Even ardent admirers of Lance Armstrong have been rattled by the intricacy and depth -- more than 1,000 pages rife with the testimony of former teammates -- of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) charges against him. Long-time sponsors such as Anheuser-Busch and Nike have stuck by him, however. Now Nike's well-burnished name is under fire as bribery allegations by the wife of an Armstrong ex-teammate -- who heard them second-hand from a mechanic -- have surfaced.

Red Bull was more than just along for the ride Sunday when Felix Baumgartner successfully touched down on Earth after a jump of 128,000 feet in a mere space suit. Some observers are telling us that sponsorship boundaries were also shattered along with the sound barrier, which was officially known as Red Bull Stratos. Folks watched on YouTube (more than 8 million livestreams), followed in the tweetosphere, and later caught up with the feat on blogs, traditional news broadcasts and print articles.

Microsoft's "all in one solution" for consumers who want to access their music wherever they are on whatever device they're using has begun an extended rollout that starts streaming on Xbox 360 Tuesday, launches in earnest with the debut of Windows 8 on Oct. 26 and will, over the course of the next year, move from devices running its own PC, tablet and mobile operating systems to those using iOS and Android.

Talk about a game changer: a nearly $13 billion bid for 70% of Sprint Nextel by the Japanese phone and Internet company Softbank could "transform" the mobile market in the U.S., the "Wall Street Journal" reports, by providing capital for the lagging No. 3 carrier to not only build its next-generation network but also to buy pesky smaller fry that "compete aggressively on price."

A new motor vehicle is on the way for consumers envious of motorcycles zipping by them in traffic crawls but a little fearful of tipping over on a turn and a lot fearful of getting caught in a downpour. Plus, it will park where even Smart Cars dare not squeeze. Did we mention that it has a range of about 200 miles on an electric charge, which will cost about a buck, gets up to 60 mph in about six seconds and can get as high as 120 mph, for wherever that will get you (besides traffic court).

It's a test, and only a test, but Wal-Mart is trying out a same-day delivery service called Walmart To Go in northern Virginia, Philadelphia and Minneapolis and will expand to San Francisco and San Jose by this time next month. In effect, it's lobbing one of Amazon's grenades -- its own test of same-day delivery some markets -- back into its trench and following up with an artillery shell. If it works.

Say what you want about Michael Bloomberg's initiative to ban the sale of some sodas in containers larger than 16 oz. in some venues in New York City, the proposal last spring got a lot of people talking across the country, the blogosphere and yap-TV. And it got the beverage industry acting, too, it would appear.

It's one of the Internet's dirty but not-so-little or secret success stories and we're not talking pornography or gambling. When it comes to drugs, you can get just about anything you want -- licit or illicit -- but the Food and Drug Administration has moved against one of the largest purported online operators, Canada Drugs, which the "Wall Street Journal" reported in July had shipped counterfeit versions of Avastin, Roche Holding's cancer-fighting drug, to doctors in the U.S.

News reports about American Airlines' labor dispute with pilots, which has resulted a spotty on-time record and outright flight cancelations due to sickouts and an increase in maintenance reports, have certainly caught a lot of traveler's attention in recent weeks. Then there was the jolting bankruptcy filing of parent company AMR Corp. nearly a year ago, an event that had wistful shareholders and road warriors alike reminiscing of the glory days under the autocratic but quality-obsessed Bob Crandall (see below). Throw in the ongoing merger or takeover rumors, and the attendant fear of higher ticket prices and fewer flying choices, …

A deal between T-Mobile, the No. 4 mobile carrier, and No. 5 MetroPCS could be announced as early as today if some "significant issues" are "finalized," according to T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom AG. So what do you get when you "combine two subscale struggling competitors?," as Macquarie Securities analyst Kevin Smithen puts it. Not a "credible long-term competitor," he tells the AP.