Well, nurtz-- if you've been sitting around holding your breath for Apple to become the first company to ship a self-contained laptop capable of burning DVDs, you can finally exhale, because the dream is officially over. An article over at ExtremeTech notes that the title that should have gone to Apple has instead been snatched by Sony, who has just announced three new VAIO notebooks equipped with an internal DVD-R/RW drive and "new one-click DVD-creation software." We're going to tiptoe waaaaay out on a limb, here, and bet that for quality and ease of use that software's no iDVD, but if there really are people out there who need a portable DVD-recording rig, for now at least, Sony's got Apple beat.

That isn't to say, of course, that Apple won't ship a SuperDrive-equipped PowerBook eventually; it's just that it won't be first. Indeed, we've been hearing about a SuperDrive PowerBook coming "real soon now" for, well, it must be going on just about thirteen years now. So clearly it's just around the corner. If you're looking for ways to fuel your impatient optimism on the subject, O'Grady's PowerPage has a baffling sort-of-English translation of some Japanese report that SuperDrive PowerBooks are actually on the assembly lines right this very second. (At least, that's what we think it says. Ah, the joys of auto-translation...)

Eh. So Apple can't be first at everything-- no biggie. And when it comes to losing this battle in the innovation war, heck, at least it was Sony who beat them to the punch; Sony is probably the only major PC manufacturer who actually designs stuff, instead of simply assembling it. There's no shame there. (At least, not much.) But if Dell starts shipping DVD-burning Latitudes before that PowerBook sees the light of day, heads are gonna roll.

Looking on the bright side, Apple does still have the opportunity to ship the world's first DVD-burning laptop that won't incapacitate half of its owners with hernias and spinal injuries. Sony's new DVD-burning "desktop replacement" notebooks are apparently roughly the size of a desk, weighing in at approximately eight and a half pounds. Gee, does each model come with a free muscular dwarf to lug the thing around for you everywhere you go?