Responding to feedback from partners and customers, Microsoft has rechristened the Microsoft-friendly Windows Media Photo as the market-friendly HD Photo.
HD Photo will ship in Windows Vista, and use the .hdp file extension. Not only that, but HD Photo is F-R-E-E free:
- We have also made a substantial change to the licensing. The previous Windows Media Photo Device Porting Kit (DPK) evaluation and distribution license agreements are gone. We have replaced them with a straight-forward click-to-install End User License Agreement (EULA) for the new HD Photo 1.0 Device Porting Kit. It’s now easy for anyone to receive the complete HD Photo DPK, including the compressed bitstream specification and the ANSI-C reference source code. The DPK is free, and we have eliminated all distribution royalties. HD Photo is 100% free for all developers.
Very cool. If Vista is about making things “clearer” for users, instead of more profitable for Microsoft, then they are definetly showing that they are on the path.
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Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.
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