Here's your first look at the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8

• Steve Kovach
 

• 24h
• 210,898

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.Samsung

After that embarrassing misstep last year, Samsung resurrected its Galaxy Note line Wednesday with the new Galaxy Note 8.

In many ways, the Galaxy Note 8 is an incremental improvement over the Galaxy S8, which launched in April. The Note 8 has a slightly larger screen, a boost in RAM, the S Pen stylus, a dual-lens camera system, and some software tricks unique to the larger form factor.

It's a phone for those who want the best performance and features from Samsung, and Samsung promises it won't suffer the same fate as the fire-prone Galaxy Note 7.

The Note 8, which starts at $960, will be available to preorder on Thursday. It'll be in stores on September 15.

Here's everything you need to know about the Note 8:

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The Note 8 has a new dual-lens camera system, just like the iPhone 7 Plus.

Corey Protin/Business Insider

The cameras appear to be an improvement over the iPhone. Both lenses have optical image stabilization, which reduces blur caused by movement. The dual lenses also let you use 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom. Both cameras shoot at 12 megapixels.

The dual lenses take two photos at once, which allows you to take portrait-style photos with blurred backgrounds, an effect called bokeh.

Corey Protin/Business Insider

You can even adjust the blur effect after you take the photo.

The Note's S Pen is back. It lets you draw on the screen or take notes.

Corey Protin/Business Insider

You can use the S Pen to mark up photos.

Corey Protin/Business Insider

Or use the new animated messaging feature, Live Message.

Corey Protin/Business Insider

Live Message records your doodles as a GIF that you can send to any device. You can also build a library of Live Message GIFs for quick responses.

You can run two apps at once in split-screen mode, just like you can with older Note phones. But there's a new trick in the Note 8 ...

Corey Protin/Business Insider

... now you can program pairs of your favorite apps that launch in a split screen.

Corey Protin/Business Insider

Bixby, Samsung's digital assistant, will ship with the Note 8.

Bixby on the Galaxy S8.Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

Bixby made its delayed debut on the Galaxy S8 this summer. It's not as good as Siri, Google Assistant, or Amazon's Alexa, but luckily, the Note 8 also comes with Google Assistant. You're better off using that instead.

The iris scanner, now standard in Samsung phones, lets you unlock the phone with your eyes.

Corey Protin/Business Insider

You can also unlock the phone with a selfie, but it's not as secure as a fingerprint or iris scan. (Recommendation: Don't use this feature.)

Corey Protin/Business Insider

Like the Galaxy S8, you can dock the Note 8 with Samsung's DeX, which lets you power a desktop operating system using just your phone.

Corey Protin/Business Insider

DeX is a special version of Android that works with a standard computer monitor, mouse, and keyboard.

Corey Protin/Business Insider

DeX has now been optimized for gaming.

Corey Protin/Business Insider

And accessories, like this keyboard.

Corey Protin/Business Insider

If you preorder the Galaxy Note 8, you can get a free Gear 360 camera, which costs about $100.

Corey Protin/Business Insider

If you don't want the Gear 360, you can get a free wireless charger and 128 GB memory card. (This is a better deal, by the way.)

Corey Protin/Business Insider

Here are some other features in the Note 8.

Samsung

• A 6.3-inch screen.

• Wireless charging.

• Water resistance.

• A fingerprint sensor (on the back).

• A 3,330-mAh battery.

• 6 GB of RAM.

• 64 GB of internal storage, which is expandable with a memory card.

The Note 8 is the latest in an impressive lineup of upcoming high-end smartphones.

Samsung

This will be a big year for premium smartphones, and you'll have a tough decision if you're ready to upgrade. This week, the startup Essential starts shipping its attractive new phone. Now there's the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 8 in a few weeks. And Google will have the sequel to its excellent Pixel phone in October.

Good luck.

SEE ALSO: Smartwatches are going nowhere

More: Features Samsung Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Android 

Hedge funds can't stop betting on the stock market's secret weapon

• Joe Ciolli
 

• 6h
• 11,289
 

Hedge funds can't stop betting on a weaker US dollar, which would keep boosting earnings growth for stocks. Reuters/Steve Marcus

The US dollar is already down almost 9% in 2017, bucking bullish expectations heading into the year. But can the greenback fall further?

Hedge funds think so. In fact, they're their most bearish in three years.

That's according to weekly data compiled by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which monitors the positions of large speculators. And it holds great significance for the US stock market, which has gotten an unexpected boost from a weaker dollar in the form of enhanced profit growth.

It's a continuation of one of the year's most surprising market storylines. Heading into 2017, the consensus was that President Donald Trump's pro-growth agenda would push the dollar higher. Then, amid doubts that Trump's agenda would get done in timely fashion, the dollar's fortune reversed, shocking just about everyone.

That's resulted in an unexpected boost for US corporate earnings that were already their best in five years. A weaker dollar makes exports more profitable, which helps companies doing business overseas — most notably the multinational conglomerates with big weightings in stock indexes. And good old-fashioned profitability has historically been the biggest driver of equity bull markets.

As such, the weaker dollar has been a secret weapon of sorts for stocks, helping to prop up earnings growth amid middling economic data and elevated geopolitical risk.

It's possible that hedge funds and other large speculators are simply reacting to the dollar's movements and adjusting positions accordingly, according Macro Risk Advisors. And they say it's a strategy that may not end well, especially amid concerns that the short-dollar trade is getting too crowded.

"The positioning has roughly tracked the performance of the dollar, suggesting that trend followers may explain most of the positioning change in FX futures," Pravit Chintawongvanich, the head of derivatives strategy at MRA, wrote in a client note. "If shorting the dollar truly is a crowded trade, a reversal in this trend could possibly spark a broader de-risking."

Macro Risk Advisors

SEE ALSO: Stocks are flashing a bigger warning sign than they did for Brexit and the US election

NOW WATCH: There are cracks forming under the surface of the stock market

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More: Stocks Stock Market Dollar

Britain's economy grew as expected in the second quarter — but Brexit uncertainty continues to bite

• Will Martin
 

• 6h
• 290

Reuters/Phil Noble

LONDON — Britain's economy grew as expected in the second quarter of 2017, but continued to experience a Brexit-based struggle, according to the second estimate from the ONS released on Wednesday.

GDP grew by 0.3%, the ONS said, while annual growth was 1.7%.

Prior to the release economists had forecast 0.3% growth, representing a small increase from the 0.2% growth seen in the first quarter. Yearly growth was forecast at 1.7%.

These figures confirmed the first estimate of growth released in July.

The 0.3% growth in the second quarter marks the second slowest growth since the beginning of 2016, with only Q1's number worse.

"GDP growth has slowed markedly in the first half of the year with relatively robust services growth, partly thanks to a booming film industry, offset by weak performances from manufacturing and construction in the second quarter," Darren Morgan, the ONS' head of GDP said in a statement.

"Household spending grew weakly, with the lower-value pound hitting household budgets, while business investment showed no growth at all."

Business investment grew by 0.0% in the quarter, the ONS said, a surprise to the downside. Economists polled prior to the release had expected 0.4% growth during the quarter.

"The GDP figures show that the U.K. economy has been the slowest growing G7 economy this year because Brexit risk has dampened business investment and sterling’s depreciation has hurt consumers more than it has helped exporters," Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macroeconomics wrote in a note circulated shortly after the data was released.

Here is the chart showing the longer term GDP trend:

ONS

It should be noted that these figures could still be revised higher or lower after the third estimate of growth is released next month.

Until the beginning of 2017, the UK economy fared better than all but the most optimistic of forecasters imagined in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit referendum, confounding predictions of an immediate recession, and virtually ignoring any uncertainty over the future.

However, as the falling pound has pushed up inflation in recent months, regular Brits have started to feel the pinch, spending less, and slowing the consumer boom that has fuelled the country's economic performance.

UK GDP has now grown in 18 consecutive quarters. The last time UK GDP shrunk over a quarter was in Q4 of 2012 when the economy readjusted following a huge boost from the 2012 Olympic Games in London.