The Engadget interview: OnStar’s Nick Pudar talks smart grids at CTIA 2012 (video)

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While visiting the Innovation Showcase at CTIA 2012 , we ran into Nick Pudar -- OnStar's VP of Business Development -- who was kind enough to give us a few minutes of his time. We sat in the LTE Skype-enabled Chevy Volt on display and discussed such topics as OnStar FMV , RelayRides and smart grids -- wherein power utilities can (with the customer's consent) send a signal to a vehicle to control when it charges.

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Microsoft Research’s MirageTable brings some augmented reality to your tabletop

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We got a look at a holographic telepresence project from Microsoft Research earlier this week, but that's far from the only Kinect-enhanced rig it's working on these days. This setup dubbed a MirageTable was also shown off at the Computer-Human Interaction conference in Austin, Texas this week, offering a glimpse of one possible future where two people can interact with virtual objects on a table as if they were sitting across from each other (or simply do so on their own).

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How to Build a Bike in Postwar Britain [Video]

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As Europe rebuilt itself after WWII, the Raleigh Bicycle Company's popularity exploded—in large part because their bikes were faster, stronger, and lighter than anything else on the market. Heck, by 1946, Raleigh and other English bicycle makers were responsible for 95 percent of the bikes on American roadways. This short film explains how Raleighs were designed and built.

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Steve Blank on small startups, big execution, and Steve Jobs

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When Steve Blank talks about entrepreneurship, people listen. When he writes a book on the subject, like his latest effort with co-author Bob Dorff titled The Startup Owner’s Manual , it’s a good bet it will be on many founders’ bookshelves. Blank co-founded the CRM software company E.piphany and the video game business Rocket Science

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HP teases new Envy all-in-one printer, glass and metal dotted all over (video)

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We all love teasers, so it's rather swell that HP decided to tease its next Envy-branded all-in-one printer at the Global Influencer Summit in Shanghai -- almost two years after introducing the Envy 100 . As you can see in the above slide and the extremely brief video teaser after the break, this time round the design will feature a glass control panel, as well as a metal scan bar and a metal hinge under the scanner's see-through lid. Pretty hot, we'd say, and looking back at the Envy 14 Spectre which shares similar elements, this certainly sets a good example of how the new Printing and Personal Systems Group is already bringing a better design consistency across what used to be two different groups.

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Video Collaboration Service TenHands Launches Free Browser-Based WebEx Competitor

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As the capabilities of modern browsers expand and developing standards like Google’s WebRTC initiative for real-time communications slowly find their way into most popular browsers, we’ll likely see more video collaboration software that’s currently still client-based move to the browser as well. TenHands , which is launching its private beta today (you can request an invite here ) wants to be the first out of the gate in this market and sees itself as a direct competitor to Cisco’s WebEx , Microsoft Lync and other incumbents in this space

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IBM’s Chess-Playing Computer, Deep Blue, Celebrates 15th Birthday

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It was 15 years ago today that a computer – a conglomeration of transistors, memory, and storage media – could beat a world-class chess player. Called Deep Blue , the machine was part of a mission that culminated in IBM’s creation of a supercomputer that beat chess master Garry Kasparov two wins to one. While the concept is delightfully antiquated today (after all, IBM now makes a computer that can beat us all in Jeopardy and our phones can understand us to an extent unimagined even a decade ago), it was an important turning point in the climb down into the uncanny valley.

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Fly Or Die: Olympus OM-D E-M5

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The Olympus OM-D E-M5 is arguably the best micro four-thirds camera Olympus has to offer. We’ve had issues with past m4/3 iterations like the EP1 and EP3, like awful color reproduction and slow auto-focus.

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Total Recall ‘Mind-Bending’ Blu-ray remembers a better looking video transfer July 31st

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After a disappointing initial go-round on Blu-ray back in '06 due to poor picture quality (which was improved upon slightly in a later Studiocanal release overseas), the 1990 version of Total Recall is coming back to the US with a "Mind-Bending Blu-ray Edition this summer. Timed to hit shelves along with the remake that's arriving in theaters, Blu-ray.com mentions this one promises a video transfer process supervised by original director Paul Verhoeven

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Teehan+Lax’s ‘Do We Have Milk?’ answers the burning question with your Android phone, custom jugs (video)

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Let's face it: whether or not there's enough good milk to drink has been an ongoing problem among the technology set, which is why we're surprised that we're only now seeing true smartphone-milk integration through a project at Teehan+Lax's Labs group. As the name implies, Do We Have Milk

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