Intel's 'Braidwood'--Turbo Memory done right? Much has been made lately about the trend toward solid-state drives. Now a new Intel technology, code-named Braidwood, may delay that trend, blending the performance of solid-state drives with the economy of old-style hard drives. Braidwood--like its predecessor, Intel's Turbo Memory technology (formerly code-named Robson)--is basically a solid-state cache for all the disks in the system. CNET

WiTricity: You'll be saying goodbye to power cords within a year You can't fault WiTricity for its ambition. As one of several companies looking to market emerging wireless power transmission technologies, WiTricity is making some of the boldest claims. Among the claims made by the company – that within a year wireless power will be taking the mobile electronics industry by storm. DailyTech

Seven Samurai chipmakers set to take on Intel Like an electronics industry remake of The Magnificent Seven (which is, of course, an American remake of The Seven Samurai) NEC and Renesas have teamed up with a stalwart band of companies, including Hitachi, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Panasonic, and Canon, to develop a new CPU compatible with Waseda University professor Hironori Kasahara's "innovative energy-saving software." Engadget

Not enough Facebook 'friends?' Buy them Who says you can't buy friends? An Australian online marketing company is selling friends and fans to Facebook members after offering a similar service to Twitter users. Advertising, marketing and promoting company uSocial said it was targeting social networking sites because of their huge advertising potential. Wired

Analysis: Sony's 3D TV gambit likely to fail The shiny device will undoubtedly face the same challenges as Sony's early iterations of the Playstation 3, including higher manufacturing costs and lack of supported content. Sony may also discover that the saturated market isn't as susceptible to eye-candy as it once was. TG Daily

Privacy advocates want regulation of behavioral advertising A coalition of privacy and consumer rights groups have written an open letter to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce calling for the regulation of behavioral advertising. Ars Technica