After Nine Years Frozen, LAME Is Moving Again - What Is in 4.1
The MP3 encoder inside Audacity and most CD rippers is being developed again, and the next release fixes a quality bug that has been wrong for years.
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Codecs and Multimedia News
307 news articles on codecs, players and multimedia software, newest first.
Is AI Enabling Next-Generation Codecs? Three Years On
Neural codecs stopped being theoretical. JPEG AI is a published standard, Apple bought its way in, and AI encoding already runs in your streaming apps.
Copilot Just Took 3.3 GB of Your Windows 10 Drive Without Asking
A Copilot app that installs itself and claims over 3 GB, explained in plain terms, with the removal steps and the settings that keep it away.
ChatGPT Atlas Is Gone - Here Is What to Use Instead
OpenAI retired the ChatGPT Atlas browser on 9 August 2026, and here is what happened to your bookmarks and which browser to move to.
It Is Not Your Download - Why Some APKs Refuse to Open
Why some Android apps install perfectly and then refuse to open, and how to check a file before you download it.
MakeMKV's Site Keeps Going Down - Here's What the Error Means
Why makemkv.com throws Cloudflare errors, what they actually mean, and where to get MakeMKV and its beta key while the site is unreachable.
How to Install an APK Safely on Android (2026)
How to install an APK on Android without taking risks - the checks to run first, the permissions that should stop you, and what Google's September 2026 rules change.
Arc Isn't Finished. The People Who Built It Started Again.
Arc 1.117.0 ships Chromium security fixes only, while Arc's homepage now points to Dia - the browser its team left to build, and one Windows users still cannot install.
Sony's FX5 Just Shrank 16-Bit RAW by 40%. Now Try Opening It on Windows
Sony's new X-OCN C1 and C2 compact RAW modes explained in plain English, plus the free tools that actually open and convert the .mxf files on Windows.
TiviMate Has Vanished From the Play Store Again - Here's How to Get 5.3.3
TiviMate has disappeared from the Google Play Store once more - here is what caused it and how to install the latest version yourself.
Varta Is Insolvent: What Happens to Your Batteries Now
Varta filed four insolvency applications in Stuttgart - here is why the household AA and AAA batteries were deliberately kept out of it.
Age Verification Is Moving Into Your Phone
A plain-English look at how age verification is moving from websites into your phone itself - why privacy systems like GrapheneOS fail these checks by design, and the free tools that help you push back.
Why H.264 Plays on Everything: The Codec That Won
Why the oldest modern video codec, H.264, still plays on practically every device - while smarter codecs like AV1 struggle to catch up.
Is Brave Browser Still Worth It? The Tech, the Drama, and the Man Behind It
An even-handed look at Brave Browser's privacy strengths, founder Brendan Eich's polarizing political views, and the company's real controversies.
The Open-Source Browser That Wants Your Attention, Not Your Data
Zen Browser joins our downloads: a free Firefox fork that trades Chrome's clutter and tracking for Workspaces, Split View and real privacy.
Meet Qwant: The Private, EU-Built Alternative to Google
The European Parliament just made French privacy engine Qwant its default search over Google - here is what Qwant is and how to switch your own browser to it.
Browser Privacy in 2026: Who's Spying and Who's Protecting You
Your browser knows more about you than your best friend does. The question is who it tells - and most of the popular ones are chatty.
The Real Story of MP3: How a German Lab Built Audio's Universal Standard
The 30-year story of how a German research project, a Suzanne Vega song, and a free Windows player turned MP3 into the audio format running 95% of the world's podcasts.
x265 4.2 Lands With Threaded Motion Estimation and 8K-Ready Levels
x265 4.2 is the April 2026 update to the leading open-source H.265/HEVC video encoder - the engine behind most free HEVC tools on Windows - bringing a new parallel encoding mode and support for the HEVC spec's highest tiers.
After 20 Years of Nothing, PNG Now Updates Every Year
The PNG format is moving faster than ever - here's what the 4th and 5th Edition specifications are adding, and why compression is finally on the table.
Latest news comments
AllInteresting development with the Fire TV Stick 4K — losing Kodi sideloading is a big deal for a lot of users. For those ...
News: The New Fire TV Stick 4K Can't Run Kodi - Here's Which Fire Stick Still Can 3 commentsBrave just enabled it by default for stable users yesterday (1.97). Not specified is chromeOS will be passively gaining decode capability too, and ...
Team replied News: JPEG XL Is Back in Chrome: What It Means and How to Open JXL Files 1 commentI didn't know it was EU, AND france. That doesn't sound like a good idea. Related to coding or privacy.
News: Meet Qwant: The Private, EU-Built Alternative to Google 1 comment