Category: MobileXPRT

XPRT Women Code-a-Thon: Make your voice heard and win a cash prize

on March 1, 2016

DURHAM, NC –(Marketwired – March 01, 2016) – The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community and ChickTech are co-hosting the XPRT Women Code-a-Thon on March 12-13 in Seattle. The code-a-thon encourages Seattle software programmers to create small apps, or “workloads,” that mimic actions they take on their devices every day.

The top three participants or teams will receive cash prizes of up to $2,500, and all participants’ workloads will be considered for inclusion in future versions of the BenchmarkXPRT tools, or XPRTs. Any programmer familiar with Web development or Android development is encouraged to participate.

The XPRTs are apps that empower people all over the world to test how well devices handle everyday activities. They do this by running workloads that simulate common tasks – just like the workloads code-a-thon participants will be building.

“We want the XPRTs to reflect how people actually use their technology every day,” said Jennie Faries. Faries is one of the code-a-thon’s judges and a developer at Principled Technologies, which administers the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community. “By gaining the perspectives of this group of women, we’re making the tools stronger and more realistic. And when the tools we use to measure technology get better, the technology itself gets better too.”

All participants will receive a t-shirt and locally sourced breakfast and lunch on both days of the code-a-thon. The event will include time for networking and conclude with a talk from a special keynote speaker.

Add your voice to the tools that measure today’s hottest tech. Register today at facts.pt/XPRTcodeathon2016_registration, learn more at facts.pt/XPRT codeathon2016, and get all the details at facts.pt/XPRTcodeathon2016_FAQ.

About ChickTech

ChickTech envisions a safe, inclusive, and innovative technology future that includes equal pay, participation, and treatment of women. It is dedicated to retaining women in the technology workforce and increasing the number of women and girls pursuing technology-based careers. For more information, please visit http://chicktech.org

About the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community

The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community is a forum where registered members can contribute to the process of creating and improving the XPRTs. For more information, please visit http://www.principledtechnologies.com/benchmarkxprt

About Principled Technologies, Inc.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of technology marketing and learning & development services. It administers the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is located in Durham, North Carolina, in NC’s Research Triangle Park region. For more information, please visit www.PrincipledTechnologies.com.

Company Contact
Jennie Faries
Principled Technologies, Inc.
1007 Slater Road, Suite #300
Durham, NC 27703

Posted in Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, BenchmarkXPRT Press Releases, Collaborative benchmark development, Future of performance evaluation, MobileXPRT, Performance benchmarking, Press Releases, Principled Technologies, WebXPRT, XPRT Women Code-a-Thon |

The XPRT Women Code-a-Thon

By Eric Hale

on January 28, 2016

As Justin explained last week, we’ve resolved the issue we found with the TouchXPRT CP. I’m happy to say that the testing went well and that we released CP3 this week.

It’s been only three weeks since we announced the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight, and we already have another big announcement! Principled Technologies has joined with ChickTech Seattle to host the first ever XPRT Women Code-a-Thon! In this two-day event, participants will compete to create the best new candidate workload for WebXPRT or MobileXPRT. The workloads can’t duplicate existing workloads, so we are looking forward to seeing the new ideas.

Judges will study all the workloads and award prizes to the top three: $2,500 for first place, $1,500 for second place, and $1,000 for third place. Anyone interested can register here.

PT and the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community are committed to promoting the advancement of women in STEM, but we also win by doing good. As with the NCSU senior project, the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community will get some fresh perspectives and some new experimental test tools. Everyone wins!

So much has happened in 2016 and January isn’t even over yet. The year is off to a great start!

Eric

Posted in Benchmark metrics, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Collaborative benchmark development, Future of performance evaluation, MobileXPRT, Performance benchmarking, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2016, WebXPRT, What makes a good benchmark?, XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight, XPRT Women Code-a-Thon |

Five years later…

By Bill Catchings

on November 6, 2015

Five years ago this month, we started what we then called the HDXPRT Development Community. The first benchmark, HDXPRT 2011, appeared six months later. A LOT has happened since then.

We’ve grown to six benchmarks (HDXPRT, TouchXPRT, WebXPRT, MobileXPRT, BatteryXPRT, and CrXPRT) with plenty of updates. As a result, we had to change the name to the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, though we’ve come to refer to the benchmarks themselves as the XPRTs.

To tell the world about the XPRTs and the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, we’ve written over 200 blog entries. We’ve created videos, a training course, infographics, and white papers. We’ve met members of the community at their companies, via webinars, and at trade shows. We’ve quite literally traveled around the world to shows in Las Vegas, Barcelona, Taipei, and Shenzhen.

As a result, the community has grown to about 150 individuals at over 60 companies and organizations. People have downloaded or run the benchmarks over 100,000 times in over 44 countries. The XPRTs have been cited over 3,800 times in a wide variety of websites around the world.

Yes, a lot has happened over these five years.

On behalf of the BenchmarkXPRT team, I want to convey my sincere thanks to all of you for your involvement over these years. I’m really looking forward to what the next five years will look like. We’re just getting started!

Posted in BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, CrXPRT, HDXPRT, HDXPRT Development Community benefits, MobileXPRT, TouchXPRT, WebXPRT |

An update on TouchXPRT 2016

By Eric Hale

on October 8, 2015

We’ll be releasing the MobileXPRT 2015 white paper tomorrow. It contains lots of information about MobileXPRT 2015 that you won’t find anywhere else. We hope you’ll find it very informative.

A couple of weeks ago, we released the design document for TouchXPRT 2016 (login required). This week, we put the first build of TouchXPRT 2016 into testing. It’s a Universal Windows app that runs on Windows 10 tablets, PCs, and phones. This means that TouchXPRT can now run on a wider variety of devices. However, it also means that TouchXPRT 2016 will not be backward compatible with Windows 8 and 8.1.

Given the current state of the SDKs, installing the test builds on phones is more complicated than we would like. We’re looking into ways to simplify the install before releasing the community preview. Testing on phones is particularly important because we made many of the UI changes to enable TouchXPRT to work acceptably on a small display.

We’ll keep you informed as testing proceeds. We’re hoping to release the community preview in the next couple of weeks.

Eric

Posted in Android, MobileXPRT, MobileXPRT 2015, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2016, TouchXPRT release cycle, White papers, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 |

MobileXPRT 2015 source code and TouchXPRT 2016 Design Overview are available

By Eric Hale

on September 25, 2015

We’re excited to announce that the MobileXPRT 2015 source code and TouchXPRT 2016 Design Overview are now available to community members!

Download the MobileXPRT 2015 source here (login required).

Download the MobileXPRT 2015 build instructions here (login required).

Download the TouchXPRT 2016 Design Overview here (login required).

We also posted links to all three items on the MobileXPRT and TouchXPRT tabs in the Members’ Area.

If you want more information, please contact BenchmarkXPRTsupport@principledtechnologies.com.

We look forward to your feedback!

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, MobileXPRT, MobileXPRT 2015, Source code, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2016, TouchXPRT development process |

The benefits of membership

By Eric Hale

on September 24, 2015

We have a couple of goodies for community members coming tomorrow.

The TouchXPRT 2016 design overview will tell you what we’re planning for the upcoming community preview. Thanks to everyone who’s contributed ideas. Let us know if the design overview omits anything you’d like to see in the benchmark.

The MobileXPRT 2015 source code and the instructions for building MobileXPRT 2015 will be available as well. Community members have access to the source for all the XPRT benchmarks. Making the source available is a pillar of the community model.

Look for the design overview and source code in the members’ area.

If you aren’t yet a member, this is a great time to join!

Eric

Posted in Collaborative benchmark development, MobileXPRT, MobileXPRT 2015, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2016, TouchXPRT development process, TouchXPRT release cycle |

Category: MobileXPRT

XPRT Women Code-a-Thon: Make your voice heard and win a cash prize

The XPRT Women Code-a-Thon

Five years later…

An update on TouchXPRT 2016

MobileXPRT 2015 source code and TouchXPRT 2016 Design Overview are available

The benefits of membership

Check out the other XPRTs: