VLC, the Swiss Army knife of media players, has been updated to version 3.0.0. The latest version adds some much-needed features to the player, including one that could make streaming all that content from your computer to your living room TV a lot easier: Chromecast support (among other things).
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If you've been hitting VLC's nightly builds, then most of the new features of v3.0.0 will be old news. For everyone else, the major update -- the first since 2.0.0 came out in 2012 -- adds loads of goodness, including native Chromecast support, hardware HEVC decoding and advanced network browsing. While VLC's website hasn't been updated, there's no need to wait: you can grab the official release right now.
VLC is one of the most popular media players around. It works on most platforms and can handle almost any type of file. It's damn near perfect, but you could be getting even more out of VLC by using experimental nightly builds instead of the official version.
It's hard to say if 360-degree videos will ever be more than a novelty -- especially with the rising popularity of VR -- but the folks behind VLC are confident it'll be around for a while, so much so the developers have pushed out a technical preview of VLC with support for 360-degree videos and photos.
VLC is already available for Windows 10, but this newly-released "Modern" beta runs on the Universal Windows Platform. That means it will get some special features, including Cortana support and live tiles, and it will be perfect for the Xbox One, Windows tablets and even HoloLens, when it's released.
VLC is one of those fantastic little apps we've all come to love, and today Apple TV users can finally get in on the action with the new Apple TV app.
Android: VLC has slowly but surely been working to become as well-known for its Android app as it is for the desktop version. It's taken another step in that direction with background playback for videos on Android.
Windows/Mac/Linux/Android/iOS: VLC is hands-down one of the best media players around and today it gets a little better by adding an in-app extensions store, playback resuming and more. More importantly, the iOS version of the app returns to the App Store.
Android: VLC has been one of our favourite media players for seemingly forever. After a lengthy stint in a beta (plus some region lock annoyances), the Android app finally graduated to version 1.0. It's now out of beta, though releasing on time is still up for debate.
Upon removal, a good program will give you the option to clear old settings, be they in a folder or the registry. This lets you get rid of every last remnant to calm your OCD, or troubleshoot issues caused by preferences from older versions. When you aren't given the ability to do this easily, you'll have to do some investigating yourself.
Chromecast, Google's video streaming widget, officially arrived in Australia last month. If you've been looking for the perfect app to partner with it, iOS users will be pleased to learn that the developers behind VLC are working to add support for the device.
Windows/Mac/Linux: VLC is one of our favourite video players out there. The release of version 2.1 packs in a lot of new features, including significant improvements to how it handles outputting videos to mobile devices like Android and iPhone.
VLC returned to the iTunes App Store last month, and that means one of the best media players out there is finally back on the iPhone and iPad. If you don't want to use iTunes simply to use VLC, How-To Geek points out that tucked away within VLC's settings is a way to upload files from your computer to your phone without using iTunes, provided both devices are on the same network.