3CX Phone System v7.1 Delivers Personal Phone Assistant for All

New 3CX Assistant for 3CX Phone System Offers One-Click Call Transfer, Call Parking, Call Divert, Presence and More

3CX today announced the availability of 3CX Phone System for Windows 7.1, which includes 3CX Assistant, a desktop utility that drastically improves phone usability and user productivity. 3CX Assistant offers extension users an easy way to transfer, divert, launch or park calls — via “drag and drop” rather then via a cryptic phone interface. In addition 3CX Assistant offers unified communications features such as extension status (presence) of other users and Call Queue information

3CX Assistant Display
(Photo: Market Wire)

“3CX Assistant makes it much easier to take advantage of Phone System features,” said Nick Galea, 3CX CEO. “Rather then learn cryptic phone dial codes, users can use their mouse and a familiar Windows GUI.”

Works with ANY phone including ANALOG phones.

3CX Assistant works in tandem with an existing phone, be it an IP phone, a soft phone, or even an ANALOG phone and thus delivers the benefits of VoIP and Unified communications to all. In fact, re-using analog phones via low cost FXS gateways is now more attractive and can drastically lower the investment cost in a new VoIP Phone System.

3CX Assistant features at a glance

--  Transfer, Divert or Park calls with a mouse click or via "Drag and
    Drop"
--  See status of other extensions and avoid "Telephone Tag"
--  Notification upon receiving a new voice mail message
--  View number of callers in a Queue
--  Pick up calls waiting in the Queue
--  See which agents are logged on or on a call
--  Login/Logout to/from Queues
--  Set user status to away/available

3CX Phone System 7.1 has an easy to use rights system that allows granular configuration of who can see what call information and perform which call operations.

Other 7.1 features

Besides the 3CX Assistant, 3CX Phone System has gained several other important features:

--  A new built in Call Reporter with many new reports including Call
    Queue and Agent Reports
--  A CDR service that can output Call Data Records in any format
--  Improved default security and installation
--  Compatibility with Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 and 2008

About 3CX
3CX is an international developer of telecommunications software, headquartered in Europe with offices in the UK, USA, Germany, Cyprus, Malta, Australia and Hong Kong. It is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and is backed by an experienced management and development team. Its product, 3CX Phone System for Windows, developed specifically for the SMB (small & medium business) market, has earned Windows Server 2003 Certification and has received numerous awards, including The Windowsnetworking.com Gold Award, the Communications Solutions 2007 Award, the Windows IT Pro magazine 2008 Editor’s Best Award and a Best Buy Award by Computer Shopper Magazine, all in recognition to the company’s commitment to innovation and quality. 3CX maintains a global presence with localized information available in various languages. For more information, visit www.3cx.com.

Black Box Releases Optinet – Bandwidth Shaping/Content Filtering

Controls Bandwidth Costs, Reduces Internet Threats, and Increases Employee Productivity

Black Box Corporation (NASDAQ:BBOX – News), an industry-leading provider of voice communications, data infrastructure, and product solutions, introduces Optinet™, a deep packet, Layer 7 inspection gateway appliance that optimizes Internet use, enabling organizations to get the most from their available bandwidth. Optinet from Black Box (part #s FE408005AA, FE408020AA, FE408020XA, FE408045XA, FE408100XA, FE408200XA), scans, identifies, and controls Internet traffic, and provides advanced content filtering, reporting, application prioritization, bandwidth management, and threat protection.

Optinet – Bandwidth Shaping/Content Filtering
(Photo: Business Wire)

“Because of the increase in graphics, video applications, and social networking on the Internet, bandwidth usage is exploding, including non-business-related traffic over corporate networks. IT managers are faced with the prospect of leasing more broadband capacity or completely forbidding non-business use,” said Franco Tavella, Black Box Product Manager. “Optinet enables IT managers to allocate slices of bandwidth based on data content for individual users or groups. With this device, managers can more efficiently use and manage their leased broadband capabilities.

“Additionally,” says Tavella, “Optinet effectively blocks malware and viruses with advanced database matching and spyware removal capabilities to keep organizations safe at the point where the majority of virulent programs are received.”

Optinet is a secure Web gateway appliance that sits between your corporate firewall and network switches. The convenient, powerful Web-based management console comes with everything you need to shape bandwidth, filter content, and reduce threats.

With multilayer content filtering, users are able to access the content they need with real-time dynamic URL categorization, URL database matching, URL keyword searches, and deep HTML inspection. Additionally, allotting more bandwidth to mission-critical sites and applications enables you to shape and prioritize Internet use and content. You can place precise limits on the amount of bandwidth available to specific applications, users, and groups.

Optinet also reveals exactly how your employees use the Internet. Application traffic monitoring enables you to set appropriate priorities and limits, and automatically enforce policies and restrictions. Detailed reports on use activity, application traffic, and Internet threats give you total visibility and enhance your ability to analyze and fix problems.

You also get protection from existing and continually evolving on-line threats with its hourly filter avoidance updates and dynamic content analysis that identifies and shuts out dangerous anonymous proxies.

Optinet devices range from 5-Mbps up to 200-Mbps WAN capabilities. Most of the appliances feature acceleration technology, which ensures 100 percent SSL encryption.

Optinet is just one of the 118,000+ products Black Box offers, including Black Box® brand VPNs, media converter switches, Ethernet switches, as well as products from other leading manufacturers, such as Cisco and HP®. All are backed by free, live, 24/7 Tech Support, which responds to a call or click in 20 seconds or less.

For more information call Black Box at 877-877-2269 or visit http://www.blackbox.com/go/optinet.

About Black Box
Black Box is the world’s largest technical services company dedicated to designing, building and maintaining today’s complicated data and voice infrastructure systems. Black Box services 175,000 clients in 141 countries with 192 offices throughout the world. To learn more, visit the Black Box Web site at http://www.blackbox.com.

Black Box® and the Double Diamond logo are registered trademarks and Optinet™ is a trademark of BB Technologies, Inc. Any third-party trademarks appearing in this press release are acknowledged to be the property of their respective owners.

EXFO Releases Powerful Yet Affordable VoIP and IMS Test Solution

New test platform and gigabit Ethernet test module compatible with renowned EXFO sipFlex and hssFlex software test suites

EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ: EXFO, TSX: EXF) announced today the release of the QualityAssurer QA-604 Next-Generation Network Test Platform and the high-performance Signaling Centric Module Gigabit Ethernet (SCM-GbE) Interface. When used together, these two products are providing a unique entry-level point test solution for voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) and Internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) applications.

Without compromising on performance and capability, this small-footprint 2U platform solution offers pay-as-you-grow scalability and can be expanded to support more than two million subscribers. The new QualityAssurer QA-604 complements EXFO’s high-end InterWatch R14 platform – which has established itself as a tool of choice to test IMS and VoIP – and supports the same test functions and features as the InterWatch R14, but in a smaller form factor.

The QualityAssurer QA-604 platform and the SCM-GbE module can be combined with EXFO’s intuitive hssFlex and sipFlex software test suites, which were designed with built-in test functionality, providing a comprehensive IMS test bed. This complete solution, delivering unrivalled ease of use, enables network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) and network service providers (NSPs) to perform comprehensive device and end-to-end VoIP and IMS testing using a single platform.

“With this entry-level, yet powerful VoIP and IMS test solution, customers can now leverage the strength of a premium test platform, without having to bear the full cost of a high-end unit,” said Etienne Gagnon, EXFO’s Vice-President of Product Management and Marketing. “This new QualityAssurer QA-604 platform allows a wide variety of customers – from the NSP lab with small scale requirements to the high-capacity carrier-class NEM R&D lab segment – to perform VoIP and IMS stress and emulation testing at a great price/feature ratio.”

For further information about the QualityAssurer QA-604 platform and the SCM-GbE module, please visit www.EXFO.com.

About EXFO
EXFO is a leading provider of test and service assurance solutions for network service providers and equipment manufacturers in the global telecommunications industry. The Telecom Division offers a wide range of innovative solutions extending across the full technology lifecycle – from design to technology deployment and onto service assurance – and covering all layers on a network infrastructure to enable triple-play services and next-generation, converged IP networking. The Life Sciences and Industrial Division offers solutions in medical device and opto-electronics assembly, fluorescence microscopy and other life science sectors. For more information, visit www.EXFO.com.

Buongiorno Launches HelloTxt, the Innovative Aggregating Product for Social Networks and Microblogs

Allows Users to Send and Read Status Updates Across all the Main Microblogs and Social Networks Simultaneously – Acting as a Communication hub – Already Included by Tech Crunch as one of the “Top 21 Twitter Applications”, it has Been Shortlisted in the top 10 by Europe’s Startup 2.0 Awards – the Winner Will be Announced in Bilbao on 25th April 2009

Buongiorno (Italy, MTA STAR: BNG) the global leader in mobile entertainment, announces the launch of HelloTxt, a rapidly growing status update aggregator for the social media market.

HelloTxt enables users to post their status updates just once and have it appear automatically on all of their networks, allowing them to keep all of their friends up-to-date with ease. It is also possible to read friends’ updates from main microblogs and social networks all at the same time. Status updates can be made via the website, by email, or even from a mobile phone. It is also possible to embed photos and video directly into these status updates.

The concept of HelloTxt was first developed in late 2007 by Fabrizio Giordano and Raffaele Rasini and shortly after it was noticed by Mauro del Rio, the Founder and Chairman of Buongiorno, who included it in Buongiorno’s 2.0 mobile content product portfolio.

HelloTxt’s success among developers and bloggers has been immediate; in only 10 months it surpassed 30,000 registered users, with no marketing campaigns – only user’s appreciation and word of mouth. HelloTxt aggregates over 45 social networks/microblogs (among them Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo, and peoplesound) and users on average aggregate 4. The service is growing by approximately more than 8,000 status updates per day. 65% of all status update are made through web and mobile, and 35% of them come from 3rd party application utilising the open HelloTxt API (application program interface).

HelloTxt appeals to an international audience of committed social networkers with users coming from US, UK, Italy, Spain, France, Sweden and others, and is proving to be the answer to a growing demand from people who want to communicate with their social networks via a centralised hub available from the Internet or from operator’s portals.

As of today HelloTxt enables users to read the status updates from their contacts, no matter which network they are using: from the ‘Friend’s Status’ page users can follow the latest status of all their friends in different networks by just logging in once to HelloTxt. At the moment the ability to aggregate all sources to read from is only available for Twitter, Facebook, Identica and BrigKite but the ability to write and send out status updates is compatible across 45 social networks/microblogs.

Accolades and European Startup2.0 Award
This still relatively new service has already received industry accolades, including being listed as one of ‘The Top 21 Twitter Applications’ (Tech Crunch, 19 February 2009).

Additionally, Buongiorno is delighted to announce that HelloTxt has reached 6th place at Europe’s Startup2.0 Awards, qualifying it within the shortlisted top 10 to face a judging panel which will decide the winner. This will be announced tomorrow April 25th at the Award Ceremony in Bilbao, Spain.

Startup2.0 is a competition of European web 2.0 sites whose objectives are to promote and reward the European startups that work in the field of 2.0 technologies. This year, among the top 10 shortlisted companies, Italy is well represented with 3 projects – with HelloTxt being one of them – and Spain is leading with 5 projects.

Mauro Del Rio, Chairman and Founder of Buongiorno S.p.A commented: “HelloTxt is a simple yet very powerful application, making life easier for avid social networkers, fulfilling their need for immediacy of communications. Buongiorno has a 10 year legacy as an innovative company able to catch new trends and integrating them with current company assets to exploit their full potential. In fact in 2006 Buongiorno won the Orange Grand Prize for Innovation for mobile TV and in 2008 the Mobile Entertainment Award for the best social networking solution for mobile with peoplesound (formerly blinko).” Del Rio also adds “As HelloTxt is an advanced service for a very early stage market of social networking, key players tend to be from the US. We are particularly proud to show with this competition that Europe, and in particular Italy, is keeping the pace and raising a generation of very innovative developers.”

To subscribe: through the web at http://www.hellotxt.com; or via mobile phone m.hellotxt.com

About Buongiorno Group
Buongiorno (Italy, MTA STAR: BNG) is the multinational leader in mobile content and digital entertainment. The Company counts on an unparalleled international presence with 24 offices and business in 57 countries in 5 continents, 200 direct connections with +120 telcos and access to over 2 billion mobile customers. Buongiorno is market leader in Europe and is one of the top 3 players in 8 of the world’s most important geographies. Buongiorno is also present in Russia and Pacific Asia (India, Vietnam and Philippines) through the Joint Venture with the Japanese group Mitsui & Co., Ltd.. The Company operates with two business lines: mobile value-added services distributed directly – through its brand BlinkoGold for Mobile Content services and through its Mobile Social Networking brand peoplesound – as well as through partnerships with leading telcos and media groups (Consumer Services) – and digital marketing services referred to as sponsored content (Marketing Services).

For more information about Buongiorno, please visit their website:
http://www.buongiorno.com

Goodmail Systems Announces DKIM-Based CertifiedEmail

Industry’s Ultimate Anti-Phishing Solution Incorporates Emerging Authentication Standard

Goodmail Systems, the creator of CertifiedEmail™, today released the first DKIM-based CertifiedEmail software development kit (SDK) at the Online Trust Alliance (OTA) Town Hall & Forum at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. DKIM is an emerging cryptography-based standard for email authentication that enables email receivers to verify what internet domain is responsible for a message.

CertifiedEmail is now the only closed-loop DKIM-based solution in which each individual message is certified, signed, and monitored by a trusted third party. So not only must the domains of CertifiedEmail senders be authenticated through DKIM, but they are also subject to processes that prevent those domains from spreading spam, phishing and malware. Fraudsters may use DKIM to authenticate their lookalike domains, but their spam, phishing and worms will never carry the distinctive CertifiedEmail icon.

“Fraud is a complex problem that demands a solution integrating several layers of technology. DKIM addresses an important element of that problem, so long as it’s part of an end-to-end solution backed up with the right monitoring and processes,” noted Goodmail CEO Peter Horan. “It’s great to have anti-lock brakes on your car, but let’s remember that you still need seat belts, air bags, rollover control, crumple zones and a phone for 911.”

Standalone DKIM email authentication – even implemented in its most aggressive forms – is insufficient to prevent the forgery of legitimate brands, leaving open a wide loophole for online scammers that can and has been frequently exploited. For example, recent attacks against frequently phished brands have involved the use of domain names nearly identical to the genuine domains, avoiding the use of the legitimate domains themselves.

With software installed at both the sending and receiving ends, CertifiedEmail closes the loophole by establishing a trusted, private pipeline between legitimate senders and recipient mailboxes. CertifiedEmail includes an accreditation layer built on top of DKIM authentication and confirms that senders adhere to the high standards required by Goodmail’s Acceptable Use Policy; security benefits extend well beyond those that can be achieved through basic domain whitelisting or other approaches, by including a method for pre-registering “From” headers, enforceable quotas, real-time security and privilege-revocation mechanisms, and visual demarcation of messages as authentic in the inbox.

Dave Crocker, consultant, long-time Internet Mail standards contributor and Goodmail advisor said, “Goodmail’s adoption of DKIM for its authentication layer is exciting because it further validates both the standard and Goodmail’s value-add beyond the standard.”

CertifiedEmail DKIM is the gold standard for email brand protection. CertifiedEmail has been implemented by leading ISPs, all leading email marketing service providers (ESPs), and a vast network of OEMs including providers of Mail Transfer Agents (MTAs), edge devices, User Interface (UI) suites, anti-spam and anti-phishing filters, and other email security related products. More than 30 billion CertifiedEmail messages were deployed by Goodmail’s senders in 2008.

“Recognized by leading email providers as the ultimate defense against email fraud and phishing, CertifiedEmail messages are granted special delivery privileges and are distinguished with a trust icon in the user interface,” said Daniel Dreymann, president and co-founder, Goodmail Systems. “Leveraging the CertifiedEmail infrastructure, we recently introduced CertifiedVideo™, the only solution that enables senders to stream video inside an email message; Goodmail will introduce other rich functionalities that create a more vibrant email experience built on trust and security.”

About Goodmail Systems
Goodmail Systems is the creator of CertifiedEmail™, the industry’s standard class of trusted email. CertifiedEmail provides a safe and reliable means for consumers to easily identify authentic email messages from legitimate commercial and nonprofit email senders. Each CertifiedEmail is sent with a cryptographically secure token that assures authenticity and is marked in the inbox with a unique blue ribbon envelope icon, enabling consumers to visually distinguish email messages which are real and sent from email senders with whom they have a pre-existing relationship. Available to email senders meeting strict standards for best practices and low complaint rates, it is the only class of email available that assures delivery of all opt-in email messages to the inbox, with links and images automatically rendered intact, yielding measurable improvements in email effectiveness. CertifiedEmail has been adopted by seven of the nation’s top 10 email mailbox providers and is in use by 500 commercial, government and non-profit senders. It is supported in North America and Europe by a wide network of email platforms and service providers. For more information, go to www.goodmailsystems.com (businesses) or www.certifiedemail.net (consumers).