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Online learning startup Coursera has formed partnerships with 10 public universities and university systems to develop courses that can be taken for credit either online or in a blended classroom-online environment.

By exploring new uses for massive open online courses (MOOCs), the partnership aims to improve the quality of the education, as well as expand access and increase graduation rates for up to 1.25 million students at the schools, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company announced Wednesday.

The hope is that the program will encourage new teaching methods, as well as enhancing existing approaches by creating a "blended … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDE, CA -- Barry Diller is happy that the broadcast networks have sued Aereo. It has helped the startup he funded get some high visibility.

Aereo delivers local, over-the-air TV broadcasts via the Internet to subscribers. Antenna/DVR technology has caused a flurry of lawsuits from TV broadcasters, including ABC, CBS (CNET's parent company), Fox, NBC Universal, and Telemundo. The networks allege that Aereo violates their copyrights and that Aereo must pay them retransmission fees.

The court rulings so far have ruled in Aereo's favor, and the company has filed a complaint against CBS seeking to … Read more

Twitter released new versions of its iOS and Android apps on Wednesday intended to make tweeting easier than ever, and sharing photos a far better and quicker experience.

Twitter tweaked its apps in a number of ways, the company said in a blog post. Most prominently, it said that it is now faster than ever to tweet a photo. When a user wants to add a picture to their tweet, they'll now see a full preview of that image, rather than a cropped version. At the same time, Twitter said, sharing a photo from an iOS or Android camera … Read more

Those who haven't had the opportunity to visit New York City and see the Memorial at the World Trade Center now can tour it via Google Street View.

Users can zoom in and out and "walk around" to view the memorial from different angles. Images from the north and south memorial pools feature the engraved names of the victims of the terrorist attacks in New York City, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pa. The zoom feature is precise enough to read each person's name.

Google also has expanded its coverage of New York's famed Central Park. … Read more

The worldwide Internet population is growing rapidly -- and that growth might have something to do with mobile devices.

Speaking today at the AllThingsD D11 Conference, Mary Meeker, a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Meeker, reported that 2.4 billion people around the world are on the Internet -- an 8 percent year-over-year gain. Still, only 34 percent of the world's population is online. In the U.S., the Internet population penetration sits at 78 percent, according to Meeker.

Perhaps the biggest news from Meeker's presentation was the staggering growth in … Read more

Dish subscribers can now combine a bit of social networking with their TV viewing.

Available starting Wednesday, Social is the name of a new app for Dish's Hopper Whole-Home DVR that lets people watch a show and follow relevant posts or comment about it at the same time.

The app taps into both Twitter and Facebook.

Dish subscribers can follow a Twitter feed related to the show or channel currently being watched. They can access their own Twitter feed to tweet, reply to a tweet, favorite a tweet, or retweet someone else's post. They can also log into … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- In 1993, on the Internet nobody would know you were a dog. In 2013, everybody knows that you are a dog. That's how Mary Meeker, a general partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, described changes over the last two decades in her Internet Trends 2013 presentation at the All Things D conference.

Data is exploding. About 500 million photos are uploaded and shared on the Internet each day, and that number is expected double year on year. "It looks like we are going to double in 2013. The major driver of that … Read more

Mobile app maker Waze apparently won't be joining the ranks of Facebook.

After months of chatting about a potential acquisition of Waze by Facebook, the two companies have put an end to the discussion, according to AllThingsD. Facebook had reportedly been ready to spend as much as $1 billion to pick up the navigation app maker. But the two apparently couldn't reach an agreement.

Sources told AllThingsD that talks fell apart recently due in part to disagreements over whether the Israel-based Waze team would move to the U.S. and integrate itself into Facebook's California headquarters. Other … Read more

You may soon be able to log into your favorite Web sites and apps using just your Amazon credentials.

Following in the footsteps of Facebook and other online companies, the retail giant on Wednesday launched a single-sign on feature dubbed Login with Amazon. The goal of the service is to reduce the need to juggle multiple passwords by allowing you to use your Amazon account to access various Web sites, apps, and games.

Available now to all developers, Login with Amazon is already in place at such Amazon subsidiaries as Zappos and Woot. Amazon claims that both sites saw strong … Read more