That title sounds so bad. After having it sit in a box for five days while he worked on various publishing deadlines, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz finally hooked up his very own, personal Wii gaming system. This article contains his first impressions.

Read this Computing Unplugged article.

With its ever-increasing popularity, the BlackBerry Pearl seems to have done exactly what it set out to do–prove that BlackBerry can do more than just email. The device is not only stylish but is efficient and functional. Proporta has therefore increased the number of products that it carries to protect it by releasing their Crystal, Silicon, and Aluminum cases for the Pearl, as well as a desktop cradle.

Alienware–the leading manufacturer of high-performance desktop, notebook and professional systems–continues to make inroads into the federal market by naming Westwood Computer an official reseller of all Alienware products, reinforcing the company’s commitment to providing the most comprehensive solutions for federal workers. Westwood’s clients include the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps. Alienware’s desktop and mobile systems deliver specially-tailored solutions to a broad range of clients working with applications for simulations, modeling, GIS mapping and CAD rendering in the office and in the field. Custom-built with the industry’s most advanced technology, Alienware systems allow users to access and unlock the full capabilities of even the most intense applications.

AccuWeather.com announced the launch of the AccuWeather.com Travel Weather forecast page, a unique content area that offers customers the opportunity to plan travel based on interstate weather conditions, departure and destination forecasts, and insight from exclusive video forecasts. Released just in time for upcoming spring breaks, AccuWeather.com’s Travel Weather offers a variety of exclusive features to keep users prepared for the effects of weather on their traveling plans.

Sharp has developed a widescreen Windows Mobile-based PDA for a new Japanese cellular carrier that will begin service next month. The EM-One is compatible with EMobile’s high-speed third-generation data service that will launch on March 31 and offer download speeds of up to 3.6Mbps. Also packed into the device is 802.11b/g wireless LAN, Bluetooth and a tuner for Japan’s mobile digital television broadcasts. A full qwerty keyboard slides out from behind the display for typing, and the device also sports a camera.

MadZ Software announces the release of version 1.0 of its DVD to Zune Video Converter software. DVD to Zune Video Converter 1.0 rips DVD video files and converts them into WMV format so that they can then be uploaded to and played on a Microsoft Zune. Just connect your Zune to your computer as you normally do, and instantly the converted video files will be uploaded to your player. With DVD to Zune Video Converter, you can convert almost all DVDs for play on a Microsoft Zune. For multilanguage DVDs, you can even choose which soundtrack language to convert. You also have full control over which titles and chapters are converted. Also, you can control the output format such as cropping mode, e.g., letter box, panscan.

What to do if you don’t want to be left in the dark by the changes to DST this year. As confusing as the beginning of daylight-saving time can be in general, it will be even more confusing this year to the IT managers who have to make sure that their companies’ computing systems aren’t left in the dark by a new schedule. The United States will enter DST at 2 a.m. local time March 11–three weeks earlier than nearly all computer hardware and software written since 1986 are expecting. And DST 2007 will end one week later than this hardware and software expect–at 2 a.m. local time Nov. 4. These changes were mandated by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. It’s impossible to predict exactly what problems the DST changes will cause, but it’s likely that there will be a few missed meetings and issues with some time-sensitive transactions. For many users, the biggest problems will be that meetings scheduled through Microsoft’s Outlook and other calendaring programs may appear to start an hour earlier than actually planned. And some all-day events may appear to span two days if calendaring programs misinterpret the start and end time of a meeting.

Verizon Wireless and Palm announced the availability of the Treo 700wx smartphone running Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 5.0 with Direct Push Technology, adding another choice to Palm’s current EVDO product offerings for Verizon Wireless customers. The Treo 700wx smartphone combines broadband-like speeds on Verizon Wireless’ high-speed network with wireless email and rich media capabilities all in one.

Lexar has introduced two new professional-grade flash memory card readers designed to deliver increased download speeds from the card to a computer. One reader features a new and unique industrial design and is fully compatible with two new flash card interface standards: UDMA (Ultra Direct Memory Access) CompactFlash, a high-performance flash memory protocol based on the CompactFlash form factor, and SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity), a memory standard that supports capacities of 4GB and higher in the Secure Digital form factor. The second reader is an upgrade to Lexar’s already-existing stackable model that allows for concurrent download of information from multiple flash memory cards.

Lexar has introduced Professional UDMA (Ultra Direct Memory Access) memory cards, the latest addition to the company’s Professional line of high-performance cards. When paired with a UDMA-enabled device, such as Lexar’s new Professional FireWire 800 Reader, UDMA cards improve the professional photographer’s digital imaging experience by reducing the time needed to download captured images to a destination computer. Speed-rated at 300x, or capable of a minimum sustained write speed of 45MB per second, and available in capacities of 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB, new Lexar Professional UDMA cards deliver a 125% performance improvement over Lexar’s previous generation 133x CompactFlash product line when the card is used with a UDMA-enabled device.