VideoLAN said that developing a VLC Windows Phone 8 app “appears to be easier than expected.” Since the Windows Phone 8 APIs are similar to Windows 8, the team shouldn’t have a problem porting the Windows 8 app over to the Windows Phone 8 platform. So now, when you donate to the project, you’ll also be supporting the Windows Phone 8 version, on top of the Windows 8 and Windows RT apps.

Furthermore, VideoLAN has been in contact with Microsoft, and both companies have agreed to collaborate on the VLC project. VideoLAN notes that Microsoft’s support will be “non-financial”, and that they’ll mostly help out with the hardware, technical, and design side of things. It seems that both companies are ecstatic about the partnership, and with good reason.

However, the biggest challenge so far for the VideoLAN team seems to be getting the app into the Windows Store. The app will obviously need to stick to Microsofts rules and pass a check test in order to be admitted, but VideoLAN notes that the Windows Store terms and conditions “seem to be compatible with the GNU GPL.” The team is working extremely hard in order to make it into the store, but there’s no guarantee as of yet.

There’s a new trailer for the 2014 Corvette that seems to tease something along the lines of a digital instrument panel, and today NVIDIA released GeForce 310.64 beta drivers, seemingly in preparation for the incoming launch of Far Cry 3. The new Humble THQ Bundle has arrived and it lets you name your price on a collection of big THQ games including Saints Row: The Third, Metro 2033, and Darksiders, so be sure to check that out if you game on PC. Krell Industries announced today that it will be supplying the sound system in the 2014 Acura RLX, while Meryll Lynch thinks it won’t be long before we see T-Mobile offering the iPhone.

VLC has launched a Kickstarter campaign for its Windows 8 app, and the HTC HD2, a phone that originally shipped with Windows Phone 6.5, has been given a Windows Phone 8 port. Barnes & Noble’s Q2 financial results show the company spending a lot on digital content to keep up with Amazon and Apple, and the big G announced today that Google Drive will soon be getting support for website publishing. Gameloft’s GT Racing: Motor Academy was given new Red Bull-themed cars today, and the popSLATE iPhone case comes with an e-ink display, but it needs your help over at Indiegogo.

As always, we also have a few original articles up on the site this evening. Don Reisinger tells us why Nintendo’s new Wii Mini is a bad idea, while we went eyes-on with both the BMW i3 Concept Coupe and BMW i8 Concept Spyder at the LA Auto Show. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

The Kickstarter funds will allow team members of VideoLAN to work on the Windows 8 version full-time, while professional freelance designers will be hired to rework the user interface for Metro. As usual, the app will be free, so VideoLAN relies on donations rather than revenue to develop their products.

Once the campaign hits the £40,000 goal (around $64,100), VideoLAN expects to finish the port within three months of the campaign ending. However, there are some caveats to the project. First, an ARM-based version of VLC won’t be made available for Windows RT right away, but support will eventually arrive in a future update.

The team is also concerned that the app won’t even make it in the Windows Store, due to banned API calls in the app. Either way, it’s interesting that VideoLAN is asking for funds via Kickstarter, since they’ve long relied on optional donations from users. However, they mention that radically overhauling the program’s design is hard work and takes a lot of manpower, so the team is needing more resources than usual to pull off a Windows 8 and Windows RT app. Let’s hope that they come through.

Still, we managed to download it to our Galaxy Nexus running Jelly Bean without any problems. Hardware acceleration for videos isn’t enabled by default, leading to stuttery video and decoding artifacts. Once you dive into the preferences and enable it, everything is nice and smooth, although it might not work on every device just yet. Another downside: video doesn’t fully occupy the display just yet, with the dimmed on-screen buttons still present off to the side even in landscape.

The team notes that the current version only supports phones with ARMv7 CPUs and NEON hardware support. That covers a lot of devices, but will leave some entry-level phones out in the cold. The Play Store description also details how the UI will change in the future, performance will improve, and you might run into some trouble with audio.

It’s nice to see VLC finally make the jump to Android, but there are a lot of video players already on the market with a wide range of hardware support, like BS Player, MX Player, and Dice Player. Make sure to hit up the Play Store to give VLC a whirl, but bear in mind the restrictions and maybe give some alternatives a look if you need perfect video playback on the go.

[Thanks, Armin!]

There’s a whole laundry list of fixes in VLC 2.0.2, so we won’t list them all here, but the update mainly fixes various decoder bugs on top of tweaking the interface and controls. The main thing is that the app will no longer appear blurry on Retina MacBook Pros, although you’ll still want to feed it some high definition video to get the most out of that gorgeous display.

Other apps that have been updated recently to support the Retina display include Reeder, and Blizzard’s Diablo III currently makes full use of the real estate, with further updates promised that will tweak windowed mode. Apple’s core apps also take advantage of the screen as well, with Safari rendering text and elements sharper than browsers such as Chrome.

[via Cult of Mac]

An intrepid developer over on xda-developers took it upon himself to build VLC for Android from the source code, independent from the main VLC team. It’s compatible with Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich, although whether or not it’ll work reliably on your device is entirely down to the hardware lurking inside.

Rather than listing off dozens of devices, support is hinted at via chipsets instead. Users are recommended to check Wikipedia to see exactly what kind of chip they have in their device so they can download the correct APK. There are three separate APKs for different architectures: ARM11, Cortex A8, and Cortex A9. That covers a lot of different vendor chipsets, and thus devices, so chances are you’re in luck if you want to try the app out. Here’s the full rundown on what’s supported:

• Snapdragon S1 → ARM11
• Snapdragon S2/S3 → Cortex-A8/NEON
• Snapdragon S4 → Cortex-A9
• Tegra 2 → Cortex-A9
• Hummingbird → Cortex-A8/NEON
• Exynos → Cortex-A9
• OMAP3 → Cortex-A8/NEON
• OMAP4 → Cortex-A9

If you do decide to download the unofficial VLC, be prepared for some bugs – it’s a beta after all, with flaky hardware acceleration, and certain audio codecs, like DTS, not being supported right now.

If you’re looking for a more stable experience, personally we would recommend DicePlayer, an app that’s been around on the Market for a while offering great video support, and reliable hardware decoding across a wide range of devices.

[Image credit: Androidjunkieman, YouTube]