Month: November 2014

A new model

on November 20, 2014

Today we released a new community preview for CrXPRT (CP2). It contains several enhancements and UI changes. It also fixes the problem we discussed in last week’s blog, so CP2 will now correctly execute a rundown test on a system using Chinese language settings.

The most exciting enhancement is that CP2 will let you test battery life without having to put the device into developer mode. The new Battery Status API, which became available with Chrome 38, makes this possible.

Another enhancement is that results submission is now integrated into the benchmark UI. CrXPRT follows the WebXPRT model, with you having opt-in control over whether the results are published on the PT Web site. However, CrXPRT goes further by allowing you the option to upload more extensive disclosure information, and the option to download results as a text file.

These and other enhancements are covered in more detail in the CrXPRT forum and the user manual. Because this is a community preview, you have to be a community member to download it. However, joining is very easy.

We hope you like the new features in CrXPRT. Let us know what you think!

Eric

Discuss CrXPRT CP2 in the forums

Posted in Chrome OS, Collaborative benchmark development, Community Preview, CrXPRT |

News about MobileXPRT 2013 and WebXPRT 2015

By Eric Hale

on November 14, 2014

Today, we’re releasing a new build (v92) of MobileXPRT 2013 at MobileXPRT.com and the Google Play store. This build addresses issues encountered when testing MobileXPRT on Android 5 devices. The tests have not changed, so new scores are comparable with previous MobileXPRT 2013 scores.

Click here to download the new MobileXPRT build directly from our site.

Alternatively, you can download the MobileXPRT 2013 APKs directly. The APKs are small (17.9 MB total) and allow you to download the test content during installation. For users who have trouble accessing the Google Play store, these APKs may make it easier to download the benchmark.

Download the MobileXPRT APK here.
Download the MobileXPRT UX Tests APK here.

Also, today we’re publishing the WebXPRT 2015 Design Overview document for community members. You can find the document on the WebXPRT tab in the Members’ Area. We look forward to your feedback!

If you have any questions or concerns about these or any other XPRT-related topics, feel free to contact us at BenchmarkXPRTsupport@principledtechnologies.com.

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Posted in Android, Collaborative benchmark development, MobileXPRT, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 2015 |

The value of diversity

By Eric Hale

on November 13, 2014

It’s great to hear from community members who are using the XPRTs. Having a pool of users with diverse viewpoints is critical for successful software development. While we try very hard to find problems, there will always be cases we miss.

For example, we talked recently about the challenges of working in a multilingual world. Just this week, Acer reported an interesting bug in the CrXPRT community preview. If your language is set to Chinese, the battery test will estimate the battery life as expected. However, a rundown test will return the message “Cannot calculate total run time.” This does not happen when the language is set to English.

We have verified this problem. In the next week or so, we’ll be releasing a second community preview containing a fix for this and a few other issues.

We’ve talked before about the difficulties of maintaining software in a fast moving world. Late last week, we received a new Nexus 9. It encountered a problem during the MobileXPRT tests, so we fixed the problem and will be releasing a patched build tomorrow.

Don’t forget, as we said last week, we’ll be releasing the WebXPRT 2015 design overview tomorrow. We are looking forward to the feedback from all our community members.

Eric

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Posted in Android, Chrome OS, CrXPRT, MobileXPRT, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 2015 |

Upcoming experiments

By Eric Hale

on November 6, 2014

Next week, we’ll be releasing the design overview for WebXPRT 2015. WebXPRT 2013 has been an enormous success, having been run tens of thousands of times.

One of the big improvements we are considering for WebXPRT 2015 is adding experimental tests. A big reason for WebXPRT’s success is that it runs on almost every Web-enabled device. We consider it essential to preserve this broad compatibility. However, there are interesting Web technologies that simply are not available on all devices.

Our proposal is to add experimental tests to WebXPRT. These tests would be optional and would not be included in the Overall score, so WebXPRT would still be able to compare the performance of widely different devices. We are looking at technologies such as Web Workers, WebGL, and pre-compiled JavaScript (asm.js).

In addition to adding experimental tests, we are looking at ways to improve the UI, add automation, add new tests, update old tests, and more!

If you are a community member, you’ll get a notice when the overview is available. We will definitely want to know what you think! If you are not a member, it’s a great time to join.

If you have any thoughts on these ideas, or have ideas of your own, please let us know!

Eric

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Posted in BenchmarkXPRT development community, Collaborative benchmark development, Performance benchmarking, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 2015, What makes a good benchmark? |

Month: November 2014

A new model

News about MobileXPRT 2013 and WebXPRT 2015

The value of diversity

Upcoming experiments

Check out the other XPRTs: