Recent generations only, however

Applidium, who last month brought open-source video player VLC to the iPad, have submitted an update to make the app Universal, allowing recent-generation iPhones and iPod Touches to run the program as well. The app version, which does not play all video formats as its desktop version does, greatly expands the format options for audio and video on Apple's iOS mobile devices.

The free app has been reworked to take full advantage of the A4 chip found in the latest iOS devices, allowing better playback of most video files. The developers caution that hardware acceleration is not enabled for 720p playback, though performance should be improved from the previous version. Audio and video files are transferred to VLC via the "Apps" tab of iTunes.

Extensions are supported, such as those allowing the VLC iOS app to read videos from email and mobile Safari, for example. Applidium says they support the iPhone 3GS and 3rd- and 4th-generation iPod Touches as well, but do not support older models.

by MacNN Staff