Apple`s Metal API Comes for to OS X Desktop

At last year’s WWDC, Apple introduced their Metal API for iOS 8. A low-level graphics API, Metal was originally designed to bring the benefits of low-level graphics programming to Apple’s mobile operating system. And while we typically don’t think of mobile devices as being GPU-bound, in reality Apple has been packing some relatively powerful GPUs like GXA6850 with what are relatively speaking still fairly weak CPUs, which means Apple has ended up in a situation where they can be CPU-bottlenecked on draw calls.

Metal, despite being the 3rd such low-level API to be introduced, was the first to reach production status. Microsoft’s DirectX 12 is arguably not there yet (Windows 10 is still in testing), and Khronos’s Vulkan was still in its primordial Mantle form at this point in 2014. What this means is that out of all of the vendors, it’s arguably Apple who has the lead time advantage in low-level API development. Which is why for the last year we have been wondering if Metal would stay on iOS, or make the jump to OS X.

Yesterday we got our answer, with the announcement from Apple that Metal would be coming to OS X “10.11” El Capitan, and that it would be part of a larger investment into Metal for the company. Along with bringing Metal to OS X, Apple is going to be releasing new API kits that interface with Metal to simplify development, and internally Apple is now using Metal (when available) for parts of the desktop composition rendering chain. At this point it’s fair to say that Apple has gone all-in on Metal.

Consequently the fact that Metal is now over on OS X is not unexpected, but whether it has been planned for or not, it means that we now have 3 low-level APIs on the desktop as well as mobile. OS X’s Metal will be going head-to-head with Microsoft’s DirectX 12 and Khronos’s Vulkan, and this is the first time in a very long that we have seen a viable and competitive 3rd graphics API on the desktop, as DirectX and OpenGL have been the reigning APIs since the turn of the millennium.

Metal's Introduction At WWDC 2014 (Image Courtesy Apple Insider)

As for what this means for Mac users, in the short run it’s a good thing. With Vulkan still in development, had Apple not implemented Metal on OS X, OS X would have needed to stick with classic OpenGL for another year until OS X 10.12. Going with their own API, as was the case with mobile, gets a low-level API on OS X sooner. Furthermore because it’s been on iOS for the last year, Apple gets to leverage all of the developer experience and code already written for Metal, and bring that over to OS X. Which is why developers like Epic are able to show off engines using Metal on OS X so early.

In the long run however there are some big unknowns left to answer, which could have a big impact on how things play out. Apple has not yet released the complete documentation for the newest version of Metal – specifically, we don’t have feature lists – so how the Mac and iOS versions compare feature-wise remains to be seen. My biggest concern here is that Apple will put OS X and iOS at parity, essentially limiting the features available to the lowest common denominator of iOS, leading to Macs in general being behind the curve in graphics features. The other big question is whether Apple will support Vulkan next year once it’s done, or whether they will stick with Metal, essentially turning OS X’s graphics stack proprietary. Which for users could lead to a reduction in game ports to the Mac if developers have to go write against a Mac-specific graphics API.

Apple iOS Metal Thread Model

One thing that is a pretty sure bet at this point is the GPUs that will support Metal. In short, don’t expect to see anything that can’t support Vulkan support Metal due to a lack of necessary features. So I’m expecting Metal compatibility to start with Intel’s Haswell (Gen 7.5) iGPUs, AMD’s GCN dGPUs, and NVIDIA’s Fermi/Kepler dGPUs. El Capitan works on a much wider range of machines of course, so this means only a fraction of those machines get to experience Metal. Though this was the same situation on mobile as well.

As for developers, things will be interesting. As I mentioned before Apple seems to be going all-in on Metal, starting with the fact that they will have Metal back-ends for their Core Graphics and Core Animation frameworks. And actually I’m a bit surprised by this, as basic compositing is not something that is draw call limited. Apple is claiming upwards of 50% performance increases here, so I’m curious just how this works out, but I suspect these are based on low-level benchmarks. Draw call performance is not the only benefit of Metal, but it is the most immediate, so Apple may be leveraging the harder to get GPU benefits here, or just wringing every last Joule of power out by getting to an API that isn't doing high-level state checking.

OS X Metal Performance Improvements: From Apple's Promotional Materials

In any case, by building Core frameworks off of Metal, Apple is in a position where they have to ensure Metal drivers are working well, which is to the benefit of developers. Meanwhile Apple is going one step past Metal on iOS 8 with the release of MetalKit, which is a set of utility functions for Metal to help speed Metal development. As we’ve mentioned before one of the few real pitfalls of low-level APIs is that to best utilize them you need guru-level programmers – after all, the API doesn’t have high-level safety nets to keep developers out of trouble – and with MetalKit Apple is at least partially resolving this issue by providing some base functionality for programmers.

Wrapping things up, though not an unexpected move from Apple, it will none the less be interesting to see how their efforts with Metal go. As a tightly integrated vendor they have the advantage of being able to move quickly when they choose to, which is why we’re seeing Metal come to OS X so soon and to get used by Core OS components so soon. Metal is just a graphics API, but due to Apple’s timing OS X will be the real test for low-level APIs on the desktop, and not just for gaming. Apple is in an interesting position to take advantage of these new APIs like no one else can, so in several ways they are going to be the pathfinder on just what can be done with these APIs.

Asp.Net Developers Making High Performance Apps With Asp.Net5

Asp.net is a Microsoft product that is used by skilled programmers/ developers as a web application development framework. Many advancements and enhancements have been introduced to .net platform to make job of asp.net developers/programmers easy and enable them to build more scalable, robust, and dynamic web based app solutions.

Asp.net 5 is a cross platform, lean and open source app development framework that enables faster app development for web and cloud. Professionals re-intended this platform altogether to make performance better with complete end-to-end support, and cross platform app development support for Mac and Linux. At present, Asp.net 5 version is available on GitHub official site.

Flexible runtime engine and cross platform development support make the version special

Cross platform support is a revolutionary advancement made in the feature list of asp.net 5 version. Developers working on their projects can run their designed apps on Mac, Windows, and Linux OS. vNext can be executed on below engines-

• Core CLR
• Full .Net CLR
• Cross platform CLR

Full .net CLR is set as default engine; if you want to change it while creating the projects in Visual Studio 2015 via configuration properties of the project.

Swift development

The latest version brings faster development this time. Most developers were waiting for this day when they could deliver swift asp.net development services to their clients. They can now able to save changes to source code files and compilation will be done automatically when they refresh the web browser. They can build cloud based apps as asp.net 5 is intended for cloud.

Unified core framework

This is another great feature for development of asp.net MVC, asp.net apps, and asp.net web API. Developers and programmers can work on single unified core for asp.net MVC, web API, and web pages.

There will be only one controller to handle requests and developers can now have a single routing framework, one-filter pipeline, and single model binding framework.

Meet the Host Agnostic – vNext

Asp.net vNext is a host agnostic that comprises of latest modular HTTP request pipeline, which can be hosted on following platforms –

• Kestrel server
• IIS
• Open Web Interface for .Net based server
• Self hosted in a custom process

Facebook’s Messenger Platform Gets Its First Game

Facebook Messenger’s quest to own all the ways you connect with friends is now expanding to games. Today I spotted “Doodle Draw Game” in the Messenger platform app list, and Facebook says this is the first true game available since the platform launched in April.

Initially, Facebook only allowed content creation apps like GIF and sound effect makers on the Messenger Platform. The closest thing to a game was Talking Tom, which lets you choose a cartoon avatar to deliver your video message.

But before the platform’s launch, sources told me Facebook was interested in eventually expanding it to a broader set of experiences, including utilities and games if test data looked good. Last month The Information reported Facebook was actively considering how games would fit in Messenger.

Facebook tells me “Currently, we think Messenger Platform is best suited for apps that focus on content creation and curated content. But one of the reasons we were excited to announce at F8 that Messenger Platform is open to all developers is to see what people build. From there, we’ll think about what else might make sense.”

Doodle Draw for iOS and Android will be familiar to anyone who played Draw Something…because it’s a blatant copy of the 2012 flash in the pan mobile game that got acquired by Zynga for an exorbitant price. Don’t feel too bad for the fallen games giant, though, as Draw Something was just a mobile version of the classic party game Pictionary. You can download app developer Clay‘s Doodle Draw here, by tapping the “•••” button in a Messenger chat thread to open the platform app list.

Doodle Draw is an obvious clone of this game, Draw Something

Doodle Draw suggests a few things for you to draw, which you then scribble out with a limited set of colors and send to a friend. They have to guess what you drew. Players can earn points by playing to buy more colors, but you can easily imagine the ability to buy this in-game currency for real money down the line.

It’s unclear whether Facebook would one day earn a cut of such revenue, but for now it’s not taxing other Messenger apps like Ultratext that sells premium filters.

Years ago, Facebook’s 30 percent tax on games on its desktop canvas game platform earned it some significant dollars. Game payments have signficantly shrunk as a share of Facebook’s revenue, though. On mobile, Facebook Messenger’s focus seems to be driving engagement and platform lock-in with the social network while the main Facebook app’s ads are the bread-winner.

Done right, Messenger could foster an ecosystem of social games that rely on private messaging and keep users coming back to its chat app. These games would ideally benefit from being part of a chat thread and fit in naturally. In Doodle Draw, you could message and laugh about each other’s mangled depictions.

But done wrong, these games could spawn Messenger spam the same way Facebook desktop games polluted the News Feed. Companies like Zynga developed exploitative game mechanics where you earned in-game rewards for inviting friends and pestering them to play with requests and News Feed posts. It got so bad that Facebook almost entirely shut off these viral channels to avoid ruining the feed for everyone, and social game companies were hit hard by their diminished ability to recruit new users.

Doodle Draw is already leaning in a spammy direction, which is worrying. You earn in-game currency for getting people to play with you, which could incentivize sending tons of crappy doodles to slews of friends. [Update: You can’t earn currency through invites anymore. More on that below.] 

Facebook might be wise to take a firm stance against incentivized invites or communication to prevent partners from building businesses on the model that they later have to change. At least apps can’t send messages on your behalf and there’s no “Send To All” button.

Instead, the value exchange should be that developers build non-spammy games on Messenger that grow its engagement, and in return, if merited by their quality, the games gain exposure and growth. Messenger has risen to over 600 million users and over 1 billion downloads on Android by eschewing the clutter and annoyances of Facebook’s main app.

To paraphrase The Social Network, Facebook doesn’t quite know what Messenger could be but it knows that, though not quite “cool,” people don’t hate it. That is a priceless asset it shouldn’t squander through game spam.

Apple Music will change the way you experience music forever, says Tim Cook

RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer

When Apple launches its Apple Music streaming service at the end of June, it will affect things big and small in the music industry. Hundreds of millions of iPhone and iPad users in more than 100 countries will get to try the $10-per-month service for free for the next three months when it is pushed to their devices with a free upgrade.

They’ll get unlimited access to tens of millions of songs during the trial, and afterward be required to pay a monthly fee for access, instead of paying for each album or song download.

“It’ll change the way you experience music forever,” CEO Tim Cook promised Monday at Apple’s annual conference for software developers, held in San Francisco.It could become one more thing that keeps current iPhone and iPad users inside the Apple Inc. ecosystem, while enticing others in.

Here’s a look at some of the major aspects of Apple Music.

INTEGRATION WITH SIRI

Subscribers will be able to ask Siri, Apple’s mobile digital assistant, all sorts of unusual questions about music, and have any of millions of tunes play back in response.

Executive Eddy Cue demonstrated a few of them Monday, including asking for a playlist of the top 10 hits in the alternative genre, asking for a song from the soundtrack of the movie “Selma,” and even asking for the top song from May 1982. (It was Joan Jett & the Blackheart’s “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.”)

Using Siri’s artificial intelligence and one’s voice could come in handy when working out, going on a jog or driving a car equipped with Apple’s Car Play.

REAL RADIO, OVER THE INTERNET

In modern times, Internet radio has been defined by automated playlist generators like Pandora, Songza and others. Apple is changing that game by bringing back living, breathing DJs. It plans to run “Beats 1,” a live 24/7 radio station hosted by DJs — including former BBC host Zane Lowe — in Los Angeles, New York and London. The service will be free to users with an Apple ID.

It will also offer standard genre-based Internet radio stations, this time with playlists curated by humans, instead of the algorithms that power the soon-to-be-disappearing feature, iTunes Radio.

CONNECT

Apple is opening a new platform for artists that allows them to release to fans content such as lyrics to an upcoming song, behind-the-scenes video, or even new tracks. Any user can access “Connect” through a tab on the Apple Music app, and can follow artists and access their feeds. Only subscribers will be able to view, save and like the content.

Requiring payment for what might be considered promotional content is new to subscription services, but super-fans may be drawn in.

APPLE MUSIC VS. MY MUSIC VS. BEATS MUSIC

Apple device users who have bought songs or albums on iTunes needn’t worry. Their music will still be on their devices, and in many cases, still saved to the cloud.

Music that isn’t available for streaming but still for sale on iTunes, like songs from the Beatles, can be integrated into playlists. Subscription music can be saved for offline listening alongside downloads. And the some 300,000 subscribers to Beats Music, which Apple bought along with the headphone line for $3 billion last year, will have the opportunity to transfer their playlists over to Apple Music, at which point, their Beats subscription will be canceled.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Apple touts its human curation so much, it’s making you pay for it. A new “For You” tab will offer subscribers music suggestions based on artists and genres they say they like, as well as what they actually listen to. A team of music experts is said to be behind every pick. This feature is a nearly direct import from Beats Music.

“These people are going to help you with the most difficult question in music: What song comes next?” said Apple executive Jimmy Iovine, who helped develop the service.

BETTER DEAL FOR RECORD LABELS, ARTISTS

Music fans who have read about artists and record labels complaining about the tiny royalties they get from streaming services may have something to cheer about. According to two people familiar with the matter, last-minute deal-making did result in a better streaming deal for record labels and artists.

Instead of sharing the industry-standard 55 percent of subscription streaming revenue with labels and artists, Apple will share around 58 to 60 percent. Music publishers in charge of songwriting royalties also saw a slight bump in their cut from the standard 10 to 12 percent to about 14 percent of subscription revenues, the people said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the deals are confidential.

ANDROID

Apple is letting users of Google’s competing Android mobile operating system use a version of the Apple Music app beginning this fall. But those users will have to pay to access Beats 1 and some features of Connect that Apple device users will get for free.

CAN APPLE COME FROM BEHIND?

Industry analysts expect Apple’s biggest advantages — its huge user base, ability to sell its services with attractive TV ads, and global reach — will get the service up and running successfully.

Whether it will dramatically raise the popularity of streaming services is unclear. Currently, Apple’s Beats Music serves just a tiny fraction of the 41 million paying music subscribers globally. Russ Crupnick, managing partner of research firm Music Watch Inc., says he’s not sure whether Apple has come up with the right package of services to make paid music streaming at $10 a month take off.

“You’ve got to really change the mindset of consumers to have them say, ‘Wow, this makes it worth the money,'” Crupnick says. “I still think you’ll have a lot of people who will say, ‘No thanks, I’ll take the 99-cent track. There are a lot of places where I can listen to music, thank you very much.'”

This is how Apple Music could change the way you listen to music

Among the announcements at Apple’s annual developer’s conference was a potential game changer that could make the Cupertino-based company the world leader in streaming music, the latest way to get your daily dose of rock, pop, hip-hop or any genre of your choice. It's called Apple Music, a brand new streaming service from Apple.

So just how significant is it? Well, think of a BBC world service for the current generation, albeit a paid one.

Apple describes the new service as a combination of the “best ways to enjoy music” – a streaming music service, a worldwide live radio station broadcasting round-the-clock and a new way for music fans to connect with their favorite artists.

And if the company plays its cards right, Apple Music could well go on to become the dominant player in streaming music, which is growing by leaps and bounds around the world, while digital downloads are starting to decline.

Apple Music will build on the company’s acquisition of Beats Entertainment, a world leader in headphones, and offer users access to a large and diverse catalog of music that can be played on phones, tablets, desktop computers and other devices.

The company plans to roll out Apple Music in more than 100 countries on June 30 and the service will be free for the first three months. After that, there will be a monthly fee in the US of $9.99 or $14.99 for a family pack with up to six accounts.

There is no word from Apple on pricing round the world but the company has often adopted a differential pricing policy – tracks that go for a dollar or more in the US are often sold on iTunes in India for as little as 25 cents.

Streaming music isn’t entirely a new concept – it has been tried by both legal and illegal players. Pandora, available in the US, Australia and New Zealand, has 250 million registered users.

Spotify, a commercial music streaming, podcast and video service that provides content from labels and companies such as Sony, Warner Music Group and Universal, has more than 60 million active users in Europe, the US, South America and parts of Asia. Tidal, the first high fidelity streaming service, has 540,000 subscribers in Britain, the US, Europe, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Grooveshark, one of the most popular streaming services, was shut down recently because it wasn’t paying artists or record companies for the copyrighted music it provided for free to users.

On the other hand, Apple has 800 million iTunes accounts. Though not all these account holders may be interested in music, they can be used to sign up more people for the Apple Music service. And the potential of huge sums from a new subscription streaming model, whereby musicians are paid for every play of a song, will certainly keep the music labels happy.

Apple has also gone the extra mile to connect with music fans. While Pandora has an automated music recommendation service powered by the Music Genome Project, Apple Music has hired music experts from around the world to create playlists based on a user’s preferences, and it says they will “become better curators the more you listen”.

The “For You” section of Apple Music will provide a mix of albums, new releases and playlists personalised for users.

Beats 1, a live radio station dedicated to music, will be part of Apple Music Radio. It will broadcast to more than 100 countries round-the-clock and feature influential DJs such as Zane Lowe in Los Angeles, Ebro Darden in New York and Julie Adenuga in London. Human curation will take the lead in Apple Music Radio, which will have other stations featuring many genres of music. Members will have the option to skip as many songs as they like or “change the tune without changing the dial”, as Apple puts it.

Another aspect of Apple Music will be Connect, which will allow musicians to connect with fans and share lyrics or even release their latest songs directly. Connect was introduced at Monday’s Worldwide Developers Conference by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, a sign of the heavy hitters that Apple has lined up behind its new service.

We won’t have to wait very long to find out if Apple Music lives up to its potential – June 30 is just weeks away

How to opt your website out of Apple's News app

http://www.imore.com/how-opt-your-website-out-apples-news-app

the microsoft lumia 640 review

The group that was once Nokia's mobile division has gone through a great number of changes in the past few years. After declining sales of Symbian devices, the company decided to go all in with Microsoft's Windows Phone platform. In a very short time, Nokia became the number one vendor of Windows Phone smartphones in the world. Despite this, the move to Windows Phone failed to revitalize the company. In August of last year, Microsoft purchased Nokia's mobile devices business in a 7.2 billion dollar acquisition. Less than a month later, Microsoft launched the Nokia Lumia 830, and the Nokia Lumia 735. These were the last two Lumia smartphones that would be branded as Nokia devices. With Nokia's phone division absorbed into Microsoft, future Lumia devices would fall under the Microsoft brand.

Today's review focuses on the Microsoft Lumia 640. This phone was announced alongside the Lumia 640 XL at MWC in February, and it's one of the first new Lumia devices released under the Microsoft brand. At $129, the Lumia 640 occupies a fairly low price point as far as smartphones are concerned, and it serves as an entry model to the Lumia smartphone line. To give a quick idea of what that $129 gets you in terms of hardware, I've organized the Lumia 640's specifications in the chart below.

Microsoft Lumia 640
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8926) 4x ARM Cortex A7 at 1.2 GHz Adreno 305 at 450 MHz
Memory and Storage	1GB LPDDR3 RAM, 8GB NAND + MicroSDXC
Display	5.0" 1280x720 IPS LCD
Cellular Connectivity	2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Qualcomm MDM9x25 UE Category 4 LTE)
Dimensions	141.3 x 72.2 x 8.8 mm, 145g
Cameras	8MP Rear Facing w/ 1.12 µm pixels, 1/4" CMOS size, F/2.2, 28mm (35mm effective) 0.9MP Front Facing, F/2.4, 30mm (35mm effective)
Battery	2500 mAh (9.5Wh)
Other Connectivity	802.11b/g/n + BT 4.0, GNSS, DLNA
Operating System	Windows Phone 8.1 + Lumia Denim
SIM	MicroSIM
Price	$129 on Cricket Wireless

The Lumia 640's hardware is certainly above average in some areas. The first thing I noticed is that it ships with a 5" 1280x720 IPS display. This puts it significantly ahead of devices at the same price point which typically ship with qHD panels. 1280x720 devices show up closer to the $200 price bracket, and so the Lumia 640 is definitely ahead in this regard. The 1/4" 8MP camera is another spec that you wouldn't expect to see on a smartphone priced at around $100. While the camera sensor is hardly the only factor when it comes to final image quality, Lumia devices have traditionally had very good image processing, and so the Lumia 640's camera capabilities may end up far beyond those of the competition.

All the other specifications are fairly typical for a phone of this price. 8GB of NAND, 1GB of RAM, and 2.4GHz 802.11n WiFi are all you get at this price. There is one thing that disappoints me, and that's the SoC. Snapdragon 400 is fairly old by this point, and has been replaced by Snapdragon 410 for some time now. While the Moto E review showed that Snapdragon 410 isn't an enormous leap over Snapdragon 400, it certainly helps, and I wish Microsoft had used the Lumia 640 as an opportunity to start shipping ARMv8 devices.

Design

When the Lumia brand was originally introduced there were only two devices available. The first was the Lumia 710, and the second was the Lumia 800. I had always felt that the Lumia 710 was a fairly standard looking smartphone, but Lumia 800 had a unique type of industrial design. That design has since expanded with the introduction of models at different price points, and some of the physical characteristics that can be seen in the Lumia 640 are not the same as those in other Lumia devices like the Lumia 735.

In a change from the order I typically follow when discussing the design of phones, the first part of the Lumia 640 I want to examine is actually the back cover. It’s a very solid feeling blue glossy plastic shell, although I would much prefer a matte finish, as the glossy plastic on this cover is already covered in scratches and smudges. The back cover has the Microsoft logo in the middle and in the case of this review unit a Cricket Wireless logo on the bottom. Next to the Cricket logo is a small hole to allow sound to pass through from the speaker underneath. Above the Microsoft logo is the 8MP rear-facing camera, and to the left of that is the LED flash.

What I find notable about this back cover is that although it’s removable, it feels incredibly solid and holds onto the phone very tightly. To put things in perspective, I actually questioned whether or not the back cover was removable when I first received the phone. Because there was no visible SIM slot I had to go online and confirm to myself that Cricket Wireless is not a Verizon or Sprint sub-brand running on EvDO and that there had to be a SIM slot somewhere. Only after I did this was I confident enough to pry off the back cover from the top of the phone.

The left side of the Lumia 640 is completely bare, while the right side has both the power button and the volume rocker. I was actually surprised at how good the buttons felt. The last two phones I reviewed were the Moto E and the ZenFone 2, and they also had removable frames or shells with some of their buttons attached to them. Compared to them, the buttons on the Lumia 640 have a much nicer tactile response, and a longer travel distance.

One key difference between the Lumia 640 and some of Microsoft’s other Lumia devices is that it has flat sides and rounded corners. This contrasts with the traditional appearance of Lumia devices, which are flat on the top and bottom, but rounded on the left and right sides. The shape of those edges also meant that there was no way to have rounded corners even though the corners of the black face plate were rounded, which I felt created a unique appearance that made Lumia devices more distinct. The more standard flat edges and rounded corners of the Lumia 640 just aren’t as unique, and I wish it was more like a traditional Lumia phone.

The top of the Lumia 640 has the 3.5mm audio jack, and the microUSB port is on the bottom. Something I noticed about my unit is that the actual port didn't line up perfectly with the hole that was cut in the plastic back shell of the phone. The hole was shifted slightly to the right, and the offset was just far enough to ensure that I could never get my charging cable to go in without jiggling the connector around until it found its way into the port. I assume that this is just a production mishap that is specific to my unit, but it's enough to cause a moment of frustration when trying to charge the phone or transfer files to it from a computer.

There’s not a whole lot to see on the front of the Lumia 640. It’s dominated by the 5” display, with only a handful of things positioned on the bezels around it. You may notice that you can see the touch array when light shines on the phone in a certain way. This is common on many phones, but it's a bit more noticable on the Lumia 640 than other devices. The bezel at the bottom of the display has a microphone to be used during calls, while the top has the front-facing camera and the earpiece speaker. Microsoft has seen fit to also put their logo on the top bezel, just in case you missed the logo right in the middle of the back cover.

My overall impression of the Lumia 640’s build quality and design is positive. While I’m not a fan of the glossy finish, the overall construction feels much more solid than any other phone at this price point that I’ve used.