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Open source VLC media player adds native support for Apple's M1 Macs

VLC and Microsoft Edge come to Apple's Macs with M1 Arm-based system on chips.
Written by Liam Tung, Contributing Writer

Open source media player VLC got a huge update this week, including native support for Apple's Arm-based silicon for new M1 Macs. 

The update should allow owners of Apple's new Macs to experience VLC at full performance rather having the app running through Apple's Rosetta 2 translator

VLC is a popular cross-platform media player. While Rosetta 2 delivers decent performance for apps compiled for x86 Intel processors but on Arm hardware, Microsoft Office apps launch about 20 seconds slower on in the initial launch

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Remote-working video app Zoom recently added native support for Apple's Arm-based chips for Macs. Zoom, however, was a 'Universal' binary, meaning it supports both Apple's Arm silicon and Macs with Intel chipsets with the same executable.     

As 9to5Mac notes, VLC is not a universal binary, so there is one version for for Intel-based Macs and another for M1 Arm-based Macs. M1 is the first iteration of Apple's Arm-based chips for Macs. 

That also means an additional step. Once users update the VLC app for macOS to version 3.0.12, they need to check for updates again and install version 3.0.12.1 – the version that's compiled for ARM machines.

Other key updates include a fix for audio distortion when starting playback on macOS, a fix for crashes with Windows Direct3D video filters, and support for the Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) open-source protocol, as well as improvements on macOS Big Sur.  

Separately, Microsoft has released its new Chromium-based Edge browser with support for Apple's M1 processor.   

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"Starting today, you can download your Microsoft Edge Insider channel of choice with native macOS ARM64 support! Head to our Insider website to download Canary, Dev, or Beta to see how it runs, and let us know what you think."

The beta version of Edge for macOS with Apple silicon can be installed from Microsoft's website.  

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