This from TiVo's SEC filing for last quarter, which shows the company losing 314,000 subscribers in the period, capping more than year an a half of fairly steady decline. They lay claim to just 8% of the roughly 38m active DVRs in the US right now. This is not great.

The TiVo name is so common that most people don't have the sense of the turmoil behind it, but it's very, very real. TiVo's boxes, even if they are some of the best DVRs around, have started to feel stale in the past year, and for most people, cable-co-supplied boxes are simply Good Enough. Basically, they need something exciting, to customers and to TV providers, and they need it soon—that cascading cash river from Dish isn't going to flow forever. [TV By The Numbers via Crunchgear]

Granted, it's a little worrisome that Barnes & Noble was taking preorders before letting reviewers have their say, so this enforced waiting period—which was probably a planned PR stunt, like the ones that pretty much every other hardware manufacturer ever does ever time they have a new product—is a good thing. At any rate, it'll be January—well after we'll have run B&N's Android-powered ereader through its paces—before anyone who hasn't already placed their order can get one.

UPDATE: Some mild reprieve, from B&N themselves:

Barnes & Noble expects to have a limited stock of devices available in its highest-volume stores during the holiday season.

So, go, if you dare! (In a few weeks.) [B&N via Bits]

We don't know much about his prognosis, though a letter from his sister says he's "feeling OK." Allen came down with Hodgkin's Lymphoma back in 1983 and beat it, and we're all hoping he can do it again. [TechFlash]

Almost worse than the news that we'll never see this folding, hybrid LCD/E ink budget computer in the flesh is how the news was delivered: By Nick Negroponte, in a low-profile interview with Xconomy, as if it everyone already knew:

2.0 (the XO-2) has been replaced by two things: 1) model 1.75, same industrial design but an ARM inside, 2) model 3.0, totally different industrial design, more like a sheet of paper.

Right, so all those mockups, all the talk of focusing on the next generation product, all that hope, dashed, and replaced an incremental upgrade—to a faster ARM processor, from the current model's AMD Geode—and vague promises of a 3.0 product:

3.0 is a single sheet, completely plastic and unbreakable, waterproof, 1/4" thick, full color, reflective and transmissive, no bezel, no holes. 1W. $75, ready in 2012

This from the guy who just vaporized a year and a half of buildup for his last project with a passing comment, so take it with a grain of salt.

Whatever happens next—and mind you, things aren't looking too great for the project as a whole—this is a sad situation. As ambitious as the project was, and as little chance as it ever had to come to pass, it was a rare phenomenon: it was genuinely cool, tied to a reputable organization and conceived with a good cause in mind. And now it's dead. [Xconomy via OLPC News via Liliputing]

What's especially chilling, and damning if you're the type to blame the inanimate gadget, is that the iPod was still playing music when the woman was discovered. It's an awful accident, but one we should take as a warning: Listening to music while jogging is essential (at least for someone who hates jogging as much as I do), but noise-cancelling or blocking headphones are a bad idea, since they eliminate ambient noises like traffic and, well, falling trees. And as much as that hot new Beyonce song sounds great when cranked super loud, volume moderation is probably warranted. Run safe, people. Run safe. [Philadelphia Inquirer via Cult of Mac]

First, a recap: Sun Danyong's death came after a case of prototype iPhones he was charged with shipping to Apple's headquarters in Cupertino ended up short by one. Sun couldn't produce the device and claimed not to know what had happened; security officials at Foxconn, the manufacturer of Apple's iPhone and Sun's employer, didn't buy his story. At all.

In the days following the incident, Sun quite possibly went through hell. He confided in his university friends—he had just graduated—that his house had been searched repeatedly and without announcement, that he had been endlessly interrogated, that he'd been held in solitary confinement, and even that he'd been outright tortured by security guards. Soon after, he was found dead at the base of his apartment building, having fallen 14 stories. He died, one way or another, for a phone. Yeah, no, you're right: This is fucking crazy.

A common snap response is that this is just symptomatic of poor labor regulations in China, a sentiment seemingly backed up by Foxconn's tellingly honest statement on the issue:

Regardless of the reason of Sun's suicide, it is to some extent a reflection of Foxconn's internal management deficiencies, especially in how to help young workers cope with the psychological pressures of working life at the company.

They've since suspended one security guard without pay, and turned over the investigation to police. But to put this incident in that broad context isn't useful, either to explain what happened or to know how to deal with it. To a certain extent, Apple does own Sun's death, and it's almost shocking that something like this hadn't already happened.

Apple's history of secrecy is long and storied, but hardly seen as scary by itself. We spend a lot of time trying to crack it for stories, and just as much laughing at how extreme it is—even Apple's office employees in California are constantly monitored by cameras, forced to pass through absurdly complex security gates on a daily basis, carrying prototypes in black cloaks and flipping on warning lights in rooms when the cloaks are removed from the devices of idolatry.

But there's a lot at stake for Apple, so to an extent their paranoia is understandable: keeping a device like the iPhone secret keeps their strategy out of competitors' view, and more importantly ensures an all-out media eruption when it goes public on schedule. There is no more secretive company in tech, and there is no device more important to keep secret than the iPhone.

Apple's also had, since the early days, a punitive attitude towards those who betray them. Stories of Steve Jobs not giving his best friend and early employee Dan Kottke pre-IPO stock because of disagreements, or banning difficult journalists from having access to the company's products or briefings come to mind. (Disclaimer: But not all.) I'm hardly saying that killing is in the character of the company, but there has sometimes been a price to pay for crossing Apple.

This ethos becomes dangerous when combined with billions of dollars and the dubious values at Chinese manufacturing companies like Foxconn, which've placed profit above human rights in the past. —Note: Foxconn is headquartered in Taiwan, but does the vast majority of manufacturing in China—specifically at the 270,000-employee plant in Shenzhen.

Foxconn may be huge, but they're not unique, and if they can't keep Apple's hardware plans quiet, it's easy to imagine another manufacturing conglomerate stealing their contracts worth untold billions. It's a scary and very real threat to a solid business relationship, and a subtly tyrannical one.

But the stakes are much higher at Foxconn's campus (to use a generous word) than at Apple's. If an Apple employee leaks a product, he could lose his job, and Apple would lose what amounts to some free advertising—after all, leaks aren't a bad way to build buzz either. If a Foxconn employee does the same, he endangers thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in contracts and a vital relationship for his company. That's an unrealistically, recklessly high responsibility to ask each employee—Sun and his alleged torturer—to shoulder. Imagine yourself in Sun's shoes: You have just lost a prototype of the world's most coveted gadget, built by the world's most unforgivingly secretive electronics maker. Would you like your life to be hung against the balance of billions of dollars, in a country with lax labor laws and a history of running its citizen over with tanks?

But wait, Apple says, let us be clear:

We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death. We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect.

They require every last line worker to keep secrets worth billions of dollars; they require Foxconn bosses to make sure these employees keep their mouths shut; they require that suppliers treat their workers well. Of those, requirement they're most willing to talk openly about also sound the most like an afterthought, and to "require" something doesn't necessarily mean you really expect it.

(As an aside, who's to say that the case didn't leave China with all the devices, and through the many handlers in the shipping and airline companies, ahem, lose a little weight during the complicated transit? And why weren't such valuable prototypes delivered by hand? Art museums do this, and they don't even have industrial spies to deal with.)

Rightly or not, Sun was the only guy Foxconn felt it could hold accountable for the mess it found itself in, a judgment which probably cost him his life, and which his employer felt tremendous pressure to make. But this scenario could have easily been foreseen, and the matter of how much human risk Apple calculated it could take before a 25-year-old man ended up dead is at least as important a question as how they respond to it.

[Photo from Southern Metropolis Daily and The Brisbane Times]

Reports say that 25-year-old Sun Danyong was subjected to brutal treatment—including torture—by Foxconn security after a shipment of prototype iPhones turned up at Apple's door one device short. A few days later, he plummeted 14 stories from his apartment, dying instantly—an event that was apparently caught on camera.

The murder investigation and treatment of the case as an "apparent suicide" is probably just a formality, since the circumstances of the case—which, if they've been accurately represented—haven't changed, but to hear that Chinese official actually have footage of the incident and are still cautious to call it a suicide is strange, to say the least. Foxconn's alleged poor treatment of its workers, and by proxy, Apple's incredible demands for secrecy, are under tremendous scrutiny as—needless to say, if this turns out to be anything worse than what was first reported, it'll be huge. [Register]

The New York Observer got this internal staff memo today from NYT deputy managing editor Bill Schmidt to the newsroom, telling them: 1. Do NOT make international calls on your company-issued cell phones and Blackberries; 2. Do not call 411; 3. Please try not to send text messages.

Although we recognize that texting has become an indispensable means of communication for many people, our basic company plans with Verizon and AT&T do not provide for unlimited texting. A lot of texting costs us a lot of money, whether as a per-message fee or as an unlimited-message add-on.

So please use discretion when deciding to send a text, especially if a voice call or e-mail would get your message to the recipient equally well. Do not use Twitter via text messages; install a client like Twitterberry on your phone instead. Do not send picture or video messages ("MMS") from company phones except for work purposes. And do not text from overseas.

Good lord, you are a newspaper company in the communications business, NYT. Jesus Christ you guys are broke. I think I pay about $5 a month for unlimited text messages, and I don't even have a massive corporate account.
Next staff memo: Did you know you can walk right into TD Bank and pick up as many free pens as you want? Please do so!
[NYO. Pic via]

Heather Storey's small car was hit by a tow truck. She would've survived the accident if her laptop had not been lying in the backseat, according to investigators. When she was hit by the truck, the laptop flew forward and crashed into the back of her head and neck, ultimately killing her.

I always put my laptop in a bag on the floor, but mostly because I want the seat space to store other crap, which could just as easily fly around and make bad things happen if I was hit. It's a sad reminder you should always secure gadgets and stuff in your car, whether it's a laptop or a heavy book. [CBC Image: Meera Bains/CBC, Thanks Alex]

Wow. Really. Just. It makes my head hurt. [Ed Yourdon/Flickr]

Flight Simulator debuted in 1982, making it one of the longest-running continuous franchises in the gaming industry. Both barely a game and so much more, Flight Simulator was an experience, and one of the first things on a computer that truly astonished me. I was flying (and crashing!) a real plane, really (virtually)! And all on my piece-of-crap Packard Bell that made me jealous of my friends' Gateways, which ran way better than my computer for reasons I didn't understand at the time.

So, what was your first Flight Simulator memory? [Gamasutra via Kotaku]

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The Price: $250

The Verdict: I'm pretty sure it works. Unlike normal things we review, which can (for the most part) be expressed quantitatively, a device that raises your mood is by nature, subjective. But this little blue clock has noticeably eliminated my seasonally-created low energy, low mood and a general sluggishness in the past few weeks.

The goLITE is supposed to be placed about 15 degrees off center to where your attention is—the monitor, in our case. You use one of the four brightness settings for somewhere between 15-30 minutes (or more if you like) every day in order to simulate the missing sun. The light works through your eyes, which explains why it needs to be in your field of view. Even at the lowest setting, this thing is bright as hell, so avoid looking directly at it.

Whether or not I'm actually feeling better because the blue light's rays are working or it's just me and the placebo effect wanting myself to feel better, I don't know. But there are other reviews out there that say that it works. And I believe this does. My energy is up, I don't feel as depressed, and as a result, I don't feel like I'm trudging through the day.

The $250 price tag may seem like quite a bit to pay for something you only use 30 minutes a day, but think of it like this. We buy electronics all the time in order to give ourselves and emotional boost; the goLite is one that's actually designed for that purpose. [Light Therapy and Amazon]

No wonder so many users are clinging to XP like shipwrecked sailors to a life raft, while others who made the upgrade are switching back. And when the fastest Vista notebook PC World has ever tested is an Apple MacBook Pro, there's something deeply wrong with the universe.

And why should they? XP just got a major speed bump in its latest Service Pack update. [pcworld]

Oh, and a note to people mad about the Mac joke, the iPhone came in at #5.

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Geeks, it's up to us. We need to bite this Star Wars toy stuff in the bud ASAP, lest our children and children's children think Darth Vader is nothing more than a flashlight, dust buster or some other mundane marketing scheme. Unfortunately, this one is already sold out. [ubergizmo]