VLC for iOS returns, version 2.0 now available on Apple's App Store

New Delhi: After two-and-a-half years the VLC app for iOS devices has made a comeback to the Apple App Store.

The open-source universal media player app was taken off after only a couple of months on the Apple App Store in January 2011 because of licensing issues. The GNU General Public License (GPL v2) under which VLC was released at that time was incompatible with the Apple App Store terms of service.

Late last year VLC was re-released under a more permissive license (LGPL v2.1) and this opened the doors for the VLC app's resubmission to Apple's App Store. VLC for iOS is bi-licensed under the Mozilla Public License Version 2 as well as the GNU General Public License Version 2 or later.

A year-and-a-half after being forced to move out the Apple App Store, VLC made its debut on Google Play. The VLC app for Android is still in beta and is available only for devices with ARMv7 or x86 CPUs.

VLC for iOS will require iOS 5.1 or later and will run on any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, including the first iPad, says the description on VideoLAN's product page.

VLC for iOS 2.0 includes new features such as password-protecting the media library, uploading media files without using iTunes, Dropbox sync and faster media decoding.

VideoLAN says it is working on an app for Windows Phone 8 and adds that "it is more difficult".