Let us first take a look at what Connect360 is. This software is designed to connect your Mac to your XBox 360 over your network to let you share music and photos. It uses your iTunes Music Library to share your music from library and you can also stream live internet radio. It can also let you view images and slideshows from your iPhoto library. This application is Universal for both old and new Apple hardware.

It costs $15 and is available from www.nullriver.com. It is also available in a limited free trial.

System requirements include having a Mac (duh), OSX.3.9 or later, Apple iLife, a network connected to the XBox and the Mac (wired or wireless).

It works with most formats including: MP3, AAC, WAV, AIFF, Apple Lossless, JPEG, RAW, GIF, BMP and TIFF. At this time video sharing is not available, but I suspect that will change as Apple continues moving into the video realm. I used the latest revision 1.7 in the full version.

Now lets look at the hardware I used for testing. My main Mac is a PowerMac G5 2.0dp with 2GB memory, 250GB system disk and 240GB RAID 0 for storage. My music and photos are stored on the RAID set. My network wiring (I don't have any wireless connections) consists of CAT 5e and I use a D-Link router. I tested with the XBox 360 Core system with memory card installed and wireless controller. My Television is a "51 Toshiba widescreen HDTV.

My network was already set up with the PowerMac and Xbox up and running. I downloaded and installed Connect360 which took only a minute or so with my fast internet connection speed. Once installed I opened it to find a very simple interface. That is a good thing in my book. It automatically found all of my libraries and activated. The XBox showed up but as "unauthorized." I checked the preferences window (the only other interface) which includes quality for photos and music, and the usual log in, updates etc. section. On the lower part of the window I found the access control panel. This is where you need to read the "Read Me" instructions. It will help you troubleshoot how to set this area and to also add your firewall, which it auto configures. After reading the instructions I found the correct settings and my Xbox showed up ready to go in my status window.

My XBox resides downstairs in my theater, so I left my Mac running and went down to check for a connection. I shuffled to the Media secftion of the Dashboard and saw that Connect360 had setup my Mac as the "Computer" to stream from. I first went to music and it showed all of my itunes music (except that from the Music Store). I prefer to buy CDs and download them so that was really of no concern. I am unsure if that will change in a later revision. I played through several songs and they sounded great, just as good as sitting at my Mac. The Visualizer works like a charm too. Next it was on to the photos. All of the Albums were split into sections and when I clicked one all of the photos inside popped up and with a thumbnail. The pictures looked fantastic! It was really neat to see them so large. I watched a slideshow I had recently created and it worked great too. Everything worked just as nullriver said it would.

If you have a network switch, you may have issues with connections as explained in the Read Me. If you run into difficulties here, as it says in the instructions, hook your Mac and Xbox directly to your router. I cannot comment on the wi-fi side of things as my network is wired, but I suspect it will work fine as music and photos do not take a lot of bandwidth. With the possibility of video on the way, I suggest a wired connection. I had no trouble getting it up and running, but depending on your setup, you may need to do a bit of work as networking usually calls for. My network server may end up taking up duties for this software. That will leave my G5 for work duties if my wife is using the XBbox for tunes or photo viewing. If you have a decent Mac with the above requirements as a dedicated server, I suggest that route as it will reduce lag and keep performance up. Remember though, this software registration allows only one Mac, so you will need to decide which one will work best for you.

The Good: It is a solution for those who wnat the connection and don't have a PC. It was really easy to set up and works like a charm. No manual music loading necessary. Seeing photos five feet long is really cool. The Bad: There is no way to serve up video....yet. It may not work when using a network switch. The Skinny: I love this software! It is so much easier than loading music by disc. It also gives a way to see the BIG picture. This is another reason to buy a new XBox 360.

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