iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Pay, and the Apple Watch: Here's everything Apple just announced

It happens but once a year: Apple debuts its newest phone in a grand, press- and-analyst-filled event. This year, as the iPhone gets bigger, it's joined by its long-awaited, smaller, wearable cousin. If you didn't feel like sitting through the two-hour erratic live stream or missed our live blog, here's the lowdown on what you missed.

iPhone

It wouldn't be a mobile launch without at least one new iPhone, and this year we've got two. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, with 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens, respectively, as well as new generation Retina Displays -- Retina HD. And the Plus' is full HD resolution.. They're thinner, have redesigned keyboards, faster graphics processing and a new motion coprocessor (for tracking motion and distance data), and bettery battery life than the iPhone 5S. they also promise faster Wi-Fi and LTE, plus there's support for VoLTE.

The camera's been updated with phase-detection autofocus, and optical image stabilization debuts in the 6 Plus, and the phone now supports 1080/60p and 30p, with slow-motion 120fps or 240fps, continuous autofocus and image stabilization. The FaceTime camera has a new sensor and f2.2 aperture, plus burst mode, better face detection, and single-shot HDR for still or video.

For US residents craving the iPhone 6, the 16GB version is just $199, while $299 gets you 64GB (instead of the 32GB that the 5S carried at that price), and $399 bumps you up to 128GB. If you're in the UK, it'll run you £539, £619, and £699, respectively, and in Australia the line of iPhone 6s will set you back AU$869, AU$999, and AU$1,129.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 6 Plus starts at $299 for 16GB, $399 for 64GB, and $499 for 128GB in the US and £619, £699, and £789, respectively, in the UK. Australian pricing is AU$999 for 16GB, AU$1,129 for 64GB, and AU$1,249 for the top-of-the-line 128GB model. Available: September 19.

Apple Watch

With a return of its trademark "One More Thing," Apple finally makes its official jump into the wearables market with the Apple Watch -- sorry, no iWatch, folks. It uses a "Digital Crown" -- you know, that thing on the side of an analog watch you use to set the time -- for navigation, as well as addition to touchscreen swiping and Siri, and provides haptic feedback.

There's a second button on the watch for Digital Touch: it brings up a list of your favorite contacts, and supports tap-based shortcuts. A sensor on the watch activates the display when you raise your wrist, and it bears a completely different interface than iOS, optimized for a small screen. It sports a flexible Retina display with a sapphire screen, a variety of sensors for motion and health tracking, and it supports inductive charging. Apple demoed some interesting applications, like the ability to unlock a hotel-room door, as well as Fitness and Workout.

In addition to watch faces, there are six different straps, each of which uses a standard means to change them. There are three collections; Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport (most durable), and Apple Watch Edition (18K gold). It also requires an iPhone, though it will work with the 5 series as well as the iPhone 6 versions. How much? It starts at $349. Apple has not revealed pricing for the UK or Australia, but $349 converts to around £220 or AU$380. Regardless, you won't be able to get one until early 2015.

Apple Pay

Catching up with the rest of the pack, for its latest mobile devices Apple incorporates NFC (near-field communications) technology and an infrastructure called Apple Pay. It's limited to the new phones because it requires a new Secure element chip, and it sounds pretty ambitious. Credit card info is integrated through PassBook, and it uses the TouchID sensor to authenticate a payment; the retailer gets just a single-use number verified by the bank instead of your name and credit card number, whether brick-and-mortar or online. And Apple claims it doesn't monitor your purchases. It will launch with support from 83 percent of all banks and 220,000 US merchants. Apple Pay will launch in the US in October, with other countries to come in the future.

iOS 8

Announced in June and subsequently seeded to developers, this is when we finally get to see the final apps and their implementations, including new games that take advantage of the Metal gaming engine. Apple's apps have some built-in optimizations for single-handed use on the bigger screens. iOS 8 will be available to update your current devices September 17, at which point you'll get these apps on your old phone.

Apple, Samsung agree to bury overseas litigation

A deal settles all lawsuits pending outside the US, but US patent lawsuits between the two are unaffected.

Apple and Samsung on Tuesday said they have agreed to settle all lawsuits filed against each other outside the United States, ending some aspects of their long-running patent dispute but allowing the companies to continue their litigation in the US.

"Samsung and Apple have agreed to drop all litigation between the two companies outside the United States," the companies said in a statement. "This agreement does not involve any licensing arrangements, and the companies are continuing to pursue the existing cases in US courts."

Apple and Samsung declined to comment beyond the joint statement.

Apple and Samsung have been fighting over the designs and functionality of their smartphones and tablets since 2011. For the companies, the long-running battle is about more than money. What's really at stake is the market for mobile devices. Apple now gets two-thirds of its sales from the iPhone and iPad; South Korea-based Samsung is the world's largest maker of smartphones; and both want to keep dominating the market. At the same time, they're also facing tougher competition from new vendors in emerging markets, such as Xiaomi in China.

While Apple and Samsung have fought long and bitter patent battles in the US, they've also duked it out in courts in Asia and Europe with mixed results. A Japanese high court upheld a lower court ruling last year that Samsung did not infringe on an Apple patent related to synchronizing music and video on Galaxy smartphones and tablets with servers. After a German court initially sided with Apple's patent infringement claims and banned the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 within its borders in 2011, Samsung eventually was allowed to sell a revised version of the device.

In total, the companies battled in eight courts outside the US -- Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Japan, The Netherlands, and the UK. Samsung also has sought to invalidate some of Apple's patents in Spain.

Just because the companies have settled their cases outside the US doesn't mean the battle is over.

"At this point it's hard to say whether this is the beginning of the end, or a mutual decision on the part of Apple and Samsung to focus their energy even more intently on US litigation, which was always the highest stakes between them," said Brian Love, assistant professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law.

Apple initially filed suit against Samsung in April 2011 in the US, accusing its rival of copying the look and feel of its iPhones and iPads. Samsung countersued, and it also launched suits against Apple outside the US. Apple countersued in five of the countries.

The initial case in the US went to trial in August 2012. A nine-person jury sided with Apple on a majority of its patent infringement claims against Samsung. It awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages, much less than the $2.75 billion sought by the Cupertino, Calif., company. Samsung, which asked for $421 million in its countersuit, didn't get anything.

However, Judge Lucy Koh in March 2013 ordered a new trial to recalculate some of the damages in the case, striking $450.5 million off the original judgment against Samsung. A jury in November awarded Apple an additional $290.5 million in damages, bringing the total damages to $930 million. A third trial, which ended in May, came back more mixed, with Samsung ordered to pay Apple $119.6 million in damages and Apple ordered to pay $158,000 for infringing one of Samsung's patents.

Apple may have won about $1 billion from Samsung, but it hasn't seen any money yet. And it also was awarded much less than it asked for, particularly in the 2014 trial. Apple had wanted $2.2 billion for Samsung's accused infringement of five patents, but it received less than 6 percent of that total. In addition, neither company has been successful in banning its rivals products from sale in the US, something that could have had a real impact.

The long-running spat also doesn't exactly reflect well on either company. Apple and Samsung are two of the most secretive companies in the technology industry, with little known about the inner workings of their operations or about executives' private comments -- until the recent patent cases. Each side presented damning evidence during the trials about its rival and used its competitor's words, taken from emails and internal presentations including competitive analysis and marketing documents, against it. That included former Apple CEO Steve Jobs' determination to launch a "holy war" against Google's Android mobile operating system, which powers Samsung's smartphone, and a plan by a Samsung executive to use Jobs' death in 2011 as a marketing opportunity.

Following the most recent trial, Samsung attorney John Quinn told CNET that Apple wouldn't see a dime from the most recent judgment. Quinn -- a partner at the law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which represents Samsung, Google, and other Android handset makers -- also predicted that Apple would soon put an end to its patent infringement lawsuits because it hasn't been able to shift market demand away from smartphones built on Google's Android software.

The first US case is going through the appeals process, and the companies also plan to appeal the most recent verdict. Apple also has settled its lawsuits with other handset vendors using Google's popular Android operating system, including HTC and Motorola Mobility.