TiVo is beloved by users for its thoughtfully designed digital video recorder. But in the gadget press, it's more beloved for its Perils-of-Pauline drama. Can TiVo survive in the face of el-cheapo DVR boxes that cable and satellite rent to subscribers for a low monthly fee? In the glass-half-full camp is ZDNet, which approvingly quotes analysts saying that TiVo's deals with pay-TV companies like Comcast and Cox will keep it alive. In the glass-half-empty camp is Gizmodo, which says that TiVo's new Series 3 DVR is way overpriced at $799, and doesn't deliver much more than the high-definition recorders cable companies already offer.

The most serious charge: TiVo is messing with perfection by rearranging the buttons on its vaunted remote control. Longtime TiVo fans are giving a thumbs-down to a change that makes the channel and volume controls less convenient. It hardly seems as serious as, say, losing millions of future DirecTV subscribers, but alienating hardcore TiVoids who are willing to shell out $799 for a DVR hardly seems like a smart move.