VLC is a sort of Swiss Army Knife media player for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The open source software is known for being able to handle almost any video format you can throw at it, and for having a ton of customization options. Now it looks like the iPad could get some of that VLC magic… maybe.
Applidium has ported VLC to run on the iPad. Now it’s up to the folks behind the App Store review process to decide whether to approve the app. Bear in mind, while there are plenty of apps that let you play music and movies available for download in the App Store, Apple generally doesn’t approve software that duplicates the functionality of its core apps, like say… the video player. So Applidium is going to have to show that the VLC iPad app does something that Apple’s software doesn’t… like maybe play DivX, MKV, or other media formats?
Of course, Applidium wouldn’t be the first company to try launching a DivX-toting media player for the iPad. What remains to be seen is whether this version will actually work better than CineXPlayer, which was approved by Apple, only to be tested and pretty much panned by Mobiputing’s Iyaz Akhtar.
Update: AppAdvice posted a hands-on video of a pre-release copy of VLC for the iPad. You can check it out after the break. It reportedly works well with Xvid and DivX. Matroska files won’t play properly — but the app actually vies ou a warning about that when you try to launch one.
via TUAW
