Microsoft To Make HD Photo A Standard
Microsoft, wanting to establish its HD Photo image format as the next generation replacement for JPEG, has announced it will be submitting the format to a standards organization. This would basically free up the format, allowing anyone to use it free of charge and without having to bow to Microsoft. Microsoft gets the goodwill that comes from contributing something, for free, to the photography community, a nice reminder every time an HD Photo is used that Microsoft did something good. They also hope you’ll upgrade to newer products that support and take advantage of HD Photo natively, like, I don’t know, Vista.
Microsoft is serious about getting wide adoption, and fast. They’ve already released a free beta plugin for the Windows version of Photoshop, with a final version coming in April, and a Mac version expected as early as next week. Also, companies that make camera image sensors and camera designs are building products with HD Photo support, and cameras that take pictures in HD Photo are expected to hit the market in 12-18 months.
Another free download from Microsoft: The Microsoft Powerpoint 2007 Viewer, which lets you run PowerPoint presentations without having the program installed, on any version of Windows since 2000. The advantage of this program for everyone, not just those who need to watch a presentation: It comes with the new Office 2007 fonts, Candara, Consolas, Calibri, Cambria, Constantia and Corbel (and I wouldn’t be shocked if Segoe was in there). If you want the new fonts (which are excellent), this is the fastest and simplest way to get it.
