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Chinese hackers are using VLC media player to launch malware attacks
The likely state-sponsored hacks began in 2021
VLC is a super-popular media player for good reason: It's free, open source, and available on just about every platform imaginable. Plus, it can handle basically any audio or video file you throw at it. VLC is also light on resources, meaning it won't slow down your Windows computer — unless, perhaps, it's hiding malicious software. A new report indicates that's entirely possible, due to the efforts of a notorious Chinese hacking gang.
VLC media player revitalizes its Android Auto app in latest update
Along with bookmarks and improved onboarding
No matter the device, VLC is pretty much essential for all of your video, audio, and streaming needs. It's always one of the first apps I download when setting up a new computer, and it keeps getting better with each new update. It's been more than two months since we saw VLC 3.4 hit beta, but it's finally ready for primetime.
The latest VLC beta freshens up the audio player interface
Along with some usability tweaks and a couple of new bugs to discover
VLC is a favorite among fans of digital media, at least those that haven't transitioned to streaming full time. Its flexibility is unmatched, thanks in no small part to the fact that it's been under continuous open source development for over twenty years. The latest Android beta version is available now, and it shakes things up a bit.
A more modern Material UI comes to VLC for Android in version 3.3 (APK download)
UI tweaks, under-the-hood optimizations, and cleaned-up settings
In a world where competing media codecs run rampant, VLC is a lifesaver. Version 3.2 came out last year, bringing UI improvements, a new TV interface, and support for Chrome OS keyboard shortcuts among other things. Now 3.3 is ready to go, and it completes the UI revamp with a more modern Material look that's right at home on Android 11.
Latest VLC beta switches to bottom navigation, adds share menu
New video information overlay during playback
The once ubiquitous navigation drawer has become a pariah of app design over the last couple years thanks to a forced movement toward gesture navigation. We've seen plenty of apps switch to a tabbed bar at the bottom of the screen, and now VLC is joining their ranks. Along with a few other new features, the first beta of v3.3 now sports a browser screen with an updated navigation model.
VLC is one of the best media players. It's available on pretty much any platform and able to play almost every audio and video file type you could think of. Its UI on Android has become a bit stale over the years though, so with the recently released version 3.2.3 of the app, the developers have decided to polish up the looks while also adding new features to the Android TV and Chromebook variants.
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Last summer, the VLC developers got fed up with Huawei and took drastic action. In a firey tweet, the VideoLAN team declared that Huawei's aggressive background task management was causing issues, so VLC was blocking those phones from downloading the app in the Play Store. It seemed like a bit of an overreaction, but the block has now been lifted.
VLC 3.1 brings back Android Auto support, improves Chromebook compatibility, and more [APK Download]
VLC is one of the best media players out there — not only can it open just about every type of video and audio file in existence, but it works on just about every platform too. VLC 3.1 is now rolling out on the Play Store, and it has plenty of useful additions.
Huawei phones are hugely popular across vast swaths of the globe, but at least some of them are unable to download VLC from the Play Store as of today. The app developers have announced that Huawei phones are blacklisted because of an apparent tendency to kill VLC during background play. Rather than put up with 1-star reviews, the devs have just blocked those devices.
Last month, possibly the most-anticipated feature for VLC finally made it into the Android version - support for Chromecast. Now the feature has reached the stable branch, with the release of VLC 3.0. It's the first major version bump since 2012, and includes plenty of new features and bug fixes.VLC 3.0 is the first synchronized release between the desktop app and the mobile ports, and moving forward, they will share the same version numbers. The major new addition is Chromecast support, which is present on all versions of the player, not just the Android port. If the media codec you're trying to play is natively supported by the Chromecast, your device will only act as a streaming server. Otherwise, your device will have to transcode and stream media at the same time, which will drain your battery very quickly.If you're wondering why Chromecast support took so long, it's because VLC is 100% open source software, unlike Google's Chromecast SDK. VideoLAN (the developers behind VLC) chose to develop their own streaming stack, rather than use closed-source components. There were other challenges as well, like the above-mentioned media encoding feature.
Google launched the Chromecast way, way back in 2013. Coming up on five years later, VLC is finally rolling out support for Google's streaming platform. The latest Play Store beta release (v2.9) includes experimental Chromecast streaming, and it (mostly) works.
VLC, the video player that can handle practically anything you throw at it with no config tweaking, has been updated to version 2.5, marking the first update to the stable channel of the popular media player in over a year. In addition to a lot of interface tweaks bringing it more in line with Material Design guidelines, visual changes have also come to Android TV and Auto.
Popular media player VLC just updated the stable branch of its Android app to 2.5, and it's one of the biggest updates in recent memory. This latest update has a dynamic new UI that better fits with Material Design guidelines, PiP mode, Android Auto support, 360-degree video support, and search improvements (including Google search integration), among a ton of other smaller features. As the first major release in over a year, we've been looking forward to it for quite a while.
With Android now running on over 2 billion active devices around the world, it's no surprise to see many popular apps beginning to cross the 100 million (or even 1 billion) download milestone. The most recent member of this select club is the popular VLC player for Android, which has just been downloaded over 100 million times on Android devices. As always, this counter is per device and not per account, meaning that if you've installed VLC on more than one of your devices over the years, then you've also contributed more than once towards this download count.
Android 8.0 is shaping up to be a cool update with features like notification dots, autofill apps, and of course, picture-in-picture video. There haven't been many apps that properly support Android O's PiP mode, but now you can count VLC among them. Well, as long as you've got the new beta app.
What's worse than a security vulnerability in a widely-used program? A security vulnerability in several widely-used programs. Researchers from Check Point Software Technologies have uncovered a flaw in a handful of media players (including VLC, Kodi, Stremio, and PopcornTime) that allows hackers to run executable code through subtitle files.
VLC, the desktop favorite of local video enthusiasts for more than a decade, doesn’t have quite the same kind of universal acclaim on Android. But the developers are still hard at work making improvements. According to a blog post from Geoffrey Metais, the 2.1.0 update to the beta release adds a ton of new features, notably including compatibility with Android Auto (for audio, not video).
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VLC is one of those apps that takes beta testing seriously. The developers have been testing a big revision (1.9.x) for ages, and now it's finally rolling out on Android as v2.0. This update finally embraces the LAN part of VideoLAN Client with proper network browsing, and that's only the start.
If you've ever tried playing an odd video format on your phone, chances are you've used one of a couple of well known video players like MX or VLC. After a slow start, the latter has been receiving rather frequent updates and improvements that keep pushing it forward. VLC also has an active beta program (of which you can be a part by joining this Google+ community and then becoming a tester on the Play Store) and its latest release is version 1.9.0 which is actually a beta for version 2.0.0. Let's pretend that's not unnecessarily convoluted and move on.