VLC for iPhone Released

VLC media player was just updated as a universal app for iPhone and iPad in the App Store. The popular, open source, cross platform media player has been a favorite on Windows, OS X and Linux for years.

Awhile back, VLC released an iPad app in the App Store, and surprisingly the app was approved. VLC for iPhone allows you to play nearly every kind of video format known to man. The app clearly duplicates (and in my opinion, makes better) the video playback functionality of the the native iPod app. So, it’s interesting that Apple has finally approved it.

The developers of the VideoLAN player just got the VLC 1.1.0 update approved, which lets VLC run on the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and recent iPod touch models. I downloaded the app, and I was impressed.

VLC for iPhone is very simple to use. You load videos from your computer through iTunes for playback. In the “Apps” tab of your iDevice in iTunes, scroll down to the “File Sharing” option. You are given a list of all the apps that have file sharing compatibility on your device. Select VLC, and click “Add” to add video content from Finder.

The biggest plus to VLC is that you can finally playback file formats on your iPhone that iTunes doesn’t support. That means all of your .avi videos that you.. um.. “ripped” from your personally owned DVDs can be played through VLC without needing to be converted for iTunes. VLC for iPhone also lets you do in-app file management, meaning you can delete videos within the app.

There’s no reason to not download VLC for iPhone. It’s free. Pick up the universal app in the App Store.

What do you think? Will you be using VLC on your iPhone?