Since everyone else is talking about Wii, I thought I’d weigh in. I guess I’m a member of the group Tycho described as “people who like it because they are ‘above the fray,’” but really I think it is because I never liked “Revolution” all that much to begin with. I’ve been worried that they were going to turn the code name into the official name, as they did with the Nintendo DS (which I still think is a pretty boring name).
When I first saw it I didn’t like it because I didn’t know how to pronounce it (my first guess was “wee-eye”, like in radii). Once I got used to automatically thinking “we,” it started to grow on me. I think a year from now no one will really have a problem with the name. I mean, really, didn’t you think “iPod” was a dumb name the first time you heard it? But it seems to have worked for them and no one really questions it now.
The thing that does bother me is the grammar. Reading a sentence that begins “Wii is” just makes me want to hit someone with a third grade English book. The term is likewise distasteful as a direct object: “It’s about Wii.” I naturally want to say “It’s about Uus” or something.
One last thing- I’m going to call the controller the “wiimote.” I haven’t seen anyone say that in any of the five or six news/blog posts I’ve read about the topic. I’m so clever.