It’s been reported that Apple has officially backed the Blu-ray Disc format and will be appointed to the Association’s Board of Directors. Blu-ray is the planned next-gen DVD format. It will allow up to 50 gigs of storage on a scratch-resistant, low-cost, encrypted DVD. Companies that support this format are, among others, Dell, HP, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita (Panasonic), Mitsubishi, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Thomson/RCA. This will not help HD DVD that is another next-gen DVD format.