Microsoft wants to improve your image

Microsoft on Tuesday released a new digital photo software package meant to help consumers turn relatively crummy photos, including those shot with camera phones, into sharper images.

The Digital Image Suite 10 combines two image software applications--Digital Image Library 10, which organizes and archives photos, and Digital Image Pro 10, which edits them.

Several tools that weren't available in the previous version have been added. Apart from three auto-correction tools, the new edition offers what the company calls vertical stitching. It allows consumers to merge images side by side or above and below to create a single image. Digital Image Library 10 also helps users organize photos according to their preferences, adjust the brightness and contrast of an image and improve camera-phone pictures.

Increasingly popular, camera phones are expected to account for about 60 percent of the nearly 300 million digital-image-capture devices in use by the end of the year.

Recognizing the trend, Yahoo recently launched a new service with some mobile carriers that lets camera-phone users swap pictures via Yahoo.

Microsoft has also released Microsoft Picture It Premium 10, which keeps track of a photo collection.

Digital Image Suite 10 has a retail price of $129, but rebates can cut the price nearly in half. Digital Image Pro 10 and Digital Picture It Premium 10 sell for $89.95 and $49.95, respectively, with mail-in rebates of up to $40 for Digital Image and $15 for Picture It.