscribers over to tiered data plans? According to a new study by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Verizon is the leader by a fairly substantial margin.

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HTC is widely expected to make Google’s next Nexus tablet – an 8.9-inch premium device that was already spotted in internal Google code, and which is referred to Nexus 8 or Nexus 9 in various reports – but the company may launch two other tablets of its own, @evleaks has learned.

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