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Looking back on 2023 with the XPRTs

Around the beginning of each new year, we like to take the opportunity to look back and summarize the XPRT highlights from the previous year. Readers of our newsletter are familiar with the stats and updates we include each month, but for our blog readers who don’t receive the newsletter, we’ve compiled highlights from 2023 below.

Benchmarks
In March, we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of WebXPRT! WebXPRT 4 has now taken the lead as the most commonly-used version of WebXPRT, even as the overall number of runs has continued to grow.

XPRTs in the media
Journalists, advertisers, and analysts referenced the XPRTs thousands of times in 2023. It’s always rewarding to know that the XPRTs have proven to be useful and reliable assessment tools for technology publications around the world. Media sites that used the XPRTs in 2023 include 3DNews (Russia), AnandTech, Benchlife.info (China), CHIP.pl (Poland), ComputerBase (Germany), eTeknix, Expert Reviews, Gadgetrip (Japan), Gadgets 360, Gizmodo, Hardware.info, IT168.com (China), ITC.ua (Ukraine), ITWorld (Korea), iXBT.com (Russia), Lyd & Bilde (Norway), Notebookcheck, Onchrome (Germany), PCMag, PCWorld, QQ.com (China), Tech Advisor, TechPowerUp, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, TweakTown, Yesky.com (China), and ZDNet.

Downloads and confirmed runs
In 2023, we had more than 16,800 benchmark downloads and 296,800 confirmed runs. Users have run our most popular benchmark, WebXPRT, more than 1,376,500 times since its debut in 2013! WebXPRT continues to be a go-to, industry-standard performance benchmark for OEM labs, vendors, and leading tech press outlets around the globe.

Trade shows
In January, Justin attended the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Las Vegas. In March, Mark attended Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 in Barcelona. You can view Justin’s recap of CES here and Mark’s thoughts from MWC here.

We’re thankful for everyone who used the XPRTs and sent questions and suggestions throughout 2023. We’re excited to see what’s in store for the XPRTs in 2024!

Justin

Check out our CES 2023 recap video!

We have a very talented studio team here at Principled Technologies, and this week, the team worked with the XPRTs to put together a CES 2023 recap video. In it, I discuss why we traveled to CES, my overall impressions from the show, and how the ideas and technologies presented at the show may influence the development of future XPRT benchmarks. If you missed last week’s post about my initial thoughts on the advances in AR and VR technology at the show, or you didn’t get a chance to see some of our photos from the show on social media, this week’s video provides a good summary of our CES-related activity.

To view the video, you can follow this link or click the screenshot below. If you followed CES this year and have any thoughts about how the XPRTs can help to evaluate emerging technologies, we’d love to hear from you!

Justin

CES 2023: Adapting to changing realities

The last time the XPRTs attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was in January 2020, shortly before shutdowns due to the global pandemic began. More than 171,000 people attended that year’s show, the 2021 show was totally virtual, and CES shortened the 2022 show after many exhibitors and media pulled out during the Omicron surge. While some aspects of the event are returning to normal this year, about one-third of the typically jam-packed Las Vegas Convention Center space is empty, and only about 100,000 people are likely to attend. Nevertheless, the show is still enormous and full of fascinating new technology.

Just one day into the show, I’ve already noticed some interesting changes in the virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) areas since I last attended in 2020. One change is a significant expansion in the sensory capabilities of VR equipment. For a long time, VR technologies have focused almost solely on visual and audio input technology and the graphics-rendering capabilities necessary for lag-free, immersive experiences. In 2020, I saw companies working on various types of haptic feedback gear, including full-body suits, that pushed the boundaries of VR beyond sight and sound. Now, several companies are demonstrating significant progress in “real-feel touch” technologies for VR. One such company is HaptX, which is developing a set of gloves (see the picture below) that pump air through “microfluidic actuators” so that users can feel the size and shape of virtual objects they interact with in a VR environment. While we often think of VR being used for gaming and entertainment, advances in realistic, multi-sensory capabilities can lead to VR becoming a valuable tool for all kinds of industrial and professional training applications.

A show attendee tries out HaptX gear.

Another change I’ve noticed is how AR seems poised to move from demos to everyday life by means of integration with all types of smartphone apps. I enjoyed speaking with a representative from a Korean AR company called Arbeon. Arbeon is developing an app that will allow users to point their phone’s camera at an object (a wine bottle in the picture below), and see an array of customizable, interactive AR animations surrounding the object. You’ll be able to find product info, see and leave feedback similar to “likes” and reviews, attach emojis, tag friends, and even purchase the product, all from your phone’s AR-enhanced camera and screen. It’s an interesting concept with limitless applications. While VR is here to stay and getting better all the time, I personally think that AR will become much more integrated into everyday life in the coming years. I also think AR apps for phones will allow the technology to take off more quickly in the near term than clunkier options like AR eyeglasses.

The large screen displays how Arbeon’s AR phone app interacts with objects like a wine bottle.

Of course, thinking about AR has led me to wonder if we’ll be able to incorporate AR-related workloads into future XPRTs. As new technologies place new and unprecedented levels of processing demand on our computing hardware, the need for objective performance evaluation will continue. Providing reliable, objective performance data is why the XPRTs exist, and planning for the future of the XPRTs is why we’re at CES 2023. If you have any thoughts about how the XPRTs can help to evaluate new technologies, we’d love to hear from you!

Justin

The XPRTs will be at CES 2023 next month!

Next month, I’ll be representing the XPRTs at CES Las Vegas for the first time since January 2020! After almost three years of pandemic-related disruption and uncertainty, it’s exciting to return to one of the largest tech shows in the world.

CES always provides a great opportunity to survey emerging tech and industry trends, get hands-on with cutting-edge hardware, and gather insights that help lay the groundwork for XPRT development in the years ahead. I look forward to sharing my thoughts and impressions from CES here in the first XPRT blog post of 2023. We typically post on Thursdays, but because the show runs from Thursday through Sunday this year, that post will go live on Friday, January 6.

If you’ll be attending CES 2023, and would like to meet and discuss any aspect of the XPRTs, please let me know!

Justin

AI is the heartbeat of CES 2019

This year’s CES features a familiar cast of characters: gigantic, super-thin 8K screens; plenty of signage promising the arrival of 5G; robots of all shapes, sizes, and levels of competency; and acres of personal grooming products that you can pair with your phone. In all seriousness, however, one main question keeps coming to mind as I walk the floor: Are we approaching the tipping point where AI truly starts to affect most people in meaningful ways on a daily basis? I think we’re still a couple of years away from ubiquitous AI, but it’s the heartbeat of this year’s show, and it’s going play a part in almost everything we do in the very near future. AI applications at this year’s show include manufacturing, transportation, energy, medicine, education, photography, communications, farming, grocery shopping, fitness, sports, defense, and entertainment, just to name a few. The AI revolution is just starting, but once it gets going, AI will continually reshape society for decades to come. This year’s show reinforces our decision to explore the roles that the XPRTs, beginning with AIXPRT, can play in the AI revolution.

Now for the fun stuff. Here’s a peek at a couple of my favorite displays so far. As is often the case, the most awe-inducing displays at CES are those that overwhelm attendees with light and sound. LG’s enormous curved OLED wall, dubbed the Massive Curve of Nature, was truly something to behold.

IMG_0268 - Copy

Another big draw has been Bell’s Nexus prototype, a hybrid-electric VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) air taxi. Some journalists can’t resist calling it a flying car, but I refuse to do so, because it has nothing in common with cars apart from the fact that people sit in it and use it to travel from place to place. As Elon Musk once said of an earlier, but similar, concept, “it’s just a helicopter in helicopter’s clothing.” Semantics aside, it’s intriguing to imagine urban environments full of nimble aircraft that are quieter, easier to fly, and more energy efficient than traditional helicopters, especially if they’re paired with autonomous driving technologies.

Version 2

Finally, quite a few companies are displaying props that put some of the “reality” back into “virtual reality.” Driving and flight simulators with full range of motion that are small enough to fit in someone’s basement or game room, full-body VR suits that control your temperature and deliver electrical stimulus based on game play (yikes!), and portable roller-coaster-like VR rides were just a few of the attractions.

IMG_0203 - Copy

It’s been a fascinating show so far!

Justin

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