HEIC pics

A photo format called HEIC means images take half

the storage space as with JPEG. But you'll need a

smartphone processor that can handle it.

The good news is that the next version of Google's

Android smartphone software, Android P, has a feature

to shrink your photos to half the size of an ordinary

JPEG. The bad news is there's no guarantee that every

phone will actually be able to use it.

That's because of hardware and patent licensing limits

on the technology used, called High Efficiency Image

Format (HEIF). To get full benefits, phone makers will

have to pay for high-end hardware and license patents

to use it.

You may have heard the term last year, when Apple was

championing the technology in iOS 11 and its latest iPhones.

Now Google's coming around to it.

Halving the amount of storage space that photo files

consume -- and the amount of data they siphon off your

monthly network plan when you're sharing or syncing --

is a great benefit. But it's still not clear how well HEIF will

deliver that benefit for Android users.

On iPhones, Apple made sure its chips can handle HEIF

and resolved the patent hassles. But all bets are off in the

world of Android, where there are thousands of different

phone models from hundreds of manufacturers.