VideoLAN's VLC, which is largely considered the media player that "plays everything," has returned to the Apple App Store.
The new releases are the result of over a year of work from volunteers on the VLC engine. The media player has gained a number of new features and bug fixes.
"I'm very happy about those releases. Moving VLC to the mobile world was difficult, but the difficult [part] is done," said Jean-Baptiste Kempf, VideoLAN's president and lead developer. "VLC runs everywhere, plays everything. We're working on many new features for VLC 3.0.0 to finish what we've started here."
The media player suffered an absence from Apple's App Store after iOS 8 was released, with the pull being due to licensing issues. An older version of the app was quietly released to the New Zealand App Store earlier in February, but it was not released in any other country.
The app has been substantially updated in the Android version, coming out of beta and now supporting Android TV. The app has also been given a redesign to bring it more in line with Google's material design found on Android 5.0 Lollipop. The iOS app has also been given a redesign to conform more to Apple's Yosemite style.
The Windows Phone release of VLC is also a big deal, with it, for the first time, being released in a public beta. The app was previously released to Windows Phone in a closed beta.
The desktop version of the app is version 2.2.0 and is codenamed Weatherwax. As usual it plays almost every video format, and there should be no problems with popular formats. It also now has the ability to automatically detect when a video has been filmed vertically and rotate these videos. There is also improved support for Ultra HD video codecs. Users can also now download subtitles through an extension of the app.
For some users, however, support for Google's Chromecast is still missing, but users won't have to wait too much longer, with support to be added in version 3.0 of the app, which will be released later this year.
Those who want to download and use the iOS, Android and desktop apps can download those now. Users of Windows Phone will have to wait a little, with the Windows Phone app set to be released on a later date. As mentioned before, version 3.0 of VLC will also be released on a later date.
