Category: TouchXPRT

It’s all in the presentation

on April 24, 2014

The comment period for BatteryXPRT CP2 ended on Monday. Now we are in the final sprint to release the benchmark.

The extensive testing we’ve been doing has meant that we’ve been staring at a lot of numbers. This has led us to make a change in how we present the results. As you would expect, the battery life when you’re running the test using Wi-Fi is different than when you’re running it using your cellular network. Although individual devices vary, the difference is in the vicinity of 10 percent, about the same as the difference between Airplane mode and using Wi-Fi.

BatteryXPRT has always captured a device’s Wi-Fi setting in its disclosure results, but had not included this information with the results. Because we found it so helpful to have the Wi-Fi setting alongside the results, we have changed the presentation of the results to recognize three modes: Airplane, Wi-Fi, and Cellular. We hope that this will avoid confusion as people are using BatteryXPRT.

Note that we have not changed the way the results are calculated. Results you generated during the preview are still valid. However, results from one mode should not be compared to results from another mode.

We’ve been talking a lot about BatteryXPRT, but TouchXPRT is also looking great! We’re looking forward to releasing both of them soon!

Eric

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Posted in Android, Battery life, BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android, Benchmark metrics, TouchXPRT 2014 |

More grease, more tracks

By Eric Hale

on March 27, 2014

We’re always looking for ways to make it easier for people to use the benchmarks and interact with the community. I wrote about a new form for suggesting new benchmarks last week. However, we are not stopping there.

Although the community previews for TouchXPRT 2014 and BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android have been out for a few weeks, we’ve continued to improve them before their general releases. For example, we mentioned in TouchXPRT CP1 that we would continue making changes to the UI.

Taking a cue from WebXPRT 2013, the upcoming general releases of TouchXPRT 2014 and BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android will have a button in the UI for submitting results. This will make it easier for you to submit your results to be approved for publication on the PT Web site.

Although there’s not much time left before the general releases of these benchmarks, it’s not too late to send in your ideas. Even if we can’t use your suggestions in this release, we may be able to use them in the future. Let us know what you think by posting to the forum or emailing us at BenchmarkXPRTsupport@principledtechnologies.com.

Eric

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Posted in BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android, Collaborative benchmark development, Community Preview, Let us know your thoughts, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2014, WebXPRT |

MWC is coming

By Eric Hale

on February 20, 2014

As you probably know, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) starts Monday in Barcelona. Bill loves gadgets, loves Barcelona, and loves talking about technology, so he’s really looking forward to being there.

Bill’s got a lot to talk about. In January, we released the first community preview for TouchXPRT 2014. Then on February 7, 2014, we released the first community preview for a brand new benchmark: BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android. Not only that, HDXPRT and WebXPRT are in development. And he always loves to hear about new areas where you are interested in having benchmarks.

And that’s not all – If you read Bill and Mark’s post about being at CES, you’ll be happy to know that the Golden Tickets are back! The Golden Tickets let you join the community and get your device tested for free. If you’re a mobile device manufacturer, be sure to find Bill to get yours.

If you want to meet with Bill, send an e-mail to BenchmarkXPRTsupport@principledtechnologies.com. You can also DM us on Twitter at @BenchmarkXPRT.

We hope to see you there!

Eric

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Posted in BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android, CES, Collaborative benchmark development, Community Preview, Mobile World Congress, TouchXPRT 2014 |

TouchXPRT CP1

By Eric Hale

on January 30, 2014

This week we released the TouchXPRT 2014 Community Preview 1 (CP1). As with past community previews, the tests are stable and you may publish your results.

CP1 has a number of improvements over TouchXPRT 2013. We’ve updated the tests and used new and more demanding kinds of data. The Run All button is now prominent on the main screen, and the benchmark includes a results viewer.

However, as I said last week, the new UI design did not make it into CP1. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be working to give TouchXPRT an exciting new look. The results viewer will also change a lot. The current version captures the date, time, and test results, but the sandbox environment of Windows 8 applications makes getting the system information challenging. We’re working to solve that problem. We’ll also be improving the results submission to make it more streamlined.

Rest assured that, while the appearance will change, the results will not. The test results you generate with CP1 will be good for the life of the benchmark.

Community previews are only available to community members. If you are not a member, this a great time to join.

After you’ve downloaded CP1, let us know what you think by posting to the forum or e-mailing us at BenchmarkXPRTsupport@principledtechnologies.com.

Eric

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Posted in Collaborative benchmark development, Community Preview, TouchXPRT 2014, TouchXPRT development process, Windows 8 |

It’s almost here

By Eric Hale

on January 23, 2014

Sometime next week, we plan to release a sneak preview of TouchXPRT 2014, the TouchXPRT 2014 Community Preview 1 (CP1).

CP1, as its name makes clear, is not the final TouchXPRT 2014 release. There is still a lot of work to do on the user interface and the new results viewer. However, it includes a number of improvements over the current TouchXPRT, making it an even more useful tool for measuring Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 device performance. It is also a great way for everyone in the community to see the current state of our thinking and to provide us with feedback. You can run this version of the tool and see what you think!

As we have done with previous community previews, we’re also taking two more steps:

We’re not putting any publication restrictions on this preview release. Test at will, and publish your findings.
We’re releasing the source code to all community members. If you’re curious about not just what we’re doing but how we’re doing it, you can find out.

We believe these steps make the tool easier to evaluate and more useful to all of us.

Releasing a preview version is a lot of work, because we have to do much of the work of a software release and on less-than-final code, but we believe the value to our community justifies the effort.

Next week, when we release CP1, I’ll go over more details, the known limitations, and how you can get us your feedback—feedback we very much want.

Between now and then, we’ll be readying CP1 for your use.

Eric

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Posted in Collaborative benchmark development, Community Preview, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2014, TouchXPRT release cycle, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 |

Has it only been 2 weeks?

By Eric Hale

on January 16, 2014

2014 has barely started, but things are already popping!

The new battery test has a name: BatteryXPRT for Android. We are busy at work on the latest member of the BenchmarkXPRT family. The comment period for BatteryXPRT for Android ended last Friday. We greatly appreciate the comments we received on the RFC. We used them to shape the RFC into a design document, which is available on the member forum now.

In other news, we’re testing what we hope will be the TouchXPRT 2014 community preview (CP) now. Testing is going well and we will be releasing the TouchXPRT 2014 CP to the community soon. As I said in TouchXPRT 2014, we’ve revamped the tests. They are more visual and more demanding than the old tests, and they introduce new types of work. The tests look great!

Speaking of looking great, we announced a while back that we were doing a UI redesign across the XPRT benchmarks. Unfortunately, that effort was not quite in sync with the release of the TouchXPRT 2014 CP, so the CP will use the older style UI. We will update the UI for the final version, but doing so will not affect the results.

Remember that you have to belong to the community to get the community preview. If you’re still not a member, come join us.

A new member of the family and a new version of an old friend. 2014 is off to a great start.

Eric

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Posted in Android, Battery life, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Collaborative benchmark development, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT release cycle |

Category: TouchXPRT

It’s all in the presentation

More grease, more tracks

MWC is coming

TouchXPRT CP1

It’s almost here

Has it only been 2 weeks?

Check out the other XPRTs: