AP Technology NewsBrief at 7:03 p.m. EST

(Associated Press Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) FCC Chairman Genachowski to step downNEW YORK (AP) _ The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, on Friday announced that he's stepping down in the "coming weeks," after a four-year tenure that's garnered mixed reviews for him and tangible progress in the industries he oversees. The country's top telecommunications regulator told a staff meeting of his decision Friday morning. His impending departure was reported Thursday by several news outlets.

Review: March Madness online not for cord-cuttersNEW YORK (AP) _ Finding March Madness basketball games online is easier this year, but watching them isn't if you've ditched your cable or satellite TV service. This is good news for most Americans _ those who pay for cable or satellite service. If you already get the Turner channels _ TNT, TBS and TruTV _ on television, you should be able to watch live video of every game for free on computers and mobile devices.

Google exec urges Myanmar to embrace free speechYANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt on Friday urged Myanmar's government to allow private businesses to develop the country's woeful telecommunications infrastructure, emphasizing the importance of competition and free speech. "Try to keep the government out of regulating the internet," he said to a round of applause from a group of students at a technical university in Yangon. "The answer to bad speech is more speech. More communication. More voices," he said. "If you are a political leader you get a much better idea of what your citizens are thinking about." 'Veronica Mars' campaign rattles movie industryNEW YORK (AP) _ After years of hope, stalled efforts and studio frustration, "Veronica Mars" creator Rob Thomas watched a long-held dream come to fruition in a sudden digital rush. "There were a few minutes of nothing happening," he says. "Then in an hour, watching that ticker go was mesmerizing. I had an attention span of, like, four seconds because everything on my computer screen I wanted to look at at the same time. The Twitter feed was going crazy, the emails were going crazy and then watching that Kickstarter total go up." ICANN clears 27 non-English domain name suffixesNEW YORK (AP) _ The agency in charge of Internet addresses says it's given preliminary approval for 27 new suffixes _ all in Chinese, Arabic and other languages besides English. They are the first approved out of nearly 2,000 bids submitted last year. The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers previously said it was reviewing the non-English bids first. ICANN expects additional approvals in the coming weeks.

Techie fired after tweeting about men's commentsSAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) _ A female developer was fired after tweeting about a group of men she said were making sexual comments at a computer programming conference, fueling an already vigorous debate about gender equality and culture in Silicon Valley. Adria Richards wrote on her blog at http://butyoureagirl.comhttp://butyoureagirl.com that she was seated in a ballroom at the Santa Clara conference Sunday when the men behind her started talking about "big dongles." Deal to sell Dell may be about to face competitionSAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Is Michael Dell's attempt to gain more control over his company about to turn into a financial tug-of-war The answer could come Friday. That's the end of a 45-day period that Dell Inc.'s board of directors set to allow for offers that might top a Feb. 5 deal to sell the personal computer maker to CEO Michael Dell and a group of investors for $24.4 billion.

SKorea misidentifies China as cyberattack originSEOUL, South Korea (AP) _ In an embarrassing twist to a coordinated cyberattack on six major South Korean companies this week, investigators said Friday they wrongly identified a Chinese Internet Protocol address as the source. A joint team of government and private experts still maintains that hackers abroad were likely to blame, and many analysts suspect North Korea. But the error raises questions about investigators' ability to track down the source of an attack that shut down 32,000 computers Wednesday and exposed big Internet security holes in one of the world's most wired, tech-savvy countries.

BlackBerry CEO says iPhone is outdatedTORONTO (AP) _ Apple's iPhone is outdated, according to the chief executive of BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd. Thorsten Heins made the comment Thursday on the eve of the much-delayed launch of the new touchscreen BlackBerry in the United States. AT&T begins selling the Z10 touchscreen BlackBerry on Friday, more than six weeks after RIM launched the devices elsewhere.

Marin Software rises in debut on the NYSENEW YORK (AP) _ Shares of Marin Software climbed nearly 27 percent in their first day as a publicly traded company. The software company's stock rose $3.76, or 26.9 percent, to $17.76 in morning trading.

(c) 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[ Back To Technology News's Homepage ]