MS announces HD Photo

Microsoft has announced HD Photo, formerly known as Windows Media Photo. Bill Crow has much more information about this and you can also read a news article.

HD Photo seems to be aimed at competing with JPEG as a format for the future. The best feature (when compared to JPEG) seems to be higher compression ratio while maintaining more information (less destructive), and it also includes a lossless option. There may have been other formats that have been better than JPEG, but the influence of Microsoft in the computer industry may increase the chances for this format to gain momentum (especially if the standardization effort is successful). However, it's a big task to replace JPEG...