I recently traveled from LHR to DXB on the A380 in Y. You can most certainly use the iPod to play your music. I just quickly tried mine for ..... and giggles. All you have to do is enable your iPod to be in "disk" mode, it gets recognized by the ICE system, which then takes you through the options.

It's simple enough, most people should be able to figure it out. The process is also explained in the inflight guide. I think.

Though, to be honest, I would rather just listen to the music directly from the iPod. The USB thing is only ever useful for me if I want to play any movies from my WD external HD. But then again, ICE usually has enough new movies to keep me occupied without having to break out my own entertainment anyways.