IANA Releases New IPv4 Addresses

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has released new IPv4 address space to the five Regional Internet Registries worldwide. Each was given roughly 1.05 million addresses. The addresses are from a pool of leftover and returned IPv4 address blocks from which IANA can make periodic allocations to the regional registries, which manage IP address allocation and registration in different parts of the world. Despite the release of IPv4 addresses, IANA emphasizes that their overall number is dwindling and that equipment makers, service providers, and others need to adopt IPv6, which provides many more addresses, as soon as possible. (Enterprise Networking Planet)(American Registry for Internet Numbers)

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US Airline Testing Preprinted Luggage Tags

A US-based air carrier is testing a program that would eliminate airport check-in for customers wishing to check baggage. Hawaiian Airlines is testing preprinted luggage tags for flights from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Oakland International Airport to Honolulu, Kahului, Kona, and Lihue in Hawaii. Tag@Home lets passengers print out their baggage tags at home when they check in online. Once at the airport, they get a plastic tag to hold the printed tag that attaches to the bag, which they drop off at a designated location before moving to security stations. At the end of the 60-day trial, Hawaiian Airlines expects to evaluate the program and determine whether it should be rolled on all of its routes. The company is also testing a baggage weighing and tagging service at self-serve kiosks in nine airports. The airline says the free programs are designed to help customers navigate more rapidly through the airport, but some say it could eliminate jobs if adopted across the industry. Hawaiian said it hasn’t reduced staffing levels. (Geek Wire)(Pacific Business Journal)(Hawaiian Airlines)

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Home Depot Investigates Possible Data Breach

US home-improvement retailer Home Depot is investigating “unusual activity” regarding its customer data, following a report by investigative security journalist Brian Krebs that the company may have suffered a payment-card breach that started in April or May and that may affect all 2,200 US stores. He discovered details about the incident from a posting on a black market forum. Home Depot spokeswoman Paula Drake said if the company confirms that a breach has occurred, it will notify customers immediately. Krebs noted that it appears the hackers responsible “may be the same group of Russian and Ukrainian hackers responsible for [earlier] data breaches at Target, Sally Beauty, and P.F. Chang’s, among others.” . If the breach indeed began in late April or early May 2014, he added, “and if even a majority of Home Depot stores were compromised, this breach could be many times larger than [the] Target [incident], which had 40 million credit and debit cards stolen over a three-week period.” (BBC)(Krebs on Security)

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Court Denies Apple’s Request to Bar Samsung’s Infringing Smartphones in US

A US federal judge has rejected Apple’s request asking for her to ban the domestic sale of nine Samsung smartphones—most in the Galaxy line—that Apple claims infringed on its patents. Apple sought a permanent injunction after a US jury found in May that Samsung, which is appealing the finding, infringed on three of its patents and had to pay $120 million of the $2.2 billion in damages sought. In a 42-page ruling, US District Judge Lucy Koh contended that Apple did not prove that “it suffered significant harm in the form of either lost sales or reputational injury.” Additionally she said Apple had not “satisfied its burden of demonstrating irreparable harm and linking that harm to Samsung's exploitation of any of Apple’s three infringed patents.” Earlier this month, the companies agreed to end their patent battles outside the US. (Tech Spot)(The San Jose Mercury-News)(The Wall Street Journal)(Ars Technica)

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US Comic is Serious about Hybrid Social-Media Promotions

You know the face. He’s got a hit television show in the US——playing Tom Haverford on NBC’s Parks and Recreation—and frequently performs stand-up comedy dates across the country. He’s even sold out Madison Square Garden in New York City. His name is Aziz Ansari, and .he has 4 million Twitter followers, which he is using to his advantage. Ansari employs a mix of social media, posts on his website , and text messages to promote shows in small venues to his fans and give them a chance to buy tickets. He sends a tweet instructing fans to head to his site and enter their cellular-phone numbers for a chance to buy tickets. When Ansari did this in San Francisco, there were 35,000 entries in three days. Winners are notified by phone and given a code to buy tickets free of processing fees. “If I tweet out that ‘I’m doing a show at the Punchline’ (the small club where Ansari appeared in San Francisco)’ it would sell out really fast, like in 30 seconds,” he explained to re/Code. “No one would have a chance to get tickets unless they’re maniacally checking Twitter. And I didn’t want those to be the only people.” A team headed by online publisher David Cho created Ansari’s custom software. (re/Code)(Aziz Ansari)

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Salesforce.com Wearable-Device Toolkit Gains Traction

An application-developer toolkit that cloud-based business-services vendor Salesforce.com created is gaining market traction among hardware makers seeking to stake a claim in the nascent wearable-device market. The company’s Salesforce Wear program now counts companies such as Epson, Jawbone, and Oculus among its partners. Developers use the tool to create applications that will work on enterprise market wearables such as Google Glass, Android Wear, and various smartwatches. These applications will provide many capabilities such as real-time multimedia training or clocking in and out of work. Projections for market growth vary widely. (Diginomica)(InfoWorld)(TIME)(Salesforce @ PR NewsWire)

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Designer Ralph Lauren Puts Technology in Iconic Polo Shirt

Ralph Lauren, the fashion house best known for its preppy collared shirts featuring a mallet-wielding rider on a polo pony, is adding a biometric shirt to its offerings. The Polo Tech shirt uses biometric sensors to collect data about the wearer’s motions and direction of movement. It debuted at the US Open tennis tournament, which just began. Some of the ball boys will wear the shirt, which was developed with the assistance of OMsignal, which developed the biometric technology for the shirt. The shirt, made from an antimicrobial smart fabric with sensors embedded in it, will collect data, including heart rate and respiration, based on the wearer’s movements. It transmits   he information to a cloud-based system, which will analyze the data and report its findings. Although designers such as Diane Von Fürstenberg and Tory Burch are collaborating with technology firms – Google and FitBit, respectively -- to make wearable accessories fashionable, observers say this move by a mainstream brand like Ralph Lauren on a smart garment and its use at a major sporting event could signal the greater acceptance of wearable technology. (ZD Net)(Mashable)

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