With Cyber Monday, the unofficial start of the Internet holiday shopping season nearing, a Senate committee Tuesday condemned three online companies, saying they are tricking consumers into signing up for subscription services they don't want.

  Design and engineering software maker Autodesk Inc. said Tuesday its business looks "increasingly stable" despite posting a sharp drop in third-quarter profit.

  Online social hub MySpace is in talks to acquire struggling free music streaming site imeem, two people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

  I upgraded to both on one machine each. Before going into the pros and cons of each, I better tell the makeup of each machine I upgraded:Windows 7: A Dell 755 Optiplex. Basic stock, additional media card reader, and extra RAM. Networked. Running XP Service Pack 3

  Cloud computing services, such as Amazon's EC2 and Google Apps, are booming.Friday's ACM Cloud Computing Security Workshop in Chicago was the first such event devoted specifically to cloud security.

  At a robotics conference last week, a vehicle called ROAMS demonstrated a cheap approach to mobile map-making.

  Wireless technology developer InterDigital Inc. said Tuesday it expects fourth-quarter revenue between $75 million and $76 million, which falls slightly below Wall Street's expectations.

  Net neutrality: Like it or loathe it, you can't deny it's a hot topic at the moment.And while Cisco's just done some research to show bandwidth hogs don't necessarily exist in the way they're portrayed, the GOP is trying to delay the FCC's vote.

  "Peer-to-peer" (P2P) is synonymous with piracy and bandwidth hogging on the Internet.But now, Internet service providers and content companies are taking advantage of technology designed to speed the delivery of content through P2P networks.

  With Amazon's Kindle, readers can squeeze hundreds of books into a device that is smaller than most hardcovers.

  The next "super" Android device will almost certainly be a HTC phone that's much thinner than even the Droid or iPhone -- The Dragon/Passion.This is the phone the senior Android guys at Google are now carrying around and testing, at least as of a couple of weeks ago.

  Software with a Better Ear for Music A music search engine being previewed this week analyzes the waveform patterns of songs to classify them.

  Windows only: We've talked about ways to portscan your computer before, but if you're looking for a simpler solution to secure your connection, free utility MyPorts shows you what open ports are being actively used and which may be unnecessary.

  Microsoft Corp. leads its industry in part because a vast army of outside computer programmers design software that only runs on its Windows operating system.