Driver texting gets thumbs down

Readers who took part in an online poll about text messaging while driving overwhelmingly agreed that the practice should be illegal, says Arizona Daily Star.

The poll drew about 330 responses. Ninety percent of participants said texting while driving should be illegal, and 83% said hands-free devices should be required for people who want to use their cellphones in the car. Only 7% of respondents said they send text messages while driving.

As to which government agency should pass laws concerning text messaging in a car, most poll participants said it is the purview of the Legislature. Twenty-one percent said the federal government should create such a law, while 20% said voters should pass a law by initiative.

PageOne, a UK provider of wireless messaging solutions to the public and enterprise sectors, has been chosen by the British Red Cross Society in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and the Channel Islands to help streamline and reduce its emergency response time to emergency services and local authorities during major incidents, according to News Blaze.

With PageOne`s paging system, the British Red Cross will be able to respond to emergencies instantly and more effectively. Traditionally, the British Red Cross would have undertaken a phone-round to see which volunteers were available to offer emergency support and then another phone-round to deploy volunteers, which inevitably can lead to time-delays.

A pilot scheme was undertaken by the British Red Cross in the South West to test PageOne`s paging system and prove its resilience and capability to its staff and volunteers.

Nokia Siemens Networks` MMS solution is allowing Telefonica O2 Europe to continue its portfolio of MMS services generating new revenue, reports Mobic.com.

The users of MMS-capable phones can send messages combining text, images, graphics and sound in a single rich message directly to other MMS terminals, e-mail addresses or even non-MMS-capable phones.

Under the agreement, Nokia Siemens Networks will continue to provide and integrate an end-to-end MMS solution, including Nokia Siemens Networks` Multimedia MMS Centre, Profile Server and Multimedia Application Gateway.