

Click to Enlarge









VLC is one of the most well-known media players out there, and it’s been almost 4 years since they’ve released a major new version. VLC 0.9.0 is on the horizon, and it packs in 2 years of development… so you can expect some great things. There’s just one gotcha: Windows 98/ME and Mac OS X 10.3.9 are no longer supported operating systems.

So what’s new in this release? One of the biggest things would have to be the revamped interface seen in the screenshot above. The preferences have been drastically overhauled, and are now broken up into “simple” and advanced settings. That way new users aren’t overwhelmed by the number of things that can be configured.

Beauty is only skin deep though, and that’s why there’s much more than the flashy new interface that’s worth a look:

Improved playlist support: Shoutcast TV listings, Audioscrobbler/Last.FM support (in supported countries), album art, and more

Better tag support

Supports most types of subtitles

New and enhanced filters

Improved mouse gestures

Full support for meta data editing (ID3v2, Ogg/Vorbis, AAC, APEv1/2)

and more…

If you’re looking for the Last.FM support you’ll have to dig through the options (Tools -> Preferences). You’ll need to be in the “advanced” view by filling in the All bubble located in the lower-left corner. Then navigate to Interface -> Control Interfaces -> Audioscrobbler. From there you can enter in your Last.FM username and password. Then click on the Control Interfaces section, and check the “Submission of played songs to Last.FM” box. VLC will share your listening habits with Last.FM from there on out.

You can grab a pre-release version of VLC 0.9.0 (Windows installer), or you can wait for it to reach final form. From what I can tell this is shaping up to be a nice release.