Indice dei contenuti per March 2018 in PC & Tech Authority

I have a request to make of you. Being, if you don’t mind, some of your time please. That, and for you to share with us your opinions. For it is time to vote in the inaugural Australian PC Awards! If you work in the industry, or have a friend that does, you know just how much blood sweat and tears go into creating a product. The months or even years of design, engineering and production time, potentially involving hundreds or people, all add up to create the thing you use and like. You may have met some of these people, perhaps at one of our Upgrade Australia events. You know their passion, you’ve seen their care and commitment. There are people behind every product and if those people see…

THE NETCODE IS STRONG WITH THIS ONE PUBG has a terrible netcode. Game updates seem to shift between making it markedly better and identifiably worse, but the fact it’s built on a 20Hz tickrate means you take damage (or die) behind cover. It’s impossible to trade kills (unless you throw/drop a grenade before dying), the hit registration is iffy at times, and I swear shotgun ballistics are a single circular projectile instead of a circle of pellets. BATTLEFIELD IS ALREADY DIFFERENT TO PUBG For Battlefield Royale to feel like a Battlefield game, it should have infantry and vehicular combat, destructibility, more of a class-based approach to soldiery, and neat little features like 3D spotting. Out of the gate, a battle royale mode or spin-off would feel different to PUBG than…

The big problem with talking about the smart home is the damage that predictive articles have done. Read about how the world is getting smarter, and it’s full of examples of things that we’ll be able to do in the future, such as a robot to do the cooking for you or a fridge that re-orders food. We’re not interested in what the future might hold, but rather the smart products that you can buy today that genuinely make your house smarter, more efficient and more secure. There’s not been a better time to kit out your home. Thanks to fast, alwayson internet connections and ubiquitous Wi-Fi, we’ve all got the backbone to run everything from smart thermostats and lighting systems to powerful security systems. More importantly, the way we…

SMART LIGHT BULBS PHILIPS HUE $144 Philips Hue is the best-known smart light bulb system, and the best. The cheapest starter kit gets you the Hue Bridge and two white bulbs; you can buy more expensive kits with temperature or colourchanging bulbs. Philips supports most light fittings (bayonet, E27, E14 and GU10, plus there are LED strips), and has the widest range of wireless strips. There’s a range of wireless controls, including a remote light switch and motion sensor, too. Every voice assistant is supported, as is IFTTT. SMART OUTDOOR CAMERA NETATMO PRESENCE $499 Netatmo Presence is a great outdoor security camera. It can tell the difference between people, animals and cars, cutting down on the number of false alarms you get. Its recognition skills mean that you can set it…

One of the biggest issues with the smart home is that devices largely act by themselves, controlled via their distinct apps. While voice assistants can help unify control, talking to a speaker isn’t always easy, and the current assistants don’t work with all devices, or give you any automation controls. Fortunately, there are other options for unifying your smart home: IFTTT and Samsung SmartThings. IFTTT If This Then That (IFTTT) is a great way to make your smart home devices talk to each other. This cloud-based service is free; you can sign up for your own account at ifttt.com. IFTTT uses Applets, which make things happen in your home. The ‘if this’ part is known as a trigger, and the subsequent action is the ‘then that’ part. For example, you…

2D TESTS Desktop PCs and laptops are tested using our own custom bench testing suite, which has been carefully designed to test all aspects of a system and rate them in a way that’s useful to you. Our benchtesting cover three main tests: a typical video editing test, a demanding 4K video editing test and a multitasking test that stresses all aspects of the system. We look at the time it takes for each test to run, which is then compared to our reference PC to produce a normalised result. This score is shown on a graph, and to help you understand just where the PC we’re reviewing sits in the grand scheme of things, we will often include other system’s scores. On occasion we will run publically available bench…

$220 •www.apple.com/au •Score: 5/5 Just like the original white iPod earphones, the AirPods have a unique, recognisably Apple design. There’s no physical connection between the two pods, with each sitting individually in your ears, with no physical controls at all: you pause audio by tapping on a pod and invoke Siri by double-tapping. The audio cleverly pauses if you remove either AirPod from your ear. Apple gives a rough guideline of five hours battery life, which is fair in my experience. However, they come with a nifty little charging case, shaped like a stubby TicTac box, that flips open to hold the earphones and incorporates its very own battery. Expect around 24 hours of continuous use. You also get “smart” Bluetooth pairing: to pair them with your iOS device, simply…

$34 • www.amazon.com • Score: 4/5 SoundMagic had already gained many plaudits for its brilliant E10 budget earphones, so it surprised precisely no-one when it released this Bluetooth version. This adds $10 the price, but in return you have a fantastic build quality, a good set of accessories (including a huge selection of eartips and a semi-rigid carry case) and, most importantly, the award-winning sound quality traits from its wired siblings. Its emphasis is on bass and highs, with a warm sound that means you lose subtlety when it comes to vocals. Nor do they support the aptX codec. But thanks to Bluetooth 4.2 support, they do play back 24-bit audio files, have a range of 10m and, ultimately, have an undeniably exciting sound. The right earbud cable has a…

Like the Huawei Dock above, the Aten Mini Dock features VGA for PowerPoint professionals. Also included is Gigabit Ethernet, USB A, and HDMI, for more modern conference rooms. The Aten Multiport Mini seems to live halfway between a backpack dock and a permanent desk solution. It’s a little too bulky to fit nicely in a bag, but is great simple dock to hide behind a monitor, and provide connections to just a keyboard, monitor and wired internet. There’s no USB C power pass-through here, so if you want to use this permanently on your desk, you’ll need to supply a power adaptor for your laptop – and if you have a laptop with just one USB C port, you should look elsewhere. KEY SPECS 1 USB-C Passthrough • 2 USB-A…

Beautifully made, with the power to charge a laptop with no extra adaptors needed, the Belkin is a good choice for those who want a permanent desktop solution with a single 4K monitor Belkin have a close relationship with Apple, and this dock looks like it was designed with the MacBook Pro in mind. The USB-C 3.1 Express Dock HD is a remix of Belkin’s Thunderbolt 3 Dock, and provides almost as many features, at a lower price. It supports one monitor at 4K HDMI output, 60watts of power, three USB A ports and Gigabit Ethernet. Finally, there are two audio in ports. I was able to test this, briefly, with a 4K monitor, and the dock worked without a hitch. Belkin’s key feature is the dock is smart enough…

It’s not strictly necessary to go to the expense of buying new hardware to get yourself a Chromebook. If you’ve got an old – or even not so old – laptop lying around, that can easily be pressed into service as a Chromebook with software called CloudReady. In the same way the Chrome browser is built on the open-source Chromium browser, Chrome OS is built on the open-source Chromium OS. CloudReady is effectively a fork of the Chromium OS and comes in several different versions. There’s a Home version that you can install for free for personal use, although you can forget about anything in the way of support or management features. Then there’s the Enterprise version, which costs $99 per year, per machine, which includes support for centralised Chrome…

Out with the Apple Macbook Pro and HP Elitebook X360 1030 G2 and in with the Microsoft Surface Book 2 (review page 40) and Lenovo Yoga 920 (page 43)! PREMIUM LAPTOPS DELL XPS 13 Ultraportable from $1,599 Dell only needed to refine its brilliant XPS 13 design to keep top spot, and that’s what it does: it’s slightly quicker and adds more options, but it’s the edge -to-edge 13.3in display and compact chassis that lift it above the opposition. Oh, and it’s now available in Rose Gold. ALTERNATIVES MICROSOFT SURFACE BOOK 2 A unique and versatile laptop with a screen that detaches to become a tablet. From $2,199 from microsoft.com/store NEW LENOVO YOGA 920 An ultra-thin convertible from Lenovo that not only looks great, and has supreme power, but lasted…

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IAN THORNTONTRUMP is CTO for Octopi Managed Services, a managed security service provider and cyberthreat research lab There’s no shortage of numbers when it comes to cybersecurity. But, as CTO of a company that provides security services for all sizes of business, I know that those numbers usually mean something – and that, equally, on occasion they can be misleading. Take this bullet point from the Enterprise Phishing Susceptibility and Resiliency Report by PhishMe (tinyurl.com/y77s7xg6): “91% of cyberattacks and the resulting data breaches begin with a phishing email attack, and, of those attacks, 93% of them are ransomware payloads”. The first part of that statement proved to be exactly the case when I received a phishing email from a client in the medical profession. The email included a web link…

STEVE CASSIDY is a consultant who specialises in networks, cloud, HR and upsetting the corporate apple cart Reputation is hard to measure. Which is a shame, because it’s the final arbiter of buying decisions all over the world – yet we don’t have a column for it in our labs tests. This is because the labs guys don’t like to make judgement calls without support from hard numbers – and quite right too. Still, reputation can be the make or break factor when it comes to the choices people make. Case in point. I recently met with G-Technology, the low-key brand that appeared without fanfare within Apple Stores almost a decade ago. The intervening years have done little for the firm’s mainstream reputation. Despite being persistently hit with questions about…

UPDATING DOWNWARDS First up - love the new look. And I don’t miss the DVD! As a regular subscriber (for at least 15 years!), I like to read comparisons between similar products. It makes it easier for future purchases. But here comes the Tablet Megatest! Awesome - until I found out that Samsung only make one tablet now. What!!??? You explain four different iPads (OK not a fan of Apple) and only one Samsung Tablet. Where are the rest of the tablets being compared? Megatest? Minortest maybe. While I like Samsung tablets (fav is the Galaxy Tab S2 8.4) over the others I have used, I’m pretty sure there are more Android tablets out there than Apple... To the Fall Creators Update - or why break things that don’t need…

CPU MELTDOWN AND SPECTRE Speculation. Every modern processor for the past decade and longer uses it to run multiple possible future code paths simultaneously. The benefit being that whichever decision the software or the user ends up taking the CPU has already calculated the next result and simply discards the wrong/undesired path result, allowing the CPU to effectively run ahead and get ready, making it appear as though it is executing faster. This is a widely used function that is in most architectures and processors from PC’s to your phone. While this is a secure process, two vulnerabilities dubbed Meltdown and Spectre where revealed by Google’s Project Zero that shook that perception. While a CPU is running these speculative paths the state of the processor changes enough that by analysing…

JOHN, TI COMPUTERS: “CES 2018 is full of surprises with future technologies. We are especially interested in the new AiMesh technology introduced by Asus. We are excited to be able to offer custom built MESH network solution to suit the very need of our customers utilizing AiMesh. On the other hand, we also see significant improvements in display technology, whether that is colour with new backlight technologies or size. One thing we found quite interesting is the ASUS bezel-free kit that makes multi-monitor setups seamless. It is exciting to finally see monitor vendors working on something to make the multi-monitor setups seamless. I am sure this will be an interesting option that we can offer to our customers when they are ready to order.”…

The DS118 is a mid-range ARM based NAS, which means it’s cheaper to make, uses less electricity (a meagre 9.4W when accessed, 4.22W when idle) and generates less heat, but is generally less powerful than an Intel CPU based NAS and has a slightly smaller selection of apps. For most people, this isn’t an issue, but if you have a specific app in mind to run on your NAS (i.e: Plex Media Server), check there’s an ARM version before you take the plunge. Despite it only has a single drive bay, the DS118 is like virtually every other Synology NAS out there. It runs the latest version of Synology’s classleading DiskStation Manager operating system and is full featured, again, except for the bits that don’t work on ARM (i.e: BTRFS…

SOME TIPS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN PLANNING YOUR AIMESH NETWORK INCLUDE: MINIMISING NODES TO REACH THE PRIMARY NODE. When a node must talk to another node to reach the primary node, speeds take a hit. Whilst this scenario works fine, best practice is to make sure each node can communicate directly to the primary node. SOLID 5GHZ RECEPTION BETWEEN NODES. Considering AiMesh utilizes both 5GHz and 2.4GHz at the same time to form a large backhaul, while 5GHz band offers significantly higher bandwidth than 2.4GHz, having better 5GHz reception between nodes yields a better throughput. CHOOSE THE ROUTER WITH THE FASTEST PROCESSOR AND MOST RAM TO BE THE PRIMARY NODE. Managing a mesh network requires more computing resources than usual, so by using the fastest device to be the…

$150 •www.beatsbydre.com/au • Score: 4/5 The BeatsX’s two earpods are connected via a cable that wraps around your neck. Two plastic blobs sit either side of your neck that contain batteries, the on/off button, and a Lightning port for charging (you get around eight hours per charge). Also on the left is a set of physical controls in a plastic lozenge that houses the microphone. To my ears, the BeatsX offer a superior – and definitely louder – sound than the AirPods, in part because they’re a true in-ear design. This setup also gives better audio isolation and makes the buds less likely to fall out during exercise. Beats are tuned specifically to have heavier bass and, to my ears, high frequencies. Middle is a bit lacking – there’s no…

USB-C’s adoption has been a little slower than many of us had hoped. The promise of the one cable that can do everything — from networking to displays to data transfer — sounded so good in theory, but the reality has been a little different. In 2018, many popular smartphones, cameras, microphones, and displays are still shipping with legacy cables and ports, so those on the cutting edge of USB-C adoption have found themselves carrying yet more cables, and docks and dongles to go with them. And then there’s the limitations of the port itself. While some docks feature support for multiple monitors or a plethora of peripherals, in real world use, all that data flowing through just one USB port will eventually bottleneck, resulting in slow or dropped data.…

The Aten USB-C Multiport looks like a blocky knock-off of Belkin’s design, and features many of the same ports. There’s three USB A ports in all, Gigabit Ethernet, support for HDMI 2.0 with 4K output, and audio in and out. The dock has its own power supply and can charge over USB C, and features a second USB C port for input. Also included is Display Port, which supports 4K output. In an odd design choice, only one USB A and audio port are front facing, meaning the USB C port to connect to your laptop must snake around from the back – strange for a device designed to reduce clutter on your desk. KEY SPECS 2 USB-C • 3 USB-A • 1 Gigabit Ethernet • 1 DisplayPort • 1…

BOARD-ONLY RASPBERRY PI 3 Although newer alternatives have arrived with their own strengths – such as the budget-friendly Pi Zero W or the markedly more powerful Asus Tinker Board – the flagship Raspberry Pi 3 remains the overall best choice for occasional hobbyists and serious makers alike. Its dinky ARM Cortex-A7 CPU shouldn’t be underestimated, having the horsepower to run office software and even some retro games, and its built-in Wi-Fiand Bluetooth support greatly expands what you can do with it. Besides being cheaper than the Tinker Board, it also benefits from a far more active community of users, who can help newcomers with their projects. FULL WINDOWS PC ASUS VIVOMINI No other mini PC balances value, performance and design as well as the VivoMini. A reliable home office contender…

Doctors will no longer need to ask if you forgot to take your pills – they’ll already know. That’s thanks to edible sensors on your meds, which alert an app when they’ve been ingested. The smart pills have been trialled by the NHS in the UK and have now been approved by the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA). WHAT IS A SMART PILL? Sadly, smart pills won’t make you smarter. The “smart” refers, as is often the case with tech, to connectivity and sensors. Swallow the pill, and the edible sensors will log that it’s been taken, for tracking on a mobile app by you or your doctor. HOW DO SMART PILLS WORK? Systems differ between manufacturers, but the pill will generally have a tiny sensor that sends a signal…

MINI For lounge room gaming and streaming CPU + COOLING Intel Core i5 7500 w/ stock cooler $259 intel.com MOBO ASRock Z270M-ITX/AC Motherboard $179 asrock.com.au GPU Asus DUALRX480- 4G $338 asus.com.au MEMORY 16GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance LPX Low Profile $185 corsair.com/en-au STORAGE Crucial MX500 SSD +2TB HDD (any) $389 + $50 crucial.com/au CASE Fractal Design Define S Nano $125 fractal-design.com PSU SilverStone SFX Gold 500W SX500-LG $129 Silverstone.com SOUND Your sound system What you paid for it DISPLAY Your TV What you paid for it KEYBOARD Roccat Sova $299 www.roccat.org MOUSE Roccat Kone EMP $99 www.roccat.org TOTAL: $1,489 BUDGET The perfect entry-level gaming PC CPU + COOLING Intel Core i5 7500 w/ stock cooler $259 intel.com MOBO ASRock B250 Gaming K4 Motherboard $145 asrock.com.au GPU MSI GTX 1060 Aero ITX…

I’m trying very hard to be concerned about Bitcoin. No, honestly, I am. Just today it hit the $17,000 mark, before dropping back by $2,500. That’s a rise of some 50% in just one week, and a 2,000% jump in a year. Let’s just look at what this thing is – although even to call it a real “thing” is stretching things. Each bitcoin is code strung together in a chain, and like a limited-edition print there are a restricted number of them. The market has decided that each one has a “value” and is prepared to trade real cash for a bitcoin. I have no problem with this: you can buy all sorts of things with cash, from a banana to a Leonardo Da Vinci painting for $450 million.…

PLE COMPUTERS CRUSADE INTEL CUSTOM HOME PC $1,353 • https://tinyurl.com/y7phe9eh Needing a family computer or home office PC? This could be it. With a dual core processor this isn’t designed for heavy lifting compute work but with its static 3.9GHz clock speed it’ll be snappy and responsive for any generally light tasks like browsing or office document manipulation. The included SSD is a nice size for an operating system, programs and whatever you might want to put on the desktop or document folders, letting you save the slower 1TB hard drive for longer term mass storage. The sleek case will keep this system looking nice in a shared user space. The strange part of the build is the GPU. It’s the lowest end Nvidia card so you won’t be doing…

Building a smarter home should result in something useful, rather than something elaborate that you use only occasionally. For that reason, we believe that the best way to get started with a smart home is to begin with the core components: lighting, heating and security. Each offers advantages over their ‘dumb’ compatriots, ranging from better cost management and efficiency to easier methods of control. With these bits of kit, you’ll notice key advantages over older types of product. We’ll walk you through each component in turn. SMART LIGHTING As well as making it more convenient and easier to set your light levels (who wants to get up from the sofa anyway?), a smart lighting system has lots of benefits over traditional lighting. For starters, it’s more secure, as you can…

Using Alexa to control your smart home is straightforward and easy once you know all of the tricks. To follow this guide, you’ll need an Echo device and a compatible smart home device. We’re using Philips Hue light bulbs for this demonstration. 1 ADD YOUR SKILL Open the Alexa app and tap the menu bar (three horizontal buttons) and then Smart Home. Tap Smart Home Skills and select Enable Skills. Scroll through the list or use the search bar to find the Skill you want. 2 ENABLE SKILL Tap your selected Skill and choose Enable. At the login page, enter your authentication details for your chosen service. Follow the instructions to authorise Alexa. When complete, you’ll see a message saying you can close the window, so tap the ‘X’ icon.…

First, let’s address the elephant in the room. Right now, the only way to buy the Mi Mix 2 is through an international Chinese gadget retailer: we found the best prices from GearBest, which at the time of writing – prices jump up and down – charged $616 for the 64GB model, $763 for 128GB and $883 for 256GB. One caveat is that this product is being shipped from China, so it won’t arrive overnight. So why bother? Simply because this phone – based on an original design by Philippe Starke – is gorgeous, from its ceramic body to its gold-coloured trim to its edge-to-edge screen. It’s fast, too, powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with 6GB of RAM. After the Apple A11 Bionic chip, the 835 is…

I’ve included the Huawei MateDock USB-C Multiport Adapter, despite the fact that Huawei don’t ship the product to Australia. The MateDock was designed to be accompany the Huawei MateBook, and while that isn’t available in Australia, you’ll can import this dock. But it is the dock that lives in my bag at all times. There’s a small USB C cable built into the dock to connect to your laptop, and a USB C port to provide power through to your laptop. On one end are two USB A ports and a Gigabit Ethernet port. On the other side are VGA and HDMI connections. The inclusion of VGA is quite rare in USB C docks, but very handy, considering conference rooms around the country still use this older connection. The unit…

There are hundreds of USB-C docks that look identical to Laser’s pocket sized multi-port hub, I assume they all roll of the same production line in Shenzhen, only to be rebranding but companies around the world. I’ve included Laser’s version because the Australian company provides an Australian warranty, and stock is easy to find in places like Big W, or on Laser’s online store. Once again, the design mimics the MacBook Pro, the unit is exactly the depth of Apple’s laptop. The dock provides two USB A ports, a MicroSD and Regular SD card reader, and a USB C port that supports power through to the laptop, handy for laptops with just one USB-C port. I used to keep this in my backpack purely for SD Card transfers, and while…

This vertical standing docking station seems to be built as the perfect corporate hot desk solution. Its no-frills plastic design screams enterprise - the kind of device that could be bought in bulk, but still feels sturdy enough to survive daily usage. Modern MacBook Pro users are out of luck, this is a USB 3 Type A dock only, but will still provide most PC laptop users a clean and uncluttered desk. With just one USB 3 connection out to your laptop, you can connect to Gigabit Ethernet, 5 USB devices, a microphone and headphones, and up to two monitors via separate HDMI and DVI ports. You’ll still need a separate power supply for your laptop though. On my test laptops, I was able to power one standard enterprise monitor…

Starting with a few streets now redubbed Quayside, Toronto’s Eastern Waterfront district is becoming a test ground for Sidewalk Labs, the urban innovation company owned by Google’s parent firm, Alphabet. But what does that mean? “This will not be a place where we deploy technology for its own sake, but rather one where we use emerging digital tools and the latest in urban design to solve big urban challenges in ways that we hope will inspire cities around the world,” said Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Sidewalk Labs, in a statement at the launch. Residents can ditch their cars, trading in their personal vehicles for a mix of walking, cycling, public transport and self-driving tech. This creates “a mobility system that is safer and more convenient than the private car at…

Automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning are coming for our jobs, but some of us can out-bot the bots, it would seem. Headlines have been full of terrifying tales of Russian propaganda spread by bots via social media, influencing the US presidential election as well as the Brexit referendum. Tweet your thoughts on Brexit, whether you favoured Leave or Remain, and you could very well expect a flood of responses, but not all of it would be from humans. The US Senate’s investigation into Russia’s attempts to use social media to sway the election led to an admission by Twitter that it had identified 36,746 bots linked to the country, which had tweeted 1.4 million times in the run-up to the vote. That’s led to a flurry of research into…

Sometimes games have ludicrously overwrought names that give no hint of what the experience might entail. In the few months alone, we’ve had such treats as, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, Duralumin Wind, Ye Fenny – Revenge of the Evil Good Shepherd, and Antimony of Common Flowers. Sometimes, however, a game does exactly what it says on the tin. Ripped Pants at Work, a simple but enjoyable stealth game definitely lives up to the title. The concept is simplicity itself. You’re a new employee. It’s your first day at work and you’re looking to make a good impression. Unfortunately, as soon as you enter your cubicle at work you reach down to pick up a pencil and rip your pants. There are other pants in the city, and you have…

REQUIREMENTS: Windows 7, 8, 10 32/64-bit • 40MB hard drive space LIMITATIONS: Registration required. www.abelssoft.de/en/windows CLEVERPRINT 2018 While the price of printers continues to drop, the overall cost of ownership is something that many people simply to not think about. Ink cartridges are far from cheap, so anything that can be done to reduce the amount that is used is to be welcomed. When printing out documents, you always have the option of using draft mode, but CleverPrint includes even more options. It is not just ink that is expensive, there is also paper to consider. The most obvious way to reduce these costs is to use less paper and ink. CleverPrint enables you to print multiple pages of a document on a single sheet of paper. This means that…

PAUL OCKENDEN owns an agency that helps businesses exploit the web, from sales to marketing and everything in between I’m a huge fan of the idea of using crowdfunding for the development of new products – it’s a system that has resulted in several interesting items coming to the market that might otherwise have remained as an idea stuck in the recesses of someone’s brain. Plus, it goes a lot further than simply “products”. Crowdfunding is great for the performing arts, books and comics, charity projects, and all manner of other things that might fail to attract traditional investment. But while I love the idea of crowdfunding, I also tend to be a cautious backer. It’s important to treat crowdfunding websites – from the well-known ones to the more obscure…

DAVEY WINDER is an awardwinning journalist and consultant specialising in privacy and security issues Managing a Facebookbased group doesn’t sound like much hassle, but the level of aggravation will depend on many factors: group size, group purpose and the tools made available to help. I have real-world experience running several groups, from small-business ones to large club-based affairs. For the past four years, I’ve been running the Mazda Bongo Owners Club. It’s large, growing and very active. It’s an informal club for people who have, used to have, or would like to have a Japanese import Mazda Bongo campervan. Being old (many vehicles are 20+ years) and imports, the vans require a degree of mechanical and technical support. At the time of writing, the group has 7,866 members; the churn…