Apple unveils iPhone 6S, 6S Plus, aiming to tighten grip on high-end smartphones

Apple on Wednesday debuted its newest smartphones, the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, giving the devices a new pressure-sensitive display, zippier processor and more powerful camera.

"What we have to show you today is really awesome," CEO Tim Cook said during Apple's presentation at the Bill Graham Auditorium in downtown San Francisco. "While they may look familiar, we have changed everything about these new iPhones."

This year's iPhone is Apple's off "S" year. That means Apple keeps the basic design of the device the same but adds other features to attract buyers, like the Siri digital voice assistant in the iPhone 4S and the TouchID fingerprint reader in the iPhone 5S.

The iPhone has become more vital than ever to the company's financial results following the introduction of Apple's bigger-screen smartphones a year ago. It has made up more than two-thirds of sales in the past several quarters since Apple released the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in September 2014. Typically, the iPhone accounts for closer to 50 percent of Apple's revenue. That means keeping customers interested in the iPhone is critical for Apple to remain a major tech leader.

A marquee feature for this year's iPhone 6S was expected to be the Force Touch technology used in the Apple Watch, a pressure-sensitive display that responds to various types of touches. The company instead unveiled 3D Touch, a feature that appears to have the same capabilities. For instance, it will enable a user to peek in an email by pressing down on the subject head. 

In another notable change, Siri can be activated via voice for the first time, using the command "Hey Siri." That will allow users to ask the digital assistant to play music or make a phone call, even while they are washing dishes or preparing a meal. In older models, Siri can only be activated by pressing the phone's home button. The new feature helps Apple catch up to other voice-activated devices such as the Amazon Echo speaker and many Android phones.

The new 4.7-inch 6S and 5.5-inch 6S Plus are the same size as last year's models. Preorders start Saturday and the devices go on sale September 25 in the US, UK, China, France, Japan, Australia and other markets. The phone will be available in 130 countries by year's end. Also, owners of newer models of the iPhone can upgrade to the new iOS 9 operating system starting September 16.

Following Apple's typical pricing system, the base-model iPhone 6S will cost $649 without a two-year carrier contract. Prices for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be knocked down $100

Google could make a comeback in China with its Play Store

San Francisco: Google is talking with Chinese authorities and smartphone makers about opening an online shop in China stocked with applications for Android-powered mobile devices, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The move would mark a return for the US Internet firm, which moved its online search service from Mainland China to Hong Kong in 2010 after a cyberattack targeting Gmail users and a clash over censorship.

Many Google services, such as its free Gmail email, are blocked in China.

Google-backed Android powers the majority of the smartphones in the world and is available free for device makers in China and elsewhere.

Manufacturers such as Xiaomi customize their own version of Android, while Baidu and other Internet players in China run app stores that don't share revenue with Google, according to the Journal.

Opening a Google Play online shop for digital content approved by the Chinese government and pre-installed on smartphones powered by a licensed version of Android would be a remedy for that situation.

Google has been working on the project for more than a year and hoped to have the China app shop on new smartphones by the end of this year, according to a source cited by the Journal.

Google did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

Mets Top Phillies in 13 for Seventh Win in a Row

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Daniel Murphy's offense and defense helped the New York Mets remain on a roll.

Murphy hit a go-ahead, two-run double in the 13th inning after making a spectacular defensive play to end the 10th, leading New York to its seventh straight victory, 9-5 over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday night.

Reliever Carlos Torres led off the 13th with a single to center, went to second on Curtis Granderson's single to left and they both scored on Murphy's opposite-field hit off Hector Neris (2-2). Helped by two errors by Neris, the Mets scored two more runs in the inning.

"(Murphy) can stinkin' hit, flat hit," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "When he's swinging good, we're dangerous."

Murphy's defense also shined.

He sent the game to the 11th with a tremendous defensive play. Jeff Francoeur's hard liner deflected off Torres' leg toward first base. Murphy made a diving stop before flipping a no-look toss toward the bag that was caught by a hustling Torres, who beat Francoeur by a half-step.

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"You'll see it tonight if you turn on your TV," Collins said. "It will be shown many times."

Murphy credited Torres for staying with the play.

"I wasn't sure who was going to be there, but I flipped it anyway," he said.

Torres said extending his leg and running to cover the bag were just natural reactions.

"It just happened to hit my foot," he said. "I'm happy (Murphy) stayed at home."

Torres (5-5) pitched 2⅓ scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out one.

Yoenis Cespedes, Kelly Johnson and Travis d'Arnaud homered for the Mets, who thrilled the large contingent of New York fans by sweeping the four-game series to give them nine straight wins over Philadelphia. New York remained 6½ games ahead of Washington, a 4-2 winner over San Diego, in the NL East.

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"The signs were pointing for us to win this game," Collins said.

New York has averaged 10.4 runs during their winning streak. The Mets outscored the Phillies 40-21 the series.

"I'm happy they're leaving town," Phillies interim manager Pete Mackanin said.

Darin Ruf went deep for the Phillies, who have dropped 12 of 13 to the Mets this year and 29 of the last 36.

The game took 4 hours, 32 minutes.

Philadelphia had a chance to win it in the 12th, but third baseman David Wright made an excellent defensive play on Andres Blanco's chopper with two outs and Cesar Hernandez coming home from third. Wright charged the ball, fielded it on a short hop and then gunned down Blanco to keep the Mets' hopes alive.

Five Mets relievers pitched seven scoreless innings.

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The Phillies scored five runs in the third to open the game's scoring.

Francoeur's two-run single and Ruf's opposite-field shot off Jonathon Niese highlighted the inning. Niese entered 5-0 with a 1.61 ERA in his last seven games against the Phillies, but he got a no-decision after allowing five runs and five hits in six innings.

But the Mets came back with two runs in the fourth on d'Arnaud's opposite-field drive before tying the game in the fifth on Cespedes' two-run homer to right and Johnson's solo shot to right. All three homers came off Aaron Harang, who gave up five runs and nine hits in six innings. Harang entered tied for the most losses in baseball with 14.

CESPEDES STREAKING: It was the sixth homer in seven games for Cespedes, who tied his career-high with his 26th of the season. He has 15 RBIs in the last seven games and is batting .303 with eight home runs and 23 RBIs with the Mets since they acquired him from Detroit on July 31.

HOMER HAPPY: The Mets set a franchise record for homers in a month with 43.

NEW NETS? In the second inning, a woman sitting five rows off the field was hit in the forehead by a foul ball off the bat of Freddy Galvis of the Phillies. The team said she was evaluated and didn't need to go to a hospital.

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Commissioner Rob Manfred talked at Citizens Bank Park before the game and said there was a chance that extra safety nets could be put up around the majors as early as next season.

TRAINER'S ROOM: Phillies — Catching prospect Jorge Alfaro singled and caught three innings in a rehab start for the Gulf Coast League Phillies on Thursday. One of the prospects acquired from Texas in the Cole Hamels trade, Alfaro had been sidelined since June 11 with a left ankle injury. ... LHP Elvis Araujo left with a left groin strain after throwing one pitch to Cespedes, the second batter he faced, in the 11th.

UP NEXT: Mets — New York opens a three-game home series against Boston on Friday night with RHP Matt Harvey (11-7, 2.57) facing Red Sox LHP Henry Owens (2-1, 4.50). Harvey is 4-0 with a 1.11 ERA in his last 7 starts at Citi Field dating to June 16.

Phillies — Rookie RHP Aaron Nola (4-1, 3.59) takes the mound for Philadelphia in the first of a three-game home series against San Diego on Friday night. Nola pitched eight shutout innings, allowing three hits, in his last start in Sunday's 2-0 win at Miami. RHP Ian Kennedy (8-11, 4.01) starts for the Padres.

California lags in vaccinating children, CDC says

It began in December at "the happiest place on earth": a measles outbreak that spread across the West, infecting more than 150 people.

The eruption at Disneyland occurred 14 years after health officials had declared the potentially deadly disease eliminated from the United States, thanks in part to childhood vaccination programs. The outbreak raised alarm that more scares could be on the way.

California lawmakers quickly moved to tamp down a growing resistance to vaccination that had been fostered in some communities by unfounded safety concerns. By summer, Gov. Jerry Brown had signed one of the nation's toughest laws to keep parents from opting not to inoculate their kids.

Nationwide data released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that although California children are immunized at a high level, the state's vaccination rate still lags behind the rest of the country.

The nationwide median vaccination coverage for kindergartners for measles, mumps and rubella as well as for diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis, or whooping cough, was about 94% for the 2014-2015 school year. And exemption rates remained very low, with a median of 1.7%, the report shows.

"Overall, the news is gratifying," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "Though they may not always get the headlines, the overwhelming majority of parents continue to protect their children with recommended vaccinations."

The national rates were calculated using data from 4 million children entering kindergarten in 2014.

In California, the picture was less rosy, though experts said that could soon change as the new state vaccine law goes into effect.

For California kindergartners entering school in fall 2014, the immunization rate for measles, mumps and rubella was 92.6%, and for diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis was 92.4%, the CDC found.

"There's still work to be done to raise vaccination rates in communities or local pockets where children aren't fully vaccinated," Schuchat said. "When a virus like measles reaches a group of unvaccinated people, trouble can follow."

Vaccination rates among California kindergartners declined between 2001 and 2013, particularly in affluent and coastal areas of the state. The decline was caused in part by an increase in waivers that allowed parents to refuse to vaccinate their kids. Public health officials said that exacerbated the measles outbreak.

Thursday's report found that the percentage of kids in California who claimed exemption in the 2014-15 school year was 2.7%. Though that's still higher than the national rate, it's a drop from the previous year's rate of 3.3% — a trend that health officials say they hope will continue.

California kindergartners are currently required to get vaccines, but can get medical or "personal belief" exemptions. The new state law, starting in 2016, bans philosophical and religious exemptions, making California the third state in the country to allow only medical exemptions.

Parents can still decline to vaccinate children who attend private home-based schools or perform independent studies off campus.

Two other states that also ban belief exemptions, West Virginia and Mississippi, have the lowest opt-out rates in the country at 0.2% and less than 0.1%, respectively, according to the CDC data. Together, the two states had 55 kids citing an exemption.

California's passage of the ban was controversial, drawing hundreds of protesters in Sacramento.

Brown, however, said he believes the science about vaccines is clear.

"While it's true that no medical intervention is without risk, the evidence shows that immunization powerfully benefits and protects the community," he said in a statement after signing the bill in June.

For several years until 2006, about 95% of California's kindergartners were fully vaccinated for measles.

The drop to 92.6% concerns health experts. Lower immunization rates, they say, can lead to a loss of "herd immunity," a situation in which the immunity of a crucial percentage of people drastically reduces the chances of a disease spreading. Experts say that conditions for an outbreak worsen when 8% or more of the population is not immunized.

The national data found that in the 2014-2015 school year, 32 states had vaccination rates for measles, mumps and rubella under 95%, and seven had rates under 90%.

A Simple Blood Test May Soon Predict The Return Of The Breast Cancer

Soon, an experimental blood test may be able to predict the chances of breast cancer relapse in women. According to a latest research conducted by a team at The Institute of Cancer Research in the U.K., the new blood test can help predict the return of the breast cancer, months before the actual appearance of the new tumor signs in the breast cancer scan.

According to the researchers, the new blood test works by detecting the cancer DNA circulating in the bloodstream of the breast cancer survivor. Using a specialized DNA technology, the researchers identified the key genetic fault in the faulty cancerous DNA found in the patient's blood sample.

The blood samples were retrieved from the breast cancer survivors, who have received a chemotherapy after the surgery. The blood samples were withdrawn at different intervals after the surgery. The researchers discovered that the women, who had faulty cancerous genes circulating in their bloodstream, were 12 percent more likely to suffer from breast cancer relapse than women with no faulty genes at all.

By this method, the faulty genes in the tumor DNA can be identified months before the actual conventional diagnosis takes place. However, it will still take time to confirm that the test is practically feasible, according to Professor Jacqui Shaw of the institute.

“This important study suggests that looking for tumor DNA in a patient’s blood after they’ve been treated for early stage breast cancer could help monitor them, and even make predictions about whether their disease may come back,” said Shaw in a statement. “And it may be possible to do this before tumors become visible on conventional scans. But there is some way to go before this could be developed into a test that doctors could use routinely, and doing so is never simple.”

The test is still under experimental stage and has not been made available for public use yet. However, the researchers are hopeful that if the test is found to be successful and gets approved, it will eliminate the need to conduct a biopsy for breast cancer detection.