According to the documentation on AngularJS Understanding controllers:
Linking Controllers to Angular Scope Objects
Controllers can be linked to scope objects implicitly through the ngController directive or $route service.
These two methods are commonly used in AngularJS applications.
I found an interesting piece in the Developer Guide / Understanding the Controller Component:
Linking Controllers to Angular Scope Objects
Controllers can be linked to scope objects explicitly using the scope.$new api, or implicitly through the ngController directive or $route service.
In addition to the implicit linkage of controller with scope, there is also a mention of an explicit method using the scope.$new api.
While it's known that scope.$new creates a new [isolated] scope, the connection to explicitly linking the controller with the scope is not clear to me.
It would be helpful to see a practical example and/or more detailed explanation.