The silly name game
It's official: last week's overriding theme in tech was silliness.
Not only was Jesus earmarked as "the next killer app" by CNET News.com, but in a startling, "surely it's too late for April fooling" announcement, Nintendo declared that its newest gaming console, previously called "Revolution", was to be launched under the name "Wii".
According to a statement from the company, the product "has a distinctive 'ii' spelling that symbolises both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play". Hmm. General rule: if a product name is a homophone of a bodily excretion, it may be subject to mockery. Well, just a wee bit.
In light of the arrival of Wii -- talk of which streamed steadily through the Web over the weekend -- let's take a look at some of the sillier names for tech products and standards.
Bluetooth
Whenever you see a small child with teeth stained blue from sucking on an Icy Pole, do you not think to yourself "mobile connectivity"?
MacBook Pro
The laptop Ronald McDonald uses to blog about his adventures with the Hamburglar in Fryland.
Thrustmaster gaming accessories
I'm sorry to invoke Beavis and Butthead, but... "Uhuhuhuhuhuh".
Razr/Slvr
Someone in the higher echelons at Motorola is a big fan of Wheel of Fortune.
Qosimo
Great to use when you're flying on Qantas to Qatar.
BlackBerry
Harnessing the technology of Ribena to provide push e-mail to enterprise users.
All this tech silliness appears to have affected my brain. The other night I was speaking to a friend who recently became a father, and he received a text from his wife to say the baby was having a "last feed" for the night. I immediately responded with "Your baby has RSS?!"