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New ticket to Harvard and MIT: An Internet connection

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology today launched an initiative to make its education material available online for free.

Through an initiative called edX, the two storied learning institutions will develop an open-source software platform and offer some of their courses online starting this fall. Harvard and MIT will govern the not-for-profit joint venture and dedicate $30 million each in grants and institutional support.

With edX, Harvard and MIT are seeking to learn about online education to enhance how they offer classes online, both to remote students and students on campus, university officials said at a press conference … Read more

NQ Mobile nabs former Microsoft, Samsung exec

NQ Mobile continues to stock up on talent from Samsung Electronics.

The latest executive to join the mobile-security provider is Gavin Kim, previously the general manager of product marketing for Microsoft's Windows Phone team. Prior to that, he served as vice president of content, services, and enterprise business with Samsung Mobile. He will serve as chief product officer for NQ Mobile.

The move marks a reunion of sorts, as he re-teams with former Samsung executive and current NQ Mobile co-CEO Omar Khan, as well as communications director Kim Titus, who also worked at Samsung. Kim will help Khan work … Read more

Need to learn stats? Online Coursera has you covered

Startup Coursera today announced it has raised $16 million and will expand its curriculum, a sign of how interest in online learning technology is heating up.

Silicon Valley venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers funded the company which was started by two Stanford University professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng.

Coursera offers online classes from Princeton University, Stanford, University of Michigan, and the University of Pennsylvania.

The classes are structured as videos between 10 and 15 minutes, punctuated with short quizzes and auto-graded exercises to help students grasp the material.

Coursera is part of … Read more

How education apps have become a priority for AT&T

Developers with education app ideas will find a sympathetic ear at AT&T.

The company plans to spur the development of apps that will help improve the state of education, and is planning an education-centric "hackathon" contest in June to find the smartest apps. The idea is to bring the Internet, video, social media, and the concept of "gamification" to the learning process.

It's part of a broader push by AT&T to improve the quality of education, and is a big personal cause for CEO Randall Stephenson. The company said today it … Read more

Khan Academy hires Google's first employee

When you're the first hire at a company, your name is guaranteed to figure as a historical footnote.

Even more so when the company happens to be Google and you had a helping hand in the creation of the company's signature product. So it was that word came out today that Google's first employee, Craig Silverstein, is joining the ranks of the Khan Academy, a not-for-profit educational organization.

Considered one of the key figures behind the growth of the then nascent startup -- not the least of his involvement being his collaboration with Sergey Brin and Larry … Read more

How NQ Mobile plans to make a name for itself in the U.S.

Have you heard of NQ Mobile? Neither have I.

Founded in 2005, the Beijing-based company is actually an established provider of mobile security, but has nearly zero visibility in the U.S. Earlier this month, it tapped former Samsung Electronics executive Omar Khan as its new co-CEO, as part of a broader attempt to make a splash and remake the company's image.

NQ's software is probably the most widely used security software you've never heard of. The company's mobile applications, for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, boasts 122 million customers in more than 100 countries, although … Read more

MIT open-sources online learning

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology started giving away the content of its courses over the Web 10 years ago. Now it plans to give away its online learning software, too.

The university today launched MITx, an initiative to provide students with a certification for taking MIT-taught classes online through a software platform MIT plans to make open-source.

Anyone with an Internet connection can take classes through the software system, which is expected to be released in the spring of 2012. Students who are able to "demonstrate mastery of the material" through online tests can get credentials for what … Read more

Samsung taps ex-Sprint exec for product innovation

Samsung Electronics has appointed a former Sprint Nextel executive to help its U.S. mobile arm plan and launch new phones.

Samsung tapped Kevin Packingham as its new senior vice president of product innovation, the company said today.

Packingham was most recently chief executive of Amerilink Telecom, a small private company created to usher Chinese equipment manufacturer Huawei in as a vendor to Sprint Nextel, Packingham's former employer. Sprint, however, ended up going with Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, and Samsung, and shunning Huawei due to security concerns expressed by legislators.

Packingham had a considerably longer stint at Sprint, where he served … Read more

Samsung loses key mobile executive to Citigroup

Omar Khan, the face of many of Samsung's U.S. mobile events, is leaving for Citigroup.

Khan, who was the head of products and technology for Samsung's U.S. mobile division and the main pitchman for its many smartphones and tablets, will help develop Citigroup's global mobile services. He announced his departure in an e-mail on Sunday.

Khan's move marks the second one by a high-profile telecommunications executive to the financial industry. Last year, Dan Schulman, who previously ran Virgin Mobile, moved to run American Express' mobile business.

While J.K. Shin, head of Samsung's mobile division, often unveiled key products at events, Khan was often the executive the company relied on to go into detail about the products. For example, Khan spent a majority of the time on stage at Samsung's Galaxy Tab presentation at CES.

Khan said that Nick Dicarlo, head of portfolio planning and product marketing, and Gavin Kim, who runs content, data services, and enterprise mobility, would be taking over some of his duties.

A Samsung spokeswoman said that Tim Rowden would take over many of his other duties.

"Omar is not leaving to join a competitor to Samsung, and we anticipate having a continued relationship with him once he settles into his new role," according to the spokeswoman.

Updated at 9:21 a.m. PT: Added comment from Samsung. … Read more

Are 1 in 4 of you really going to cut cable, switch to Web video?

May as well kick off the new year by restarting the cord-cutting debate: are people really dropping their cable subscriptions in favor of the Internet and some combination of Netflix/Hulu/iTunes/YouTube, etc.? Or is it something that will happen?

Or (and this is the cable guys' favorite answer) is it something that people like to talk about, but won't really do?

Today's installment comes from JP Morgan's Imran Khan, whose 2011 forecast is chock-full of interesting data (see these amazing Facebook numbers--and plan on getting at least one more of these today or tomorrow). … Read more