I agree. Why does Gates have to have all his fingers in the pie? It irritates me when a company wants to make basically the same technology over again with a different name and requirements. Let's have some simple standards and be done with it already. And I like how he changes the name to the hip "HD" just so his own company name doesn't ruin his chances. Geek.

Any standard coming out of Redmond is designed to and can only benefit Microsoft. Microsoft is about control and nothing else. An image standard is best left free of any company, most of all Microsoft, and should be set up and ratified by an independent group such as the Joint Photography Expert Group.

We are seeing typical Microsoft and another example of how different that company is from Apple. Rhywun brings up WMA as an excellent example. Apple adopted an open standard, AAC, which is based on MPEG-4, as the default format for iTunes and the iPod. Anyone can get licensing for AAC completely independent of Apple. Microsoft created their own proprietary format based on their Windows Media incursi, um initiative. The naming of their media formats makes it abundantly clear what platforms and software will get to play in the WMx playground and who, if not at first but eventually, will be bullied if not outright ostracized in Microsofts schoolyard; recall that Microsofts marginal support of Windows Media Player for the Mac was quickly dropped leaving Mac users with no means to access the many Windows Media files that now populate the Web. (Yes, there are 3rd-party plug-ins, but the point is that Microsoft tried to cut Apple off at the knees as they have continuously done over the years.)

Much like Microsofts deliberately misnamed OpenXML format, Microsoft is doing nothing more than attempting to further entrench themselves so deeply that they will be positioned to remove any other players from every aspect of computing technology. I find it ironic that Gates is so adamant about the state of the US in terms of technology when he and his his companys practices have played a large, if not the largest, part in creating that environment. I cannot find references to the statement now, but I recall reading something around the time that the DOJ case against Microsoft startedperhaps on the old MacCentral boards before Macworld reabsorbed the sitewhere an economist predicted that left unchecked, Microsofts monopoly position would trivialize the United States dominance in computing technology. As a result of destroying or assimilating all competition in Borg-like fashion, like any monopoly Microsoft would have little reason to improve their crapware and eventually some upstart in the Asia/Pacific Rim will offer something infinitely better. The result would be the current trend we now see with televisions, audio components, automobiles, etc., that were invented in the US but eventually forfeit Asian firms that are producing better products than their American contemporaries.

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“Cannot run out of time. There is infinite time. You are finite. Zathras is finite. This is wrong tool.” 2.3GHz Power Mac G5/4GB/500GB HDD/OS X 10.4.11/30-inch ACD, 60GB iPod (Color)

OMFG!!

Give me a break already. They want to lock down every single open standard and make it their proprietary standard so that they can charge you from the back end after the fact. More proprietary "standards" aren't a solution to anything for anybody except MS.

When I'm dead and gone, my photos can be converted to a Microsoft format. Not before.

One important factor has been overlooked.

JPEG requires a license and Microsoft has not coughed up the required fees and neither have many others.

There is current litigation on this matter.

Verdict - Microsoft is self serving yet again. JPEG 2000 does everything this MS work around does.

Did you know that Vista converts your JPEGS to HD Photo? Did you know that HD has absolutely nothing to do with the High Definition formats? HD is used rather like e or i for its connotation.

Shame on you Microsoft!