Compression News and Articles

PeaZip 11.2.0 brings quality-of-life improvements across the app

PeaZip adds a new F12 function picker, better keyboard shortcuts, smoother drag-and-drop, and improved file manager auto-refresh. The release also expands support to 243 file extensions, including ZIM files used for Wikipedia data dumps.

By Ivan Franco, July 13, 2026, 10:37 AM

Download of the Week Software

WinRAR 7.23 fixes bugs, jokes that users are finally paying for it

WinRAR 7.23 fixes two security vulnerabilities, updates its bundled 7-Zip extraction library, and makes a few command-line tweaks. The release notes also include a playful nod to the archiver's legendary "infinite" trial, thanking users who supposedly finally bought the software. It's mostly a joke-but the security patches alone make this update worth installing.

By Ivan Franco, July 1, 2026, 10:25 AM

Download of the Week Software

PeaZip 11 brings a faster UI, better navigation, and smarter archive tools

PeaZip 11.0 refines one of the most capable free archivers with faster browsing, smoother drag-and-drop across tabs, and a cleaner, more responsive UI. The update also improves scaling, adds flexible icon rendering, and introduces batch archive testing, alongside the usual fixes and cleanup.

By Ivan Franco, April 7, 2026, 2:23 PM

Hardware Gaming

Intel joins Nvidia in pushing neural texture compression, can shrink game assets by up to 18x

A three-layer neural network rebuilds texture data from compressed latent representations

By Skye Jacobs, April 7, 2026, 7:03 AM 8 comments

Gaming Software

Nvidia shows neural compression can cut VRAM usage from 6.5GB to 970MB

New AI texture and material systems aim to shrink assets, speed up shading, and free up GPU resources

By Skye Jacobs, April 5, 2026, 11:44 AM 18 comments

Software Industry

Dolby sues Snap over video codec patents tied to AV1 and HEVC

AV1 might not be as royalty-free as promised

By Skye Jacobs, March 28, 2026, 9:42 AM 23 comments

Security Software

New "Zombie ZIP" attack can evade most antivirus scanners

However some experts argue the technique is not a true security flaw

By Alfonso Maruccia, March 13, 2026, 4:34 PM 7 comments

Download of the Week Software

WinRAR 7.20 speeds up archive management, expands command-line flexibility

WinRAR 7.20 delivers faster handling of large archives, especially when deleting files or opening ZIPs with massive file counts. The update also enhances automation with smarter archive naming masks, expanded command-line switches, and faster extraction for TAR-based formats.

By Ivan Franco, February 4, 2026, 11:15 AM

How JPEG Works: The Art and Science of Imperfection

FEATURE By Abdulrahman Mahmoud, October 9, 2025, 12:13 AM TechSpot Tech Culture

At its core, JPEG is a lossy image compression technique. What you may not realize is that achieving this required a fascinating blend of human perception, elegant signal processing, and clever engineering prowess.

Let's begin with a visual challenge: Can you believe the colors of the tiles marked A and B are exactly the same?

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7-Zip 25.00 adds support for more than 64 threads on Windows

7-Zip version 25.00 introduces support for over 64 CPU threads on Windows, enabling the software to fully leverage high-core processors like AMD Threadripper and Intel Xeon. This release also improves bzip2 and deflate compression performance, making it a notable update for users on multi-core systems.

By Ivan Franco, July 7, 2025, 2:40 PM

Software Download of the Week

A solid free alternative to WinRAR and 7-Zip, PeaZip launches version 10.5.0

PeaZip is a free file archiver for Windows, Linux, and macOS that supports over 200 formats, including ZIP, 7z, RAR, ISO, and TAR. Built on 7-Zip and Zstandard, it features AES encryption, secure deletion, file hashing, and a built-in file manager.

By Ivan Franco, June 16, 2025, 12:03 PM

Electronics Gaming

Horizon Forbidden West runs at 8K 120Hz on Samsung TV via HDMI 2.1 in world-first demo

With a few caveats

By Rob Thubron, April 27, 2025, 9:47 AM 21 comments

Software Download of the Week

WinRAR 7.10 improves privacy with Mark-of-the-Web support

WinRAR 7.10 adds support for Windows Mark-of-the-Web (MoTW), giving users the option to apply or omit security flags on extracted files. The update also improves performance, enhances dark mode, and must be downloaded manually as WinRAR lacks an automatic update system.

By Ivan Franco, February 20, 2025, 11:38 AM

Hardware Gaming

Nvidia's new texture compression tech slashes VRAM usage by up to 95%

Neural networks can apparently work wonders in reducing VRAM requirements for real-time graphics

By Alfonso Maruccia, February 10, 2025, 2:03 PM 45 comments

Software Download of the Week

PSA: 7-Zip vulnerability bypasses Windows security - update now

A high-severity vulnerability in 7-Zip has been discovered, allowing attackers to bypass Windows' Mark-of-the-Web (MotW) security feature and execute malicious code during file extraction. 7-Zip lacks an auto-update function, requiring users to manually update the software.

By Ivan Franco, January 23, 2025, 5:10 PM