It was a surprisingly rumor-filled Saturday, as both AppleInsider and Boy Genius Report weighed in with hints of a future iMac revision and capabilities expected for iTunes 9. Aside from finally giving users the ability to manage iPhone application order on the desktop (thank goodness), the new version of Apple's media player app is rumored to include Blu-ray playback capability; this brings the technology once referred to as a "bag of hurt" by Steve Jobs onto the Mac platform in earnest.

While AI doesn't zero in on Blu-ray as one of the two cryptically-hinted iMac features, it does seem likely. AI also suggests that one of the ways Apple is going to pay for enhanced hardware features on the iMac line is by squeezing the profit pump of the iPhone line, with margins that put the computer business to shame.

Over at TechCrunch, they've poked around in the rather surprising (from an anti-trust perspective, anyway) Google & Apple no-poaching agreement, where the two companies made efforts not to cold-call each other's engineers for job opportunities. At Fortune/BrainstormTech, there's a report from everyone's favorite financial analyst Gene Munster that points toward the 'iPod mega' style of Apple tablet, again looking like it would be available close to the holiday shopping season.

The Google story continues to percolate in other directions, as David Pogue points out the forthcoming, full-featured web app version of the Google Voice service for iPhone; like the Latitude app, it will be implemented in Safari; maybe not as good as it would have been, but certainly higher profile. Among the Google apps remaining on the store, the Google Mobile app was updated to include "did you say?" search checking for voice search.

As we do every Sunday, we'll be diving into these stories and more on the weekly talkcast, 10 pm ET on Talkshoe. You can download last week's show, featuring Christina and the gang, from Talkshoe or subscribe in iTunes.

Recording support for the talkcast is provided by Call Recorder from ecamm networks.

Toast is the granddaddy of CD burning apps nowadays, an act that itself has become relatively obsolete (between iPods, internet radios, FM tuners, and streaming services, do we even really need to put media on a physical format anymore?). Roxio isn't sitting back with their software, though: they've released Toast 10 at MacWorld this week, and they are doing their best to stay on your Mac, whether you use your CD burner or not. They added streaming back in Toast 9, but 10 brings with it the ability to extract and control almost any sound or video that comes through your computer, from DVD footage to web video, exported out to TiVo, your Mac, your iPod, or anywhere else that plays it.

The app is available right now on the website for $79.99 (after a $20 mail-in rebate), or they're offering a "Pro" version that comes with SonicFire Pro (that you can use to piece soundtracks together), Bias SoundSoap SE (which will wipe hums and static from recordings), FotoMagico (slideshows from pictures), and LightZone (photo editor and enhancer), as well as a plug-in for Toast that will let you author Blu Ray and HD DVD discs. All that comes together for $130 (after a $20 mail-in rebate).

Whew. Despite the fact that almost no one is routinely burning CDs or DVDs these days, Roxio seems to be going all out to make sure there's still a need for Toast.

[via Ars]

Macworld's Jim Dalrymple reports that Psystar, the makers of legally-contested Mac clones, are offering Blu-ray drives for its products.

Two Blu-ray burners can be added to Psystar's Open and OpenPro line of computers, a $310 6x Blu-ray burner, and a $350 6x Blu-ray burner that includes a 16x DVD±RW DL drive. It appears that both can be added to a single system.

Apple has not added Blu-ray to any of its products, and Steve Jobs called the licensing terms for the technology a "big bag of hurt," though Apple is on the board of directors of the Blu-ray Disc Association trade group. Aftermarket, external Blu-ray burners are available for Mac around $450, and internal burners for Mac Pro start around $370. External players start around $270.

Psystar is in the midst of litigation with Apple surrounding its inclusion of Mac OS X with its line of clones.

The rumor mill is heating up this weekend in advance of Tuesday's press event, and one left-field rumor is coming from a familiar, yet unlikely source: Weblogs Inc./Mahalo founder and TUAW godfather Jason Calacanis, who dropped a mild bombshell in an interview with a CNET.uk blogger on Friday (yo, JC, where's the love?): Apple is developing HDTVs that will support streamed content from iTunes, says Calacanis, integrating the Apple TV functionality along with the display and tuner.

I would file this one under "signs unclear, ask again later" -- while Apple clearly has both the display and playback engineering already done (Cleve @ 9to5Mac suggests that "[t]echnologically speaking, Apple could probably put together [this] product in a three day weekend") it's not clear that a single-box product is that much more compelling than an Apple TV with a cheap HDTV. Then again, the magic of Apple integration could make the whole a stronger sell than the sum of its parts.

Word from London, meanwhile, reported via Edible Apple: star rumormonger and Digg founder Kevin Rose announced his expectation that the next round of MacBook laptops will feature Blu-ray drives onboard. This one rates a "probable" and certainly would be a great value differentiator for the new machines.

Lastly, as the NVIDIA-related reports continue, AppleInsider and PC Perspective are stating with high confidence that the new MacBooks will be the first to move away from the Intel integrated graphics chipset and onto the Nvidia MCP79 'system on a chip' platform. Intel processors will still be at the core of the laptops, but the NVIDIA chip will handle graphics, memory access and more. Interestingly, one of the purported features of the NVIDIA hardware is full Blu-ray functionality... ties in nicely with the Rose rumor above. Call it "more than likely."

[via Techmeme]