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Reports of the compact disc's death may have been slightly premature, according to a new analysis from Stat Significant that finds CD sales as a share of U.S. music industry revenue have quietly stabilized after years of steep decline. RIAA data shows CD revenue share fell from 7.15% in 2018 to 3.04% in 2022 but has since flatlined at roughly 3%, coming in at 3.14% in 2023 and 3.06% in 2024. Google search traffic for "CD Player" has ticked upward over the past 16 months after two decades of near-continuous decline, and a May 2023 YouGov poll found 53% of American adults willing to pay for music on CDs -- ahead of vinyl at 44% and online streaming at 50%. Respondents under 45 were more likely to express interest in buying physical formats than older cohorts. But on the supply side, Discogs data shows vinyl remains the dominant format for new physical releases; artists have not meaningfully shifted back toward CD production.

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11 Feb 2026 5:00pm GMT

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11 Feb 2026 4:41pm GMT

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11 Feb 2026 4:21pm GMT

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11 Feb 2026 4:11pm GMT

HP has quietly launched a gaming laptop subscription service called the OMEN Gaming Subscription that lets customers pay a monthly fee to use one of several gaming laptops but never actually own the hardware, even after paying well past the machine's retail price. The service ranges from $50 a month for an HP Victus 15-inch laptop with an RTX 4050 to $130 a month for an Omen Max 16 with an RTX 5080. At current sale prices, subscribers would exceed the cost of buying the laptop outright within 16 to 19 months; at MSRP, that window stretches to roughly 25 months. In exchange for giving up ownership, subscribers get yearly hardware upgrades, next-day replacements, 24/7 support, and an ongoing warranty. There is a 30-day trial period, but cancelling in the second month triggers steep early termination fees -- $550 for the Victus 15 and $1,430 for the Omen Max 16. Cancellation becomes free only after the 13th month. HP also offers accessories like the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless headset as add-on rentals for $8 a month.

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11 Feb 2026 4:00pm GMT

Linux Mint raised $47,312 from 1,393 donors in December and is developing a new Cinnamon screensaver that will work natively on both X11 and Wayland.

11 Feb 2026 3:58pm GMT

Tails 7.4.2 is an emergency release that patches Linux kernel security flaws that could be chained to gain administrative access.

11 Feb 2026 3:10pm GMT

The EPA is revoking the finding for legal, not scientific, reasons.

11 Feb 2026 3:10pm GMT

Sony will ship its last batch of Blu-ray recorders this month, according to Kyodo News, ending the company's decades-long run in a product category it helped create. The recorders targeted exclusively the Japanese domestic market, where households used them to record broadcast television. Sony had already stopped manufacturing the devices and recordable discs about a year ago, and the final shipments are clearing out remaining inventory. Kyodo attributes the segment's death to the rise of streaming services. Sony will continue selling Blu-ray players "for the time being." The broader Blu-ray ecosystem remains intact. Asus, LG, and Pioneer still produce PC drives in internal and external USB form factors. Panasonic and Verbatim continue manufacturing Blu-ray media. The format turned 20 last year, having debuted at CES 2006 -- one year before Netflix launched its streaming platform.

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11 Feb 2026 3:00pm GMT

GNOME 48.9 is a stable maintenance update that fixes issues in Nautilus, GVfs, libadwaita, and other core libraries for everyone using GNOME 48.

11 Feb 2026 2:31pm GMT

Violators were told they would be shot down.

11 Feb 2026 1:16pm GMT

Some brands are already ahead of the curve, while others leave the US in the cold.

11 Feb 2026 12:00pm GMT