Why Microsoft Made Windows 10 Free - and Why It Was Never Really Free
The free Windows 10 upgrade was a migration offer rather than a giveaway - who actually paid for it, and what the bill looks like now that support has ended.
CODECS.COM news
Codecs and Multimedia News
315 news articles on codecs, players and multimedia software, newest first.
Jellyfin 12.0 Lands With a Faster Library and a New Default Look
Jellyfin's biggest release in years drops the 10.x numbering, speeds up large libraries and breaks a few old clients on the way in.
CDs Are Selling Again. Your Laptop Probably Cannot Read One
CD revenue jumped by more than half in the first half of 2026, on machines that mostly cannot read a disc any more.
OpenAI Astra Launches: Browser Control and Hidden Reasoning
OpenAI's most capable model yet can operate a browser on its own, and it shows less of its reasoning than the one before it.
Windows Says Virus Protection Is Off. Microsoft Says It Is Not.
Microsoft has confirmed that the "Turn on virus protection" pop-up appearing on Windows 10 and 11 is a false alarm, with no fix released yet.
Adobe Is Retiring the App That Replaced Premiere Clip
Adobe shuts Premiere Rush down on 30 September 2026, and the app meant to replace it on Android is still an Early Access beta.
Windows 11 Finally Lets You Say No to OneDrive Backup
Microsoft is rolling out an Opt out of backup button that finally lets Windows 11 users refuse OneDrive for good.
Apple's Secret Weapon for Streaming: From WaveOne to PICO
The 2023 acquisition story with its ending attached: Apple published PICO in 2026, and a WaveOne co-founder is on the paper.
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.
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.
Latest news comments
All[link] Epg is not working on this one.
Team replied News: Free USA IPTV Playlist: The American TV That Is Really Free 1 commentInteresting 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 comment