There is some interesting Blu-Ray news this morning. On two fronts to be exact. The first is the announcement by Toshiba that they are applying for membership to the Blu-Ray Association for membership.

The second is that there are rumblings that Apple may finally add Blu-Ray to their iMac systems.

Both of these could be seen as one of the harbingers of the Apocalypse but are more likely just proud and stubborn companies coming to grips with the realities of the market.

For Toshiba it comes after the loss of the "format war" between Blu-Ray and HDDVD. They killed off the format a few months ago but have not made any new moves towards Blu-Ray until now.

Apple has always claimed there was no demand for Blu-Ray but now have to finally realize that in order to compete with other system manufacturers they will need to provide this for their users. The next version of iTunes is also rumored to provide support for Blu-Ray playback.

Both moves are not expected to have any impact until 2010.

Source