The Ulefone Note 17 Pro is now official, and the company refers to it as its “first OLED flagship”. Ulefone says that this phone marks two firsts for the ‘Note’ lineup. It’s the first ‘Note’ phone with a curved display and the first ‘Note’ device with an in-display fingerprint scanner.

The Ulefone Note 17 Pro is not one of the company’s rugged smartphones

Ulefone mainly announces rugged phones which are a part of its ‘Armor’ series. The ‘Note’ series represents more regular phones from the company. The Ulefone Note 17 Pro has a centered display camera hole, rather thin bezels, and two cameras on the back. Those cameras are separated across two camera islands. Both of them sit in the top-left corner.

This smartphone comes in three colors, Amber Orange, Pearl White, and Velvet Black. The device is fueled by the MediaTek Helio G99 processor. It also comes with 12GB of RAM, which can be expanded via virtual RAM for an additional 12GB. Ulefone placed 256GB of storage inside as well.

It has a large 120Hz OLED display, and a 108MP main camera

There is a large 6.78-inch fullHD+ AMOLED display in use here. This display has a resolution of 2400 x 1080 and a refresh rate of 120Hz. It also has an average brightness of 500 nits. That panel is protected by the Gorilla Glass 5.

A 108-megapixel main camera (Samsung’s HM2 sensor, f/1.89 aperture, 6P lens) is used here. In addition to that, you’ll also find a 5-megapixel macro camera (f/2.2 aperture) on the back of this phone. A single 32-megapixel unit (f/2.5 aperture) is used on the front side of the phone.

A large battery is included, and 33W wired charging supported

Ulefone decided to use a 5,050mAh battery here. The phone supports 33W wired charging, and it does come with a charger in the box. It also has an optical in-display fingerprint scanner, while face unlock is also supported via the front-facing camera.

This phone has two SIM card slots (2x nano SIM), and supports 4G connectivity. Android 13 comes pre-installed on the phone, while Bluetooth 5.2 is also supported here. Ulefone did also include a TPU case in the retail box, by the way.

The Ulefone Note 17 Pro is currently available to pre-order, in case you’re interested. Apply the coupon code ‘N17P2024’, and you can get it for a pre-sale price of $279.99. Ulefone is also hosting a giveaway via Facebook. All the necessary links are included below.

Ulefone Note 17 Pro (more info & pre-order)

Ulefone Note 17 Pro giveaway

The post Ulefone Note 17 Pro is the company's first OLED flagship appeared first on Android Headlines.

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Spring cleaning will be here before you know it, so if any of your machines are ready to retire, take this as your reminder to upgrade. Anyone in need of a new vacuum cleaner is in luck because Amazon is offering a special coupon to shoppers buying one of its bestselling models.

Right now, the Eureka PowerSpeed Upright Vacuum Cleaner is available for just $85 as long as you apply Amazon’s on-page coupon before adding it to your cart. It’s ranked no. 1 in Amazon’s commercial indoor upright vacuum category and is backed by more than 10,700 five-star ratings from shoppers who swear by it.

We understand that a low price point can sometimes be worrisome, but rest assured this corded vacuum delivers high-quality results. It works so well, several people went as far as to say they’re replacing their Dysons with this Eureka model, and one reviewer wrote, “we’ve had it for almost a year and it’s still kicking Dyson’s and Shark’s butts.” 

Eureka PowerSpeed Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner, $85 (was $100) at Amazon

This vacuum cleaner uses a powerful motor to provide lots of suction along with a brush roller to pick up everything in its path including pet hair, crumbs, dirt, and debris. It offers five height adjustment settings, making it ideal for cleaning all types of surfaces from hard floors to plush carpets or rugs. Everything it sucks up goes through a washable and reusable filter, and is then collected inside the 2.6-liter dust cup that has a one-button empty function. That means you can dispose of any debris without getting your hands dirty.

Along with the main machine, you’ll also receive an upholstery tool, crevice tool, and dusting brush that attach to the cleaning wand. These accessories allow you to clean hard-to-reach areas like baseboards, ceiling fans, and underneath furniture with ease. Not to mention it’ll also save you from having to bend over while cleaning, so no more back pain.

It’s rare that a vacuum of this caliber is on sale for well under $100, so we aren’t shocked that it has thousands of rave reviews. One shopper said they’re “super happy with how much it pulled from all the carpets in just one use,” and added that they are “grossed out, but happy.”

“When I say that I was both horrified and delighted at what this thing picked up in the first 15 seconds...Jeebus,” another reviewer wrote. “It picked up everything that every other machine has missed since [the] summer of 1994. I have carpet and an area rug and share a space with a cat, a shepherd, and a shepherd mix who all shed like they get paid to do it. This Eureka picked it all up in five minutes of vacuuming.”

This is your chance to get a shopper-loved upright vacuum for $85, so make sure to grab one before the Amazon coupon expires. 

With all the Federal Reserve dominating the news lately, some of you may be tempted to ask, "Fed, Shmed, what's all this got to do with me?"

Well, if you're planning to buy a house or a car, then the Fed's handling of interest rates has a lot to do with you.

The federal funds rate impacts monetary and financial conditions, which in turn have a bearing on critical aspects of the broader economy, including employment, growth, and inflation.

"When inflation is too high, the Federal Reserve typically raises interest rates to slow the economy and bring inflation down," the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland said on its website. "When inflation is too low, the Federal Reserve typically lowers interest rates to stimulate the economy and move inflation higher."

Higher interest rates mean higher borrowing costs, and people will eventually start spending less.

The Fed sees a rate of inflation of 2% per year—as measured by the price index for personal consumption expenditures—as the right amount of inflation.

Looking for strong labor market

On Jan. 31, the Fed held its key interest rate steady for a fourth consecutive meeting, confirming market forecasts. Still, the central bank pushed back on the chances of a spring rate cut, warning that inflation remains elevated.

The Federal Open Market Committee held its key policy rate at between 5.25% and 5.5%, the highest in 22 years.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell sent shockwaves through the market by effectively ruling out the chances of a March rate cut, citing stubbornly high inflation and a resilient job market.

“It’s still a good labor market for wages and for finding a job. But it’s getting back into balance. And that’s what we want to see,” Powell said. “We want to see a strong labor market. We’re not looking for a weaker labor market.”

Traders are now pricing in a 38.5% chance that the Fed begins the first of its three projected rate cuts in March, according to the CME Group's FedWatch. One month ago, the odds of a cut were 73%.

“We could hem and haw, jawbone if you will, about the perceived tea leaf reading we all just did for the last 45 minutes or so, but the only thing that matters is the idea that a March rate cut is ‘unlikely,’” said Alex McGrath, chief investment officer for NorthEnd Private Wealth. “The Market certainly did not see that coming inducing the ye olde rug pull post FOMC presser.” 

Stocks fell after Powell made his comments but bounced back on Feb. 1.

'Not a big surprise,' analyst says

Goldman Sachs pushed back its expectation of the Fed starting to cut interest rates to May from March after Powell's comments.

The firm maintained its forecast of five 25 basis points rate cuts this year and expects four consecutive cuts from May through September and a final cut in December.

"It is not a big surprise that the Fed isn't rushing to cut rates," said Real Money Pro's James "Rev Shark" DePorre, "but the market has consistently been more dovish than the Fed and has been hanging on to hope that a series of cuts will begin in March." 

The Fed chair's comments disappointed the hopeful bulls, DePorre said, "but this was not a hawkish Fed decision."

"Powell was upbeat and positive about the economy and the progress that has been made on inflation," he said.

Bill Adams, the chief economist for Comerica Bank, said that many Federal Open Markets Committee members likely think a rate cut might be appropriate by March when the FOMC will have nearly two more months of economic data in hand than they did today.

"But a significant minority of members are probably less confident that inflation is on a sustainable downward trajectory," he said. 

"Also, some FOMC members likely believe inflation is on its way back to target, but want to push back against buoyant financial market conditions--high stock market prices, narrow credit spreads in the bond market--that make the Fed’s high policy rate less restrictive to growth than it otherwise would be," Adams said.

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

TheStreet's J.D. Durkin brings the latest business headlines from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as markets close for trading Thursday, February 1.

Full Video Transcript Below:

J.D. DURKIN: I’m J.D. Durkin - reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what we’re watching on TheStreet today.

Stocks were in the green to close out today's session. The Dow closed up over 350 points, the Nasdaq closed up 1.3 percent, and the S&P closed 1.2 percent higher. This comes as investors continue to react to the Fed holding interest rates steady while indicating that a March rate cut would be unlikely. Markets are now pricing in a 38 percent chance of a rate cut in March.

Separately, investors are looking ahead to the January jobs report out Friday. Wall Street is expecting the U.S. economy to have added 176,500 jobs last month, with the unemployment rate rising to 3.8 percent.

In other news - we know that layoffs have been top of mind in the business world to start 2024, but now we know just how bad it's been. According to a new report by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas - layoffs in January increased by 136 percent from the month prior. In total, 82,307 workers were let go by U.S.-based employers in the first month of the year, marking the highest number of January layoffs since 2009.

In addition to questions around interest rates and 2024 being an election year, the report says these layoffs are also driven by "broader economic trends and a strategic shift towards increased automation and AI adoption in various sectors, though in most cases, companies point to cost-cutting as the main driver for layoffs."

The financial sector saw more layoffs than any other industry with 23,238 workers laid off. That was followed by the tech sector with almost 16,000 layoffs, and the food production industry which had roughly 6,660 workers let go.

When asked why employees were being laid off, restructuring was the number one response given by employers. And if you’re worried about AI coming for your job, keep in mind that artificial intelligence was blamed for less than one percent of the January layoffs.

That’ll do it for your daily briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m J.D. Durkin with TheStreet.

Visit Man of Many for the full post.

The Circle to Search feature that Google announced back in January has started to roll out to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. If you have either one of these devices, then you should be able to use it as a means for searching for more information about content on-screen.

You can use it virtually anywhere. No matter what you’re browsing or what you’re doing on the phone. Once you circle something, Google will populate a box on-screen that surrounds the item or words you circled. The results of the search then pop up in a panel from the bottom of the screen.

Circle to Search on Pixel 8 makes for easy and intuitive searching for everything

Google’s Circle to Search feature is intended to give users a quicker, more intuitive way to gather information about stuff. And it can be a super fast method for finding additional information about products. Say you’re at the grocery store and you see an item you want to know more about. You can simply take a photo of the item, then open that photo and circle it to search for information. Super easy and relatively fast. To use the feature you do have to activate it but that doesn’t take much effort.

You can activate it in two ways. Either long press on the nav handle at the bottom if you’re using gesture navigation, or long press on the home button if you’re using the three-button navigation. This brings up the circle to search overlay where you can circle or tap the area you want to search. You can also draw a line over the area you’re searching and that works too.

Additionally, it’s possible to add text to the search and potentially more precise results. If you circle to search for something and you don’t get the results you were looking for, you can easily resize the box that pops up and drag it around to see if the results change too. You can use this feature to highlight text as well. To do this, activate circle to search and then tap on or draw a line over any text you want to highlight. Google also makes it possible to scroll around the page to look at something else by using two fingers to scroll around.

This feature began rolling out to Pixel 8 devices on January 31. So there’s a good chance you have access to it already. Google does like to roll things out in waves though so don’t be too surprised if it isn’t active on your device yet.

The post The Pixel 8 now has the Circle to Search feature appeared first on Android Headlines.

The Super Bowl is always one of the biggest betting days of the year, and this year’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will be no different. Mike Raffensperger, the chief commercial officer at FanDuel, sat down with TheStreet to discuss what he expects to see in terms of sheer betting volume, as well as some of the more popular bets placed.

Full Video Transcript Below:

J.D. DURKIN: You may have heard there's a big football game a couple of weeks out. Talk to me about that. You're not familiar. I think it's called the Super bowl, a big, big football. It's the whole thing. I know Taylor Swift will be there. What is the, talk to me about some of the trends overall you're seeing in terms of either the types of wagers you're seeing or the new types of offerings that even first time fans will be able to take advantage of in the run up to the big game?

MIKE RAFFENSPERGER: Well, I can confidently say it's going to be the biggest game in the history of betting likely globally, certainly in the United States. So just a little bit of context. We recently had the conference championships where the 49ers and the Chiefs made their way into the Super Bowl that day. FanDuel took more handle, more betting than we did in the Super Bowl last year.

And so in terms of anticipating in a couple of weeks what we expect to see Super Bowl, it will break all records, not just here in America, but really internationally for the amount of wagering taking place on one game. There really is nothing like the Super Bowl. You know, look, in terms of the wagers, you'll expect to see, we'll have over 600 different markets, meaning things that you can bet on. That's more than any other Sportsbook in America. Very popular one is who will score the first touchdown. And on that market, I can say the Swifty effect is in full run. Travis Kelce is the number one player picked score the first touchdown in just a couple of weeks here in the Super Bowl.