We’re excited to announce that the TouchXPRT 2016 source code is now available to community members!
Download the TouchXPRT 2016 source here (login required).
Download the TouchXPRT 2016 build instructions here (login required).
We also posted links to both items on the TouchXPRT tab in the Members’ Area.
If you would like more information, please contact BenchmarkXPRTsupport@principledtechnologies.com.
It’s only been a couple of weeks since we announced a cross-platform XPRT. It’s still early days, but we’ve already started getting ideas from vendors and media—from both people within the community and those who have not yet joined. We’re incorporating these ideas into our investigations, and plan to be sending a design document for the community to critique in a few weeks.
However, we are always looking ahead and Bill’s trip to IDF16 got us thinking about future benchmarks. Virtual reality is obviously going to be big. Bill said that he thinks he saw more things using the Oculus Rift than there are Oculus Rifts in the world! The Internet of Things has been ramping up for a while now, and shows no sign of slowing down. Computer vision is another emerging area, one with many possible applications. There are a lot of exciting possibilities!
As always, we want to know what you think. What upcoming technologies are you excited about? What would like to see in these benchmarks? Please let us know!
Eric
I just spent the last couple of days at IDF16 Shenzhen. It was a great opportunity to talk to folks about the XPRTs, see some future technology demos, and think about the future of the XPRTs.
The technology and product demos included lots of interesting technology. I saw everything from the latest computers to games to VR to body monitoring.
Of particular interest to me were the future-looking technologies beyond the usual array of notebooks, tablets, and servers. I was able to see drones that could video a person by following them, while avoiding obstacles such as trees. I saw a number of demos using the Oculus Rift. I got to see some robot demos that were impressive in their use of the fairly off-the-shelf technology driving them. I would have had myself scanned and then had a small 3D model of myself printed, but I was pressed for time and the line was too long.
I was particularly interested in a mirror that could scan a person and tell things about their health. I also found somewhat amusing a technology demo that was able to “beautify” a person in real time for use with teleconferencing such as Skype. While I might quibble about the definition of beautify, the idea of real-time video enhancement is intriguing. (Given the raw material I gave it to work with, it was no easy task to accomplish!) Maybe I won’t need to shave before my next WebEx meeting…
All of these technologies give some hints as to areas the XPRTs may go in the future. While I don’t think we are quite ready for BeautificationXPRT, there may well be some workloads we should consider such as path finding, real-time video enhancement, health monitoring, virtual reality, and gaming. Please let us know your thoughts about what near-term technologies we should be considering in future workloads.
We definitely have exciting times still ahead of us in technology and the XPRTs!
Bill
It’s no secret that the XPRTs are a great way to get device results you can count on. Tens of thousands of people over six continents have used the XPRTs to help them make smart buying choices, and over a thousand media outlets have quoted XPRT results when reporting on the hottest tech. WebXPRT has always been the “go to” XPRT, because you can use it to test the widest range of devices. WebXPRT runs in the browser, however, so browser performance influences the results.
For a long time, our members and others have asked for a tool that would let you compare application performance on any type of device. People want a cross-platform XPRT that runs on devices the same way apps do.
We’re excited to announce that we’re going to create just that tool! Specifically, we’re going to create a version of MobileXPRT that runs on Android, iOS, and Windows.
This will not be easy. At one point in my career, I was in charge of a group that ported applications between platforms, and I learned from hands-on experience that doing that job well is very difficult. It’s not enough to simply make the application run; it also has to run efficiently on each type of system. MobileXPRT works at the application level, so we’ll have to deal with the many differences in the operating system architectures and APIs. We’ll have to make sure the code runs well on all three target OSes.
We’re willing to do all this work because the need for such a tool has never been greater. More and more devices hit the market all the time, and choosing the ones you want is tougher than ever. iPhone or Android phone? Windows tablet, Android tablet, or iPad?
The coming MobileXPRT will let buyers around the world answer those questions.
We’re not going to do this work in isolation. We will reach out to the OS vendors, because we want their input, comments, and help. We’ll make the source available to them, and we welcome their critiques and guidance in creating the best possible version for each OS.
Of course, we very much want your input, too. Do you have any thoughts about what you’d like to see in a cross-platform XPRT? If so, let us know!
Bill
Last week in the XPRTs
We published the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight on the Apple iPhone SE.
We added one new MobileXPRT ’15 result.
We added seven new WebXPRT ’15 results.
It’s been one of our busiest quarters ever! Here’s a quick review of what’s been happening:
The XPRTs were on the road a lot!
While I was at CES, I was lucky enough to be able to sit down and talk on-the-record with a couple of community members:
Many thanks to them for being so generous with their time and their insights.
We also gave folks a lot to look at:
That is a great start to the year, but we’re going to top it – Next week, we’ll kick off Q2 with one of our biggest announcements ever!
Eric
Durham, NC, March 28 – The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, administered by Principled Technologies (PT), is pleased to announce the release of the “Exploring TouchXPRT 2016” white paper. The white paper discusses the details of the TouchXPRT 2016 benchmark, including the development process, new features, descriptions of its component tests and workloads, and how the benchmark calculates individual workload and overall scores. The paper also shows how to submit test results and automate testing.
Interested parties can download the white paper at www.BenchmarkXPRT.com/whitepapers.
To learn more about TouchXPRT and download the benchmark, please visit TouchXPRT.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
