In the launch announcement, Apple announced that their new display had dual domain pixels, which improved viewing angles. Unfortunately they dropped the subject at this, which make for a lot of room for confusion. Anyone that does a cursory analysis through Google will only find references to this type of display in monitors for medical use or similarly technology used by IBM monitors.

However, dual domain pixels are actually not as complicated as they seem. In fact, this is a display technology I remember seeing with the announcement of LG’s AH-IPS technology back in 2011. For those interested in the technical definition, dual domain pixels refers to the fact that the electrodes in the pixels aren’t all aligned. Instead, they’re skewed when viewed from the perspective of the lines defined by the rectangular edges of the display. Because these subpixels are skewed, it’s possible to compensate for uneven lighting that occurs because each individual subpixel is viewed at a different angle, which causes a change in color and a faster fall-off of contrast.

At any rate, this is easiest to explain with a photos. Above, we see the pixel layout of the iPhone 5. This is the standard rows/columns of pixels, and not really news to anyone that knows how displays work. Let's look at a dual domain arrangement next.

Anyone that has tried the HTC One (M7) or One X will probably understand the effect of this change as these phones have had this type of skewed subpixel format to get better viewing angles and less color shifting with changes in viewing angles. This can carry some risk though as black backgrounds may have some color shifting towards purple instead of yellow/blue, which can look strange but is quite subtle in my experience. There's really not too much in the way of disadvantages, so I look forward to seeing how Apple's new displays do in our tests.

When it comes to the iPhone 6, one of the most immediate impressions will definitely be the industrial and material design. Going back to the launch of the original iPhone 5 one of the immediate impressions that we had was that the iPhone 5 felt incredibly light and thin. If nothing else, the same is true of the iPhone 6.

While the new iPhone 6 isn’t lighter than the iPhone 5, it feels incredibly thin compared to the iPhone 5s I had on hand for comparisons. In fact, the iPhone 6 feels a lot like the HTC 8X in terms of the thickness of the edge, but without the strongly sloped back to increase the size of the phone in the hand.

The size itself is also a key feature, and as I suspected the iPhone 6 feels very much like the One (M7) in size, which I still find to be a great fit and easily used with one hand. While it’s definitely possible for the iPhone 6 to be a bit bigger without being impossible to reasonably use with one hand, it manages to hit a good balance between ease of use with one hand and display size for media consumption.

Of course, the iPhone 6 Plus isn’t really easy to use with one hand, as just the 77.8mm width makes it difficult to reach across the display horizontally, much less from diagonally. It is definitely easy to hold with one hand though, and the rounded display feels great.

In terms of the design of the device, it’s clear that Apple had to break some trends that seemed to be present in previous iPhones. For one, the noticeable camera bump came from a need to maintain and/or improve camera quality while simultaneously driving down z-height overall, so there seems to have been an industrial design trade-off here for the sake of functionality. There’s also the relatively thick plastic lines which are a departure from previous designs but seem to be necessary for NFC capabilities. I’m personally unsure how I feel on these two design elements, but they may be an issue for some.

Looking past the size of the iPhone 6, there are a lot of noticeable subtle changes to the device compared to the iPhone 5s. In terms of low-hanging fruit, the side-mounted power button definitely helps with keeping a firm grip while turning on the phone, and I didn’t find any real issues when trying to turn the phone on or off. The slightly curved glass that helps to make for a smooth transition when swiping off the edge of the display is also a nice touch, although I’m concerned about the implications that this has for drop resilience and screen protectors. This is mostly based upon my past experience with such 2.5D displays, as traditional PET screen protectors generally don’t adhere properly to curved surfaces and Android phones with this type of cover glass tended to suffer from shattered displays more readily.

There are some changes that are subtle enough that I’m not sure if this is a product of production variance. In the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus that I tried, I noticed that the home button seemed to be closer to the display when compared to the iPhone 5s, and that the feel of the button was a bit more positive, although the click is still relatively subdued compared to the volume and power buttons.

One of the highlight features of the iPhone 6 Plus is optical image stabilization, but it appears that it doesn’t run during preview so it was hard to see just how much accommodation the system has and how it works. Although the announcement seemed to suggest that the module moves vertically and horizontally, it seems more likely that we’re looking at a VCM that shifts the lenses around to compensate for horizontal and vertical motion.

Overall, it was rather hard to really notice any difference in responsiveness as the iPhone 5s almost never stuttered or hesitated in my experience. The iPhone 6 similarly had no such issues when casually trying various features but a full review may show that this changes when used in real world situations.

Unfortunately, many of the features that Apple has implemented in this latest iteration seem to follow the same pattern as they aren’t easily demonstrated. For example, seeing exactly what Apple means by dual domain pixels effectively requires a microscope to clearly see what Apple is talking about, and really seeing a difference in color shifting, along with improved maximum contrast requires a dark room with little stray light.

Gallery: iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Hands On

For a brief period 15 years ago, this was console gaming's state of the art. Wikipedia

While seemingly the entirety of the Internet was off paying attention to Apple announcing new phones and watch, something weird was happening to my Twitter feed. Apparently, someone had messed with my settings so that my feed displayed tweets on a 15 year delay for a couple of hours. That means that, instead of Apple tweets, my followers got to go back in time and experience a portion of my liveblogging from Sega's Dreamcast launch-day keynote address from September 9, 1999.

We figure this technical snafu is as good an excuse as any to look back on the Dreamcast as it existed 15 years ago today, when it hoped to be the savior of a once-proud Sega still recovering from the failure of the Sega CD, 32X, Saturn, et al. Below are my live tweets as they were written 15 years ago, along with some accompanying commentary that has the benefit of a decade and a half of hindsight.

[Editor's Note: For those with defective sarcasm genes (or just those feeling a little bit slow today), I will state up front that these are not actually tweets from over six years before Twitter even existed. Sega didn't even have a keynote-style launch event on 9/9/99. I just thought these somewhat jokey "livetweets" would be a fun way to reminisce on the launch of Sega's last console, and reflect on how much technology and the gaming market has changed in the intervening period.]

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The United States puts 230 species of birds on a watch list because of their rapidly declining numbers.

The iPhone 5S, 6, and 6 Plus. Megan Geuss

CN.dart.call("xrailTop", {sz:"300x250", kws:["top"], collapse: true});CUPERTINO, CA—Big phones, long the domain of the Android and Windows Phone OEMs, are finally a reality on Apple’s side of the fence. The iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus catapult the iPhone into the large-screen era after two years at the 4-inch screen size introduced by the iPhone 5, and the larger sizes drastically change what the phones are like to hold and to use.

Meet the new iPhones

Let’s start with some general observations that apply to both the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. The iPhone 5 and 5S both had flat fronts, sides, and backs with well-defined edges, but those are gone in the iPhone 6. The glass on the front now curves down slightly all the way around the edge to meet the newly-curved sides and back of the phone. It sort of recalls the iPhone 3G or 3GS, which had similar curves but used plastic all the way around instead of aluminum and glass. I’ve long since gotten used to the harder edges of my iPhone 4S and 5S, but the iPhone 6 is softer all the way around.

Megan Geuss

12 more images in gallery

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The back of the phones are made out of aluminum with some clearly visible cutouts made to allow wireless signals in and out. The design as a whole is more reminiscent of the 2012 iPod Touch than current iPhones, an observation that extends to the slightly protruding camera lens. You won’t notice this bulge if you keep your phone in a case or sit it on a soft surface, but if you set the phone on a hard table it definitely will wobble a bit in place. Both phones feel lighter than you’d expect them to—4.55 ounces for the 6 and 6.07 ounces for the 6 Plus, compared to 5.64 ounces for the 5-inch HTC One M8 or 5.08 ounces for the new Moto X—but they still feel as sturdy as you’d expect from an Apple product.

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Microsoft has reached a deal with the US government in which it will agree to be held in contempt of court in order to move an e-mail privacy case on to appeal.

The case is over a government demand for e-mails stored on a Microsoft server in Dublin, Ireland, that are related to an investigation into narcotics trafficking.

The Obama administration has said that the company must comply with valid warrants for data, even when the data is held overseas. Microsoft say that's wrong and that the ability to enforce US law stops at the nation's borders.

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Good day to you, Arsians! How's your computer storage situation? If you're fiending for a reasonably priced SSD upgrade or a massive multi-TB drive to back your SSD up, today's Dealmaster has you covered with options from Intel, Seagate, and Western Digital. Elsewhere in today's listings, find a variety of Dell monitor and laptop options, a few 4K TV sets, and markdowns on Microsoft Office, both in standard and 365 flavors.

Featured deal:

• Intel 520 Series 240GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5-Inch SSD for $109.99 with free shipping (list price $299.99)

Hard drives and SSDs:

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Artist's conception of a watery Mars. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

It’s become clear in recent years that Mars had lots of water in its distant past. But that raises the question—when did Mars stop being so Earth-like? And what happened to cause the change?

One way to address such questions is by analyzing rocks from different times in the planet's history. While no samples from the red planet have ever been brought back, meteorites have landed on Earth that scientists identified as originating on Mars.

One such meteorite is called Northwest Africa (NWA) 7533. This dark, glossy meteorite originally formed some 4.43 billion years ago, not long after Mars itself finished accreting. And, crucially, it contains zircon grains, which provide clues to the planet’s past.

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Intel Free Press

Motorists popped for texting-while-driving violations in Long Island could be mandated to temporarily disable their mobile phones the next time they take to the road.

That's according to Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, who says she is moving to mandate that either hardware be installed or apps be activated that disable the mobile phone while behind the wheel. The district attorney likened the texter's punishment to drunk drivers who sometimes are required to breathe into a device before turning on the ignition.

"Like ignition interlock devices, transdermal alcohol monitoring ankle bracelets, and personal breath testing instruments, DA Rice believes that available technologies must be employed in criminal sentences to change behavior and save lives. The cost of each of these devices would be borne by the offender," the prosecutor said in a press release.

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This is the story of a click wheel. Jacqui Cheng

When apple.com returned after the event announcing Apple's new iPhone 6, 6 Plus, and Apple Watch, one of its longest-standing members was gone: the iPod classic. Along with it goes the 30-pin dock connector, marking a complete transition to the Lightning connector for Apple's entire mobile device fleet in exactly two years.

The iPod classic was part of Apple's lineup starting in October 23, 2001. The product hadn't been updated since the 6th generation version was released in 2009; over the last five years, it has existed as a single solitary $249 160GB model.

Now that Apple is able to offer iPhones in 128GB solid-state storage options, the iPod classic would have felt particularly redundant as a product. It was also the last existing product not to use the Lightning connector that Apple introduced with the iPhone 5 in 2012.

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Taramisu

Thirty-three companies that make equipment used by Internet service providers today called on the US to avoid regulating Internet service as a utility. IBM, Cisco, and Intel signed the letter to US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, along with Alcatel-Lucent, Arris, Broadcom, D-Link, Ericsson, Panasonic, Sandvine, and others.

“The Administration must act to protect against calls for utility-like common carrier regulation that would threaten demand for Internet infrastructure, reduce incentives for investment, hinder innovation and jeopardize [the Internet’s] success,” the companies wrote.

Consumer advocates have called upon the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify broadband as a utility and ban “fast lanes” in which Web services pay ISPs for faster and more reliable access to consumers. The FCC has proposed rules that would require ISPs to provide a minimum level of service to all legal applications, but without banning fast lanes or classifying broadband as a utility under Title II of the Communications Act. The FCC's plan instead relies upon its weaker “Section 706” authority.

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It's been more than two-and-a-half years since he was charged, so it's easy to forget that the US still sees Kim Dotcom as an Internet fugitive.

The US Department of Justice still hopes to extradite him from New Zealand and bring him to trial on criminal copyright charges for inducing piracy through actions he undertook at his former company, Megaupload. Dotcom is still fighting to stay out of the US, and an extradition trial is now scheduled for February 2015.

Now, Dotcom has won an interim victory—thanks to a ruling from the New Zealand Court of Appeal, he's finally going to get some of the data that was seized from his computers and other devices when his house was raided in January 2012.

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The 40-year-old federal rules that support the National Football League's TV blackout policy could finally be eliminated this month. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler today scheduled a vote for September 30 on "a proposal to get rid of the FCC’s blackout rule once and for all," he wrote today.

"There is no better example of an FCC rule that has outlived its usefulness and deserves to be eliminated than our sports blackout rule," Wheeler wrote. "In 1975, the Commission enacted rules barring cable from airing a game that has been blacked out on the local television station because it was not sold out—strengthening the NFL’s blackout policy. Today, the rules make no sense at all."

Pro football doesn't need the government's help to boost ticket sales, "and we at the FCC shouldn’t be complicit in preventing sports fans from watching their favorite teams on TV," he continued.

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Do you have any of these older iPhones? Here's our advice on whether it's time for a replacement. Andrew Cunningham

A new iPhone is here. You've spent most of the day watching Apple's announcement, the coverage around it, the reaction to the announcement and the coverage, and the reactions to those reactions. It's the standard tech news rigmarole, which can be fun, but ultimately doesn't really help people make purchasing decisions.

Let's assume you're a current iPhone owner, and you're being tempted by the new one's wiles. We're here to throw some water on the early adoption fire, to be the voice of reason that tells you whether it's really practical to upgrade or not. Here's a list of all the phones that are going to run iOS 8, and what you should be thinking about if you're looking for a replacement.

iPhone 5S owners: Keep your phone

This recommendation doesn't surprise anyone, right? If you have an iPhone 5S, you didn't buy a phone all that long ago. Your iPhone supports pretty much every iOS 8 feature, from Handoff, to the performance-boosting Metal graphics API, to 64-bit apps, to TouchID. Given Apple's reputation for secrecy even among different internal teams, it's a safe bet that a whole bunch of iOS 8 was developed on an iPhone 5S, for an iPhone 5S.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook went the "one more thing" route at the end of the company's Flint Center media event today and revealed the Apple Watch, the company's first-ever dedicated wearable. Cook said that Apple had to go back to the drawing board in order to create interfaces that worked with a tiny screen, meaning that the company had a lot to reveal—and explain—during the (long) presentation.

Apple Watch launches "early next year" at a starting price point of $349, so in-depth reviews won't appear for some time. For now, though, we have gathered the few pictures we do have into one place. Together, they illustrate many common functions of the watch.

Ars reporters on site at Apple's media event will weigh in later today with hands-on pictures and impressions of the new device.

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Alongside the launch of the launch of the iPhone 6 family, Apple is also prepping for the launch of iOS 8. The iPhone 6 family will of course ship with iOS 8 as their base OS, meanwhile Apple has announced that iOS 8 will be available as an upgrade for compatible devices on September 17th, 2 days before the iPhone 6 ships.

As Apple has already announced iOS 8 back at WWDC 2014, we won’t spend too much time recapping it here. Notable new features for iOS 8 include the low level Metal graphics API, new keyboard functionality, notification enhancements, and hands-free Siri.

Meanwhile for compatibility, Apple has confirmed that iOS 8 will be coming to A5 and higher devices. This includes the iPhone 4S, iPad 2, and iPod Touch 5th Gen, along with their respective successors including the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini. In practice this means that iOS 8 will run on anything iOS 7 ran on other than the iPhone 4, which was the sole A4 device to run that OS.

Aurich Lawson

When Apple announced that it would finally make a large iPhone to compete against all the large Android phones, my first thought was, "Will it even fit in my pocket?" It's hard to get a sense of what things look like in real life from seeing them on a computer screen, even when they're placed next to other objects for scale.

So I grabbed Apple's official press shot of the iPhone 5S compared with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and I whipped up some quick wireframe drawings to scale. You can print them out, cut around the edges with a pair of scissors, and hold the paper outlines in your hand to see just what each size really feels like.

Spoiler alert: the iPhone 6 Plus feels huge.

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Apple has thrown their hat into the wearable ring with the Apple watch, which tries to bring a better user experience to the watch without trying to adapt iOS to the watch with multi-touch gestures that we're familiar with on the iPhone.

There's a single crystal sapphire display, a digital dial crown that acts as a home button and a scroll system. There's also a strong emphasis on haptic feedback which allows for linking of watches to share notifications by sending taps in any possible pattern. This is done by using a force sensitive touchscreen, which is a method of navigating along with the scrolling dial. This allows for subtle communication that doesn't rely on obvious sound or gestures. It's also possible to send taps based upon pulse/heart beat.

There are IR lights and sapphire lenses on the back of the watch for heart rate and serves as a magnetic alignment wireless charging system. The accuracy of the watch is no more than 50 milliseconds off at any time.

In order to support this watch, Apple has also designed a custom SoC called S1, likely for battery life and sensor integration and reduction of board area.

There are six different straps that are easily exchanged. The sport band has multiple colors and is some kind of rubber. There's a leather sports strap which has multiple magnets to ensure that the fit works correctly. There's also a traditional leather strap and a stainless steel link bracelet. There's also a stainless steel mesh band that is infinitely adjustable. There are also two versions of each watch edition, one larger and one smaller.

The Apple Watch also has NFC and will work with Apple Pay.

There are actually three variants though, which include the standard Apple Watch, Watch Sport, and the Watch Edition which has 18 karat gold for the casing. The sport edition has a anodized aluminum casing.

Furthermore the watch will also come in two different case sizes to account for different wrist sizes (essentially his & her watch sizes). These sizes are 38mm and 42mm tall respectively.

The Apple Watch must be paired with an iPhone to work properly. It starts at $349 USD and will go on sale early 2015.

On Tuesday, Apple finally unveiled the Apple Watch, the company's first dedicated wearable device.

Once rumored for an October reveal, the Watch was only recently linked to today's iPhone announcement event, and while it follows devices from the likes of Samsung, Motorola, and LG, the Watch stands out thanks to its total integration with the iPhone and iOS ecosystem. The Apple Watch comes in two different sizes—one larger and one smaller.

According to CEO Tim Cook, the Apple Watch has been in development for a considerable amount of time and required a reassessment of how users interact with devices. Not content to take the iPhone experience and simply shrink it to wrist-like proportions, the Apple Watch discards traditional gesture controls like pinch-to-zoom, since they are impractical in the tiny form factor. Instead, the primary means of interaction is with the "digital crown," the tiny dial on the watch's side. Per Cook, it lets you interact with the watch without blocking its screen (although, confusingly, a screen-obscuring swipe appears to be the most common gesture used with the Watch). A press on the "digital crown" returns you to the home screen.

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Megan Geuss

On Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled Apple Pay, a new mobile payment platform built into every iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. It will launch in October as a free update to iOS 8, and it will be supported by 220,000 merchants that already support contactless payments.

"Our mission is to replace your wallet, starting by focusing on payments," Cook said before showing a brief demonstration video of an iPhone user holding the phone up to a sensor at a payment kiosk. "That's it!" Cook said, and then he showed the video once more for those who may have "blinked and missed it." Like other payment apps, Apple Pay will support taking photos of credit cards to import their information.

Retailers are already poised to support Apple Pay. Megan Geuss

Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue confirmed that iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models will support Apple Pay thanks to NFC, along with a new chip called the Secure Element that stores payment information in encrypted, secure fashion. All transactions will be conducted with a one-time code that doesn't transfer personal shopping information to Apple (or credit card information to individual cashiers), and payments can also be immediately suspended by using Find My iPhone.

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