VLC media player has finally returned to the App Store worldwide after being removed two years ago over copyright issues with the General Public Licenses (GPL).
Apple users will finally be able to download the VLC media player on their iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch. The iOS app, which was once among the most popular media players that played almost all formats of videos and audios without the need to convert, was removed from the App Store following copyright issues over several GPL licenses in January 2011.
After disappearing for little over two years, the VLC player for iOS has returned with several changes and most importantly its license. It is now developed as an open source application on App Store to avoid future copyright issues, which means it is here to stay this time.
The iOS version of the VLC media player is a free application, which is compatible with any iPhone, iPod touch and iPad running iOS 5.1 and higher, including the first iPad. The app has already been rated 4.5 stars out of 5 by 25 users.
"Today, it's my pleasure to announce that VLC for iOS is back on the App Store. It's available free of charge in any country, requires iOS 5.1 or later and runs on any iPhone, iPad or iPod touch," the company said in a statement, according to MacRumors. "This is more than an upgrade of the initial version: it's a full re-write. From the ground-up. Relying on the power of MobileVLCKit and its underlying libvlc, we started with modern video and audio output modules offering faster drawing, full support for 10bit H264 encodings, retina displays and lower latency."
With several other media players in the market, VLC has listed some new features, which make the app more attractive. The VLC 2.0 version allows file uploads from PC or Mac via web browser. It has integrated Dropbox, which allows users to play files directly from their accounts or download them for offline playback. VLC also supports Airplay, multiple audio tracks, subtitles, video filters playback speed manipulation and much more.
