BluRay coming to Macs next month via iTunes 9?

BGR has a report this weekend that the next version of iTunes, conveniently released in September with the new iPod lineup, will include BluRay support, perhaps coinciding with some new Mac hardware with BluRay drives.  They also report that the new iTunes will allow you to visually arrange the way iPhone and iPod touch apps appear on the screen of the devices.  Lastly, there will be some sort of Twitter/Facebook/Last.fm integration.

BluRay has been rumored on iMacs for over a year and even has made brief appearances in iTunes credits. Steve Jobs previously called BluRay licensing a "bag of hurt" in response to questions on why Apple wasn’t employing BluRay players in their hardware, however licensing for the technology has become simpler and cheaper recently.  It is also interesting that iTunes would support BluRay rather than the current DVD Player app which has got a pretty significant upgrade coming with Snow Leopard.  Up until now it seemed like Apple was avoiding the BluRay scene altogether, opting for its customers to get their HD content from iTunes downloads.

It will also be interesting to see, if this rumor is true, if Apple supports any of the many 3rd party BluRay options available on the Mac.