Makers of applications that locate drunk-driving checkpoints are misunderstood, defenders said Wednesday, a day after four U.S. senators called for smartphone makers to pull applications from their services.

The applications do more than identify drunk-driving checkpoints set up by police, and the DUI (driving under the influence) checkpoint functionality actually aids police, said Joe Scott, CEO and founder of PhantomALERT, one of the companies targeted by the senators.

“They’re misjudging us,” Scott said Wednesday. “It’s a safety tool. It’s approved by a lot of police departments. How is that we’re being sanctioned? It just doesn’t make sense.”

When users of PhantomALERT report DUI checkpoints, it often appears to users that there are more checkpoints than actually exist, Scott said. The result is the app “deters people from drinking and driving,” he added. “We’re like a force multiplier for them.”

The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), a Washington, D.C., trade group, also questioned the request from Senators Harry Reid of Nevada, Charles Schumer of New York, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Tom Udall of New Mexico. The four Democrats sent a letter to smartphone software vendors Apple, Google and Research In Motion Tuesday, asking them to stop selling DUI checkpoint apps.

The letter didn’t name the DUI checkpoint software, but PhantomALERT was one of several companies targeted, a Senate spokeswoman said. Similar software includes Cobra’s iRadar, Trapster and Fuzz Alert.

On Wednesday, the senators reported that RIM would remove the DUI checkpoint apps. “Drunk drivers will soon have one less tool to evade law enforcement and endanger our friends and families,” the senators said in a statement. “We appreciate RIM’s immediate reply and urge the other smartphone makers to quickly follow suit.”

But the apps in question contain publicly available information provided by police departments as well as reports from drivers, said Morgan Reed, ACT’s executive director. The social-networking and law enforcement information makes the apps very popular, he said.

“While I applaud the senators for seeking to curb drunk driving, their criticism of online travel apps misses the point,” he said. “Law enforcement authorities have embraced these services, expressing their strong approval for products that reduce speeding and improve traffic safety.”

The apps provide drivers warnings about other potential roadway problems, Reed said. “Any one of the programs’ users can submit a warning about a traffic obstruction as simply as e-mailing a friend or posting a message on their Facebook profile,” he added. “The suggestion that the government should compel Apple, RIM, or other mobile application stores to block programs that simply allow users to report information based on location is misguided at best. Having the government act as arbiter of which products should be sold in stores is a slippery slope that few would welcome.”

Asked if the senators’ letter amounted to the government compelling action of the smartphone makers, ACT spokesman Jonathan Godfrey suggested it did. “When the Senate majority leader [Reid] and his senate colleagues send a letter urging you to do something, implicit is that they can have hearings and examine legislative fixes if you don’t address their concerns,” he said.

When police departments set up DUI checkpoints, they often advertise their plans, added Scott. “All we’re doing is we’re taking information and pushing it toward the drivers,” he said. “A lot of police departments are saying that part of the campaign is awareness. If PhantomALERT gets the word out … that’s going to deter a lot of people from drinking and driving.”

Source:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215011/Groups_defend_drunk_driving_checkpoint_software?taxonomyId=17&pageNumber=2

A provider of test and service assurance solutions for wireless and wireline network operators and equipment manufacturers, has announced the release of the proxyFlex Test Suite, new software that emulates the call session control functions, or CSCF, which are key components of the IMS core.

Housed in the InterWatch R14 and QualityAssurer QA-604 platforms, proxyFlex can emulate the entire IMS core and the subscriber with the same application when combined with the sipFlex and hssFlex test suites.

Before being deployed, these high-performance IMS networks will have to be verified in the lab to ensure that they will meet capacity and performance expectations while ensuring quality of customer experience. Network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) and network service providers (NSPs) can emulate the IMS P-CSCF, S-CSCF and I-CSCF, thus performing comprehensive device and end-to-end testing of various IMS network components.

“Operators developing and deploying IMS and LTE networks must test against real-life scenarios, as it is the only way to verify end-to-end services, avoid costly deployment mistakes and, ultimately, ensure quality of service,” said Vivian Hudson, Vice-President of EXFO’s Service Assurance and Wireless Divisions. “Supporting up to 10 million subscribers and handling thousands of registrations and calls per second, EXFO’s proxyFlex software is truly a unique solution for IMS network and service testing.”

Source:http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/5002428/exfo-launches-proxyflex-test-suite-software

Once a month, virtual computing software developer 2X Software hosts an online training session for its partners and resellers—typically at 3 p.m. ET on the next-to-last Friday of the month.

Topics vary, said Ryan Pope, product manager-Americas at 2X Software, but they are usually related to new-product and feature releases for the company’s virtual application servers, load balancers and thin clients (applications that have a graphical interface on one PC but run on a second server or workstation).

“Every time we have a new release or feature addition, we make that the focus of the webinar and go over the new features, ask for questions and show people the technology as soon as it’s available,” he said. The session is run by the marketing staff as well as a few members of the company’s senior support staff. Marketing handles the licensing and general questions, while the support staff handles the technical ones.

The program, which has been around for about a year, is publicized via email in a partner newsletter. Until about three months ago, the emails went out and, if they were interested in attending, people had to RSVP via email. Once they did, they were sent a second email containing a link that would bring them to the online session. After the webinar ended, a thank-you email went out with links to additional documentation and the 2X Software partner portal.

This month, hoping to simplify signups and boost attendance, 2X Software streamlined the signup process. The company now sends out the newsletter with a link embedded. When a reader clicks on the link, it acts as an RSVP and they are taken to a landing page that has a short signup form—attendees only have to provide an email address to attend an event.

This small change reaped big benefits for the company. Almost immediately sign-ups increased by “more than 100%,” Pope said. “It really drove improvement by letting people click on a link rather than [them] having to go through two steps. We’re getting a lot more partners involved in the trainings.”

This is significant because Pope said the trainings were a big part of the reason the company grew 20% in 2010. “We’re seeing the same growth this year, too,” he said. The webinars, which are split 50/50 between product demonstration and a Q&A period, help the company demonstrate how and when its products can be sold. And having existing products in the mix, Pope said, is just as important as highlighting new ones. “People can ask technical questions as well as how they can market the product to their own customers,” Pope said. “We position these Friday sessions as one of the benefits that our partners get. This type of support is really encouraging people to jump in and become our partners.”

Source:http://www.btobonline.com/article/20110322/STRATEGY02/303229994/a-simple-link-boosts-2x-softwares-webinar-attendance#seenit