The developers behind the popular open source VLC media player have released VLC 0.9.2. The update brings a new user interface for Mac, Linux, and Windows versions of the player. One feature I'm extremely happy to see are playback controls that show up when watching a video in full screen mode.

There are also new, simplified settings menus, and new filters. VLC 0.9.2 adds to the already long list of video formats supported. While VLC 0.8.6 could play FLV files, I find that the new version does a much better job. For example, I downloaded a YouTube video as an FLV and tried to play it in each version. VLC 0.8.6 opened and played the video, but when I tried to skip ahead, it closed the video file. VLC 0.9.2 had no problem starting the same file from any point in the timeline.

VLC 0.9.2 also supports playback of YouTube, Google Video , and Daily Motion videos by entering their URLs. As previously reported, the media player also now works with last.fm.

The VLC wiki is being hammered at the moment, but you should be able to find a list of some other other features in the latest release at the What is cool in 0.9 page. And you can check out a video of VLC 0.9.2 in action after the break.

3 out of 4 doctors recommend reading Download Squad every day. But if you've been a bit too busy to keep up, here are a few of our favorite stories from the past week. Read them over and call us in the morning if you don't feel better.

• Lesser known weapons to trick out your malware arsenal
  You probably know all the big names in antivirus, anti-spyware behavior. But just because companies like Norton, Symantec, McAfee, Spybot, and AdAware get all the attention doesn't mean they're the only games in town. We have a roundup of some of our favorite anti-malware applications you probably haven't heard of, but should definitely check out.
• 10 tools to pimp out your FriendFeed
  Apparently we've been feeling all listy this week, because in addition to a list of anti-malware tools, we published a list of 10 tools to spruce up your FriendFeed page. Whether you want to filter the info that shows up in FriendFeed, or to read FriendFeed on your mobile phone, we've got you covered.
• VLC Media Player 0.9.0 pre-release adds Last.fm support and more
  VLC is already one of the most full-featured video players around. And it happens to be free and open source to boot. This week the developers pushed out a preview version of VLC 0.9.0 with one new killer feature: integrated support for streaming music service Last.fm.
• Ask DLS: Web browsing for the color blind
  Between 8 and 10 percent of males have some degree of color-blindness, but surprisingly few web designers take this into account. If you have problems distinguishing colors on web pages, you might want to check out the Colorblind Web Page Filter, which attempts to adjust the color scheme of any web site to make it easier to read based on the type of colorblindness you experience.
• Opera Mobile 9.5 beta released
  Opera is doing its part to keep Windows Mobile users from throwing jealous glances at their iPhone-owning friends. Opera Mobile 9.5 beta hit the streets this week, and it offers a Mobile Safari-like drag, drop and zoom interface, super-fast page rendering, and other features to make browsing on a handheld device just a little bit more pleasant.

The newest version of the VLC media player isn't ready for the streets yet, but if you're they type who doesn't mind risking your precious computer for the sake of satisfying a primal curiosity for experimental software, the pre-release of VLC 0.9.0 is now available for both Windows and Mac. Unfortunately, anybody with a Windows 98/ME or OS X 10.3.9 machine is out luck since such technology is no longer socially acceptable as those operating systems are no longer supported.

It now supports Last.fm (AKA Audioscrobbler) straight out of the box disk image, so it'll update your Last.fm account as you play music through VLC. To enable Last.fm support in the 0.9.0 release, enter your username in the preferences pane under Audioscrobber, but don't forget to visit Control interfaces to check the box labeled "Submission of played songs to Last.fm."

Other changes also include better tag support, more subtitle support, improved mouse gestures, album art support, Shoutcast TV listings, and a lot more that we don't want to bore you with, but you're more than welcome to check out the whole list on the VLC forums.

[via CyberNet]

Been so busy trying to figure out Steve Jobs would announce next week that you haven't had time to read the news this week? We'll save you some time. First, it's probably a new iPhone. Second, here are some of our favorite stories from the week that was:

• Wikia Search human powered search engine becomes useful
  Ever wish you could rearrange search results in Google? Well, you can't. But you can customize Wikia Search, the search engine from the makers of Wikipedia to your heart's content. Don't like the order of the search results? Just vote your preferred results up. In theory, this could be an excellent way to deal with the inadequacies of machine ranking. In practice, web publishers are just going to spend all day fighting for the top listings.
• VLC on the iPhone and iPod Touch? Yep
  The iPhone is a remarkable device that lets you make phone calls, surf the web, watch movies, and listen to music. But if you want to watch DiVX videos, listen to MP3 files, or use any number of other formats, you're out of luck. Or at least you were last week. Because this week, the open-source VLC media player was ported to the iPhone. And there was much rejoicing.
• As June 30th approaches, are you stocking up on Windows XP licenses?
  Microsoft has set a June 30th cutoff date for Windows XP sales. Sort of. While it won't be impossible to pick up a copy of the 6 year old operating system after that date, it will be a bit tougher. Since Windows Vista isn't exactly what we'd call popular, and Windows 7 is at least a year or two away, now might be a good time to pick up a spare Windows XP license in case you need to install the OS on a new computer.
• Ubuntu Netbook Remix gets real official
  Dozens of computer makers showed off new cheap mini-notebooks at the Computex trade show in Taipei this week. And while many of those "netbooks" run Windows XP or Vista, many more are running Linux. Canonical wants in on the action and is planning to release Ubuntu Netbook Remix later this year. It's basically a custom version of Ubuntu with a new program launcher designed for small screens and optimizations for the low-power Intel Atom CPU. Canonical showed off an early build of the system this week.
• Ever use Pandora? Ever use Pandora...on AIR?
  While there have been desktop clients that let you listen to streaming music service Pandora without a web browser for ages, the company finally released its own official client this week -- to mixed reviews. On the one hand, it's great that you can listen to music without having to launch a browser. On the other hand, the desktop client, based on Adobe AIR, is kind of bulky and feels more like a web service than a desktop application.
• NexusFile - Putting Windows Explorer out of its misery
  Looking for a good replacement for the Windows Explorer? NexusFile supports tabs, favorite folders, has a built in FTP client, and disk cleanup tool. And it's free.

So this uber smart dude Zodttd, has done something pretty sweet.

He has successfully ported the popular VLC media player over to the iPhone. Yes, the iPhone.

Big deal you say? Well check out what you'll now be able to do on your little piece of Apple mobile goodness: Drag, drop and play MPEG/MPG, AVI and MP3 media formats.

Woohooo!

Soon it will play FLAC and OGG and he's checking out how to build support for VCD, DivX, WMA, and WMV.

You will have to break free from the jail on your iPhone to see this baby working, and it's currently in beta.

One question though, Why aren't these formats already supported by Apple? Aren't we all tired of the format wars at this point? If you pay $400 or more for a device, shouldn't you get a say in what plays on it and what doesn't?

What do you think? Comment us up.

[via Gizmodo]

Have you been spending the week trying to convince your friends and family that you're not only staying in the race so that you can have some leverage in your campaign for the vice presidency? Then here are a few stories you might have missed. Don't worry, it's happened to all of us at one point or another.

• Microsoft: Would you use our search engine for a shiny new nickel?
  This week could go down in history as the week when Microsoft finally gave up on trying to get people to use its search engine because it's good and just decided to start bribing users. But we're guessing most people will probably forget about Microsoft's cash back offer for items found using the company's product search offer and go back to using better known product search sites.
• VLC's latest version:81,297,899 and rising
  Need a video player? Try VLC. How about an audio player? Try VLC. Need something that will open almost any format and has browser plugins for Firefox and Internet Explorer? Yeah, you know the rest.
• Hungarian student throws eggs at Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
  Honestly, we're still not entirely sure why this guy was throwing eggs at Ballmer and not, say, the government officials he's accusing of wasting money on Microsoft products. But the video's fun to watch. And isn't that what really matters?
• Flipping the Linux Switch: Switching, literally, with Ulteo Virtual Desktop
  Want to run some Linux apps, but aren't ready to give up Windows? Ulteo's got you covered with a new virtual desktop product that runs Linux applications inside of Windows. And much to our surprise and delight, Ulteo Virtual Desktop does this quite seamlessly.
• Tag Galaxy: Spacy way to browse Flickr
  Tag Galaxy makes browsing Flickr a whole new experience. Just enter a search term, and watch as related keywords float across the screen. Zoom in and you can see a series of thumbnails. But honestly, words don't do Tag Galaxy justice. Just check it out for yourself. It's that cool.
• 10 Fresh NetNewsWire styles
  If there's one thing we love more than nifty visualizations, (see above), it's nifty skins. And OS X RSS reader NetNewsWire is fully skinnable, so we went on a skinning binge this week and found 10 themes that completely change the look and feel of one of our favorite desktop applications.

By the time you're reading this, the download number for the latest version of the popular VLC Media Player is well past 81,297,899. And for good reason.

As cross-platform, plays-every-type-of-media-file, and-for-free players go, it's tops in a lot of people's bookmarks. It's one of those toolkit apps that we have ready to go for the right occasion. You know, those moments when a friend gets a new Macbook and wants to play AVI (or MPEG, MOV, MP4, and many more) files. They ask you, and you fire back "VLC" without hesitation.

It's tough to get this type of mass following and community around an application, but VideoLAN has done it.

With really easy installs on Windows, Mac, and all of the popular flavors of Linux, there's no excuse not to give this a try if you haven't yet.

The major knock on VLC has been its bland interface, which obviously isn't their main focus with this app. But with skins you can liven it up a bit. It even works with Winamp skins. Remember Winamp? Of course you do, heck, some of us still use it (but refuse to admit it).

Give it a shot, put it in your toolkit. Pretty or not, it gets the job done.

One of the things that makes Ubuntu such a popular Linux distribution is that it comes with a ton of useful applications preinstalled. When you first boot Windows, you may have Windows Media Player, and Internet Explorer but you need a separate application suite if you want to create and edit spreadsheets, databases, or Word documents. Ubuntu, on the other hand includes a media player, web browser, office suite, and a few other goodies.

But one thing that you can't do with a stock Ubuntu installation is play commercial DVDs. While the Totem movie player will certainly make a valiant effort at playing the video on any DVD you stick in your computer, it won't manage to bring up DVD menus and may have problems playing the video. It turns out it's very easy to enable DVD playback. Just open a terminal and type the following two lines (entering your root password when prompted):

sudo apt-get install totem-xine libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdread3

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

Or if you'd rather not play around with the terminal, you can open the Synaptic Package Manager and do a search for VLC. The VideoLan media player is capable of playing DVDs without any tweaking.

[via Tech-Recipes]

While Videolan Client (also known as VLC) is a great cross-platform application for opening pretty much any video file you can throw at it, the interface is a bit sparse. Sure, you can add custom skins, but developer Christofer Persson decided to go a bit further and build a whole new program based on the open-source media player's code.

Kantera is an audio/video player that can handle all of the same media formats as VLC and then some. It features an attractive skin, some trippy audio visualizations, and integration with Last.fm and Apple movies trailers. While the Kantera homepage touts the program's ability to handle audio codecs that VLC won't normally play, we've never had any problem opening WMA or other closed source file formats with VLC.

Kantaris doesn't appear to have support for hotkeys yet, which is a bit of a drawback. But version 0.3.0 which was released this week adds support for playing archived RAR files without extracting them first which is a pretty awesome feature. Kantaris is only available for Windows, but the source code is available so we wouldn't be surprised to see a Mac or Linux port sometime down the road.

[via Sourceforge]

Love VLC Media Player's ability to play virtually all media but hate that it does not caress your media with a beautiful frame carved from Italian marble? Fear no more. Although we're fans of the no-frills design, those of you who are more exacting will be pleased to know that the large library of Winamp skins are all compatible with VLC.

This is how the magic works: Go to 'Settings' select 'Switch interface' then 'Skins 2.' You will then be greeted by a VLC that may be unfamiliar, but don't worry. Right-click somewhere on the frame, 'Select Skin' and open away. After experimenting with a few skins we found that most of them work fine, except that some had visual artifacts that may not appear if you were to use them in Winamp.

VLC does have a nasty tendency of resetting itself back to normal when you restart the application, so in order to prevent that, under 'Preferences' > 'Interfaces' > 'Main Interface' > 'Skins' select 'Advanced Options' and make sure the 'Skin to use' is the one you like.

And if you decide you don't like Winamp skins, you might want to sample the selection at the VLC skins page.

[via Lifehacker]

Last week we told you about SMPlayer, a powerful, yet easy to use frontend for open source media player MPlayer. We were pretty impressed with SMPlayer, which can run on Windows or Linux and can handle almost any format except for Real Media.

But our wonderful readers pointed out that SMPlayer was hardly unique. You've probably heard of VLC, but here are three other media players that can handle pretty much any video you can throw at them. Oh yeah, and they're all absolutely free.

There are a lot of useful media players out there for handling pretty much any video format you can throw at them. VLC is a pretty nifty all-in-one solution, as is Media Player Classic.

Martin over at gHacks just turned us onto another powerful media player, SMPlayer. It's a front-end for MPlayer, and comes in Linux and Windows flavors. There's also support for a whole slew of languages.

The best thing about SMPlayer is that it just works out of the box. You don't need to install any additional codecs, and it will handle everything from Quicktime movies to Windows Media Video. Of course it has no problem with DivX, XviD, and other MPEG-1/2/4 varieties. It does not appear to support Real Media files.

Is SMPlayer a VLC killer? It's hard to say. But it does have a clean, simple interface that makes it pretty attractive if you find the bells and whistles of VLC a bit confusing.

Apple has released QuickTime 7.2 for Mac and Windows. The update includes a bunch of bug fixes, updates to the H.264 codec, and oh yeah: support for full screen playback.

That's right, the free version of QuickTime has finally caught up to pretty much every free media player on the market. Up until now, if you wanted to watch full screen video using QuicktTme, you had to pay $30 for a QuickTime Pro license.

QuickTime Pro still has a few features that set it apart from its free cousin:

• Create videos using H.264
• Record audio
  
• Create movies
  
• Save movies from the web

But full screen playback isn't a bonus feature, or something you'd only expect from a package designed for multimedia creators. In fact, if you just want to watch QuickTime movies, you can use VLC or Media Player Classic and QuickTime Alternative. It's possible that if Apple hadn't taken so long to unlock a feature that should have never been locked, hackers wouldn't have felt the need to put together alternative solutions.

[via AppleInsider]

Everything's portable! This week saw the release of not one, but two popular Windows media players in portable form. First is Portable VLC from PortableApps.com. Based on the excellent open source media player VLC, I can't imagine a better way to watch videos on the go. Second is Portable Winamp 5.1 Lite with iPod support. The "Lite" means it includes the bare-bones audio player, eschewing video, media library, "modern" skin support, and so on, but as the name implies it'll connect to your iPod. Portable VLC is a 7.2MB download while Winamp is a scant 1.2MB.