15,000 songs with your Xbox 360

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

This is great gaming news. Er ...

"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.

"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.

and why wouldnt Apple want the Ipod to connect with the 360?