15,000 songs with your Xbox 360

by Alan Rose { Oct 3rd 2005 at 10:30PM }

A major iPod public demonstration without Steve Jobs?? And by Microsoft, no less. Quick, someone call Cupertino!
iLounge has been kind enough to translate German site Heise Online's coverage of the London event that showcased the Xbox 360's ability to interface with the world's most popular portable music player. In short, the iPod can be plugged into one of the 360's USB ports for MP3 and WAV playback during games (we knew this), but not the iTunes AAC music format - which would probably throw a wrench into Microsoft's own "PlaysForSure" campaign (if this whole iPod thing hasn't already). The 360 can also display the iPod's digital photos in a slide show while playing music, but cannot locally store any data or play back movie files from its new little friend. Any bets Apple's working on a firmware update as we speak?

[Thanks, ccockerill]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Einhanderkiller @ Dec 18th 2005 10:03PM

Wasn't this already demonstrated at that GC 2005 thingy?

http://digg.com/gaming/GC_2005:_Xbox_Live_Demonstration_

OTAM @ Dec 18th 2005 10:03PM

I'm glad I can play music off of media devices rather than loading up the Xbox harddrive with music,makes my life a whole lot easier.

Jason @ Dec 18th 2005 10:03PM

The source might want to double-check where he got his info from.

It was previously stated that it *would* play AAC files, but *not* the protected AAC. In other words, if you rip songs yourself to AAC in iTunes, you're fine. If it's a song you bought off the iTunes Music Store, not so much.

bangfalse @ Dec 18th 2005 10:03PM

How could Apple patch the Firmware to not allow the Xbox 360 to access the iPod? It just works as a USB hard drive... even if they changed the database format (which they haven't yet, and seems unlikely to happen in the future), the 360 would still be able to use the tags in the audio files to get information about the music on it. Oh, and I'd bet good money that if Apple was willing to license FairPlay to other companies, Microsoft would have a license for the 360 so people could listen to everything on their iPod, since it helps them sell more units, which helps move more Live! subscriptions and games.

Also don't forget that all PlaysForSure players, as well as pretty much any device that supports Media Transfer Protocol or USB Mass Storage, such as digital cameras and external hard drives, will also be supported by the 360 for music and picture playback. Also, Windows computers will be supported through the UPnP service provided by Windows Media Connect. Hopefully, if the support isn't there already, they'll have support for playback of video off of these devices too. Because of the built-in DVD player and Media Center Extender, we know that the Xbox 360 supports at least MPEG2 and WMV9 natively, so hopefully they'll unlock that support to work without a Media Center Edition PC.

All-in-all, though, the Xbox 360 looks like it has some pretty good extra media features above-and-beyond the gaming features.

OTAM @ Dec 18th 2005 10:03PM

I'm just commenting to say,that faceplate is badass,that's the one i've wanted since I saw it.

ill trooper @ Dec 18th 2005 10:03PM

I'm thinking that since the iPod has to be connected, the Xbox360 is accessing information, playing the songs, and pulling the audio signal through the cable, but not really infringing on anything Apple has going on with the file types or iPod 'infringible technology." Rather like a Bose table-top stereo that now supports the iPod.

If you know me around here, you'll aready know I'm a car-carrying Apple cult member, so thinking Apple might be sitting around concocting some crazy way to prevent this from working makes me shudder - I hope Apple doesn't alienate people once again by stopping something that is only another angle supporting the iPod ANYWAY.

jacob @ Dec 18th 2005 10:03PM

Dont see this happening.
For one most products that work with ipods now have a sticker that says "made for ipod".
Jobs is not going to let this slip by.
And it wont really hurt apples sales not everyone wants a xbox360.
How come microsoft cant develope their own mp3 player instead of always depending on others?

Sloopydrew @ Dec 18th 2005 10:03PM

This is great gaming news. Er ...

Whuh? @ Dec 18th 2005 10:03PM

"How come microsoft cant develope their own mp3 player instead of always depending on others?"

Microsoft is not like Sony or Apple, they don't make electronic stuff beside the Xbox. Microsoft is a software company.

metal_gear_jello @ Dec 18th 2005 10:03PM

"Microsoft is not like Sony or Apple, they don't make electronic stuff beside the Xbox. Microsoft is a software company."

They make mice and keyboards.

It's just that MS can't compete with the iPod. they know this as well as other MP3 makers. So they won't even bother making their own mp3 player.