As of May 1st, Google Checkout will radically change their costing structure making it a very expensive service. We have decided to discontinue this payment option in all of our stores (Pamela, PamFax, Scendix) which is unfortunate as the service works really well.
We will replace this payment option with MoneyBookers.
Just want to post a quick update on where we are with the new PamFax 2.0 release. As mentioned earlier this is a major update with the following changes.
We are on track for a tentative lauch on April 27.
For existing users it is important to know that we will allow existing PamFax Pro subscribers to upgrade to the new plan which includes a fax-in number from one of the 27 countries. As soon as we release PamFax 2.0 all 1.0 users will be upgraded automatically at next application start. Obviously the new page rates will apply to existing credit balances.
Attached two screenshots of what the new application looks like.
Since the initial release of Pamela in February 2005 and after the last main release in May 2008, we now released Pamela for Skype version 4.5.
4.5 has some new features and changes which I will describe in this post.
The new version has two new main functions: Call Scheduler and Auto Conference Call Manager
Call Scheduler: This function allows you to schedule Skype calls and Pamela will popup a reminder at the preset time before the call is supposed to happen. The call scheduler has several options like recurring calls (great for those weekly/monthly calls). When a call notification is shown you can easily click on an icon which initiates the call for you.
Conference Call Manager: With this tool you can remotely start conference calls, bookmark conference calls or join calls. The situation of use would be where you are to start a conference call but need to attend other business. In this case you can define that when a particular Skype user calls you that Pamela creates the conference call (and you can record it also). The same works for outbound calls, you call a collegue and Pamela will create the conference call for you. You can also click on a call button and Pamela will automatically create a conference call with all people you have defined in the group.
In addition we have done major redesign of the birthday section which now shows a list of all past, current and future birthdays of your contacts. Those that do not have a date set in the Skype profile do not show obviously. New is also the option to customize the standard birthday chat greeting message before sending it.
We’ve had requests from people who installed Pamela on another computer, to be able to import older recordings. This function has been added to 4.5 and you can now easily import recordings into Pamela.
The video recording component, although not yet there where we want it to be, has been improved. Many had issues with Pamela unable to locate the Skype video, this has been fixed. Stay tuned for more development here.
The sound options in Pamela have been simplified as the configuration in 4.0 was very technical and many could not figure out how that worked.
The audio engine in Pamela has been updated and performs better. We have also achieved considerable performance improvements when starting Pamela.
Furthermore icons have been updated for better clearity. Menus have been resorted so they are more logical. Some settings regarding default setting of various options changed based on user feedback.
If you are a current Pamela user (not Call Recorder!), you can upgrade for free by downloading the latest version. To do that open Pamela and click on the Help menu and then “Check for update”. Download the new 4.5 version and run the installer. There is no need to uninstall Pamela for the upgrade.
We hope you enjoy the features of Pamela.
We proudly announce our first new permanent employee hired in 2009.
Kay will strengthen our developer team in the German office. His main focus will be developing web-applications like the upcoming PamFax 2.0.
Welcome him in our team and be gentle to him, he’s “the new one” 
As we have loads of work in the queue, he will for sure not be the last new employee this year…
We’re proud to announce that we have found a new domain name for our Pamela product range. The new home of Pamela is www.pamela.biz and already live. We’ve migrated over from the old domain, but obvously the older links/bookmarks will just keep working.
Dear customers, partners, affiliates and fans, we at PamConsult all wish you a great festive season, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
2008 has been a fanstastic year for us. Some of the highlights…
It has been a fun year. We want to thank you for your continued support and are looking forward to an exciting and successful 2009.
Dick Schiferli & Christoph Bünger
I read this very interesting article on Skype on seekingalpha.com. It puts into perspective the real value of Skype within Ebay and the growth potential. I enjoyed it and want to share the link with you. Click here to read the article.
We recently upgraded our store on Pamela-Systems to a complete new system. The platform is the same as we have already been using with PamFax. Obviously we had to migrate a lot of legacy and this took us a bit longer then we had anticipated.
The new store is much simpler to navigate and find your way around. In addition it finally provides decent multi-currency support and can handle a large number of credit card processing systems. We still have PayPal but we replaced 2CheckOut with Worldpay. We added Google Checkout who are the only ones that offer Amex support and a really simple and easy payment process. In future we might look at adding systems for particular countries.
The store layout is much cleaner and we have been able to add more license packs, now also for Pamela Call Recorder. Each product can be viewed in detail, you can see exactly what a particular edition offers, what the requirements are and there is even a direct download option. In the past this was often confusing, having the download and purchase on separate pages – people occasionally purchased the wrong license. This should improve with the new store.
The backend side has also improved, you can now login to your account and see your purchase history. The system also provides you with the ability to lookup your activation key and download an invoice for your purchase. For companies within EU we offer the ability to enter the EU-VAT number and purchase without VAT.
The upgrade process has also significantly improved. You login to the store, select a product from the upgrade category, enter your old activation key at checkout and the previous paid price is subtracted from the basket. You only pay the difference. Note though that the entered key is disabled afterwards.
So, with this upgrade we hope you will find it easier to find the right product, with the right currency which fits your need. As always, any comments are greatly appreciated.
Skype have released the Beta 2 release of their new 4.0 client. We have tested it and found it to be already stable enought for day to day usage. It has less rough edges as Beta 1 and a lot of the Beta 1 feedback has been incorporated in this release. So if you are a bit computer savy you will definitely want to give the Beta 2 a go.
For those upgrading to 4.0 and don’t want to miss the “old style” of how Skype looked you can change to the Compact View mode which essentially makes Skype behave as Skype 3.8. But you will still have the advantages of the conversation list (which is really cool) and the upgraded interface which I find more productive and fun the the old one.
Again, this Beta 2 is a great step forward. It is noticeable that Skype are listening hard to their users and I think the end product will really reshape the way people look at “messenger” applications. Just compare this beta release with the Live Messenger 2009 release – wow, does the Live Messenger look outdated .
Download Skype 4.0 from www.skype.com.
Last but not least, we are interested to hear from you if Skype should present itself in the new single window design or as “old style” Skype to users who upgrade. In particular, do you think people who have used Skype before 4.0 will easily migrate to the new single window interface? Looking forward to hearing from you.
[polldaddy poll="965088"]
- The PamFax Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget was just published to the Windows Live gallery (see PamFax Gadget details page). Give it a try and experience a complete new feeling and comfort of sending faxes.
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In the next three days, Dick and myself will be in Athens, Greece at the Skype Developer Days 2008. This is a great yearly event and always a great opportunity to meet the Skype staff and a lot of interesting people working with Skype. After Prague, Czech Republic back in 2007 and Tallin, Estland in 2006, we are really looking forward to visit Athens this year for this event.
- TapiRex updated: We finally managed to update TapiRex to version 1.7.2. This update fixes some problems like the error message after wakeup, reverse lookup in Canada, …
Just download and install the newest version from the downloadpage.
We also started an experiment with Open Source: the next version of mceTapiRex has been published as Open Source. We have uploaded the complete source code of the current development version of mceTapiRex V2 to CodePlex: Open mceTapiRexV2 on CodePlex. We hope that many developers join us to develop this very nice TapiRex plugin to the next stage. If this works well, we can start thinking of making other components of the TapiRex system open source…
