If you’re still hiding your bulky PS3 BD remote under the couch, or sticking all sorts of PSX/PS2 USB adaptors into your system with duct tape and optimism, you will now have a much sleeker Blu-ray control option. Sleeker, sexier, and…phonier. Netblender has created a software development kit for the iPhone (by meta-using the newly released Apple SDK) which will allow the already much-more-than-a-cell to communicate with Blu-ray players. The SDK, called BD Touch, is available in two flavors: “Connect” for standard app creation, and “Premium Blend/In” for more enterprising developers.

Some of the “endless possibilities” Netblender claims BD Touch will make realities are: transferring digital copies of your Blu-ray movies from the main menu directly to the iPhone, offering film suggestions based on the movies in your library (“I see you’ve been watching Fight Club…”), immediately connecting to sites or trivia about the film you’re watching, and (one of the more interesting), “turning existing Blu-ray discs into games that use the iPhone as the game controller.” Game developers must be one of their target demographics, as the comparison continues in their explanation of the “Premium Blend/In” version’s capabilities: “Connect multiple iPhones to a Blu-ray disc simultaneously, similar to multiple game-system controllers.”

One of the coolest and scariest images in my mind is this gaming focus turning into an analogy like iPhone::PS3 as GBA::Gamecube. Transport your iPhone Spore creature to your PS3 Spore world! A fun reward in theory, but easily exploited into a punishment for non-iPhone owners where unlockables that would have previously been included on the game itself become bonuses for only those that own both. Of course, this is a mostly unfounded fear until Sony buys Apple (haha) or finds some way to profit directly from iPhone sales. An iPhone-as-headset connection may be interesting, or using the keypad to chat or send messages on Home (if it’s ever actually released). Considering all of the features the iPhone brings to the table, this casual partnership will definitely benefit the PS3 and its developers. And those upper tier of us who could afford an iPhone and PS3, with money left over to buy any applications that come from this.