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Author Archives: Eric Hale

Polishing the chrome

Early next week, we’ll be releasing an update for CrXPRT that addresses a couple of issues. First, the individual workload scores were not always discarding outliers correctly, which could have had a small effect on those scores. The update handles outliers correctly. Because the overall score is calculated separately from the individual workload scores, this change does not affect the overall score or battery life score, and results from previous builds are still comparable.

The update also checks the duration for each battery life test iteration. This helps detect conditions that could invalidate the test, such as someone manually putting a test system to sleep.

Finally, the update checks between iterations to see if the Chromebook is plugged in during the test. If so, CrXPRT will report an error and stop the test. This can potentially save time that would otherwise be lost on an invalid run.

These are small changes, but they will help make CrXPRT a more robust benchmark.

In other news, we’ve been asking members of the community if they would care to share their experiences and thoughts on the blog.  We’re delighted that people are interested, and we’ve already received our first guest post that we’ll be publishing in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, if you’d like to write a post, or just want to share your thoughts on the XPRTs, please let us know!

Eric

A first look

The beta build of WebXPRT 2015 is complete. Although the benchmark is still under development, it looks great!

As we described in the design document, it includes a number of improvements over WebXPRT 2013. There are more, and more demanding, tests. The UI has a cleaner, more modern look, and includes a couple of improvements people have been asking for. There is now descriptive text so that you know what’s happening during the test. Also, a progress indicator in the upper right corner shows you how close the test is to completion. Although the screens aren’t final, here’s a preview of one of the new DNA Sequence Analysis test screens:

WebXPRT DNA

One of the great virtues of WebXPRT is that it runs on almost anything. However, that level of compatibility has limited the range of devices WebXPRT can test. WebXPRT 2015 introduces a set of experimental tests. Running these tests is optional and their results are not included in the Overall Score. We hope that folks will use them to evaluate both new technologies and platform-specific technologies. The first Community Preview will include a WebGL-based 3D experimental test. We expect to add new experimental tests over time and we’re hoping community members will contribute tests or ideas for them.

I’m very excited to see the new WebXPRT. We’re testing now, and I hope to be able to let you know when the Community Preview will be available soon.

Eric

More than Chromebooks

Recently, we got a question from AnandTech asking how hard it would be to get CrXPRT to run on Chrome on Windows.

The short answer is that getting it to run isn’t difficult. However, as we have written about many times in the past, it’s not enough for a benchmark to simply run on a device. The results it produces must be comparable. Even if the benchmark appears to run identically, small differences in timers or how the platform reports its state can have a big impact.

To date, we have been dealing only with Chromebooks of various flavors. However, we’re now testing CrXPRT on a much wider range of devices. The results are generally looking reasonable, although we’re finding some minor issues. For example, the battery information isn’t as granular on some devices as it is on Chromebooks.

As soon as we are sure that CrXPRT is returning reasonable results on the new classes of devices, you’ll be the first to know!

In other news, we’re planning to remove TouchXPRT 2013 from the Windows Store on February 16. We wanted to have a period of overlap with TouchXPRT 2014 to allow labs time to transition. It’s been over 6 months, and we feel this is a good time. TouchXPRT 2013 will remain available in the members’ area of the BenchmarkXPRT.com Web site.

Eric

BenchmarkXPRT Development Community releases “CrXPRT in action,” a new video about CrXPRT 2015

Durham, NC, January 16 – The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, administered by Principled Technologies (PT), is pleased to announce that CrXPRT in action is available to watch online starting today. CrXPRT in action follows the science fair adventures of the fictional Ellie, who learns that whether you’re looking for a Chromebook to use in the classroom, at home, or in the office, CrXPRT 2015 can help.

Watch the video facts.pt/1CcDjK7 and read Ellie’s science fair report facts.pt/1ynCkrR .

To learn more about CrXPRT, go to www.CrXPRT.com.

To learn more about and join the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, go to www.BenchmarkXPRT.com.

 

About Principled Technologies, Inc.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of technology marketing and learning & development services.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is located in Durham, North Carolina, USA. For more information, please visit www.principledtechnologies.com.

Company Contact

Eric Hale

Principled Technologies, Inc.

1007 Slater Road, Suite #300

Durham, NC 27703

ehale@principledtechnologies.com

So easy a child can do it!

Tomorrow we are releasing a new video featuring CrXPRT. This one is set in a school science fair, where “Ellie Smith” explains how she used CrXPRT to help her school decide which Chromebook to buy. We were lucky enough to get a thoroughly professional and charming young actress to play the role of Ellie. (I have a tiny cameo as the guy in the gray sport coat at the back of the room.)

Before we started shooting the video, we asked an actual 10-year-old to install and run CrXPRT. I hate to sound like an old commercial, but it really was so simple that a child could do it!

We also created a faux science report to go with the video. An adult—not a sixth-grader—wrote the report, but the results in it and in the video are real. (You can follow the links in the science report to see the real-world results online.)

When it goes live, you’ll find the video and the report on CrXPRT.com, as well as on YouTube and SlideShare. We hope you’ll enjoy seeing Ellie’s project!

Eric

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Welcome to 2015

Happy 2015! We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season. I certainly did.

Back at the beginning of December, we talked about an intermittent problem that BatteryXPRT was having on the Nexus 9. We fixed the problem shortly after that, but delayed the release to test it on Android 5.01. The testing is complete, and we’ll be releasing BatteryXPRT 2014 v102 next week. As before, it will be available from Google Play and from the BatteryXPRT.com page.

In the last blog post, we recapped come of the highlights of 2014. Moving forward into 2015, WebXPRT 2015 is in development and we’re thinking ahead to the next version of MobileXPRT.  We’ll be at Mobile World Congress in March, and at IDF China in April. We’ll tell you about our plans for those conferences over the next few weeks. If you’re planning to be at either of those shows, let us know! We’d love to talk to you.

We’re also planning some exciting new things in 2015. We can’t talk about them yet, but, personally, I can’t wait!

Wishing you all the best in the New Year!

Eric

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