Articles for category ‘Pamela for Skype’

All new shiny Pamela.biz website

We have updated the Pamela website www.pamela.biz to a complete new look:

We made the whole site much nicer then it was before and improved the usability a lot. It’s now much easier to get the information you are looking for about Pamela and to download and then order Pamela.

The website is now also available in german. If your browser is set to german, the page will automatically open in german. But you can also switch between the languages in the bottom right corner.

Any comments are welcome.

No Skype Extras System anymore

Skype has just announced today that the Skype Extras System will not continue. This means no more third-party applications for Skype will be certified and no new extras will be added to the “Tools” -> “Extras” menu in the Skype client. All existing entries will not be removed until the certification period expires. This does not include the Skype Public API which allows third party software to connect to Skype and control some functions and do things like call recording etc. Skype says this API will be maintained in future.

But this shut-down also includes the Skype Credit payment, which will be switched off shortly. No third-party software will then be able to accept Skype Credit payments.

So how does this affect Scendix/PamConsult products? The simple answer is: not very much.

Read more..

Pamela 4.6 is available

Today we released the final version of Pamela 4.6. Available in all versions, go to the website and download the new version now!

Test Pamela Professional 4.6 RC with new video recorder system

Today we release a Release Candidate version of Pamela Professional 4.6. Release Candidate means that unless we find a serious bug, this version will go live in the next days, replacing Pamela 4.5.

So, what are the big changes? First of all we completely redid the Skype video recording module. This was used a lot in Pamela since introduction in 2006 but since then evolution of the software world has caused more and more issues with it. So we decided to completely re-write the recording part.

We have managed to create a very low resource recording, this is especially critical as any video application already uses considerable resources. We also wanted to make the settings very simple. In Pamela 4.6 you will see only three main settings regarding video. FPS, the captured Frames Per Second. This impacts file size and quality of the video. Then there is the size of the video file (320×200 up to 800×600 including a YouTube setting). This obviously impacts size of the recording too. And then there is the audio quality starting from “low” to “highest”.

The output file is default WMV format and with Pamela 4.6 we’re doing away with all the complex codec configuration.

In addition there is a video custom recording option which will just record anything from the webcam.

If you have Pamela Professional you can just download and install which will update your Pamela to 4.6. If you do not have Pamela Professional or another Pamela version you will have Pamela Professional in trial mode (full functionality for 30 days).

UPDATE: Pamela 4.6 is now released as final version. Download from www.pamela.biz

Working on improved Skype video recording in Pamela

The team is currently working on revamping the video recording module in Pamela. It is a feature requested and used a lot and the 1.0 version we have currently has some limitatons. We have addressed some of them in Pamela 4.5 but are still not happy with the results.

So, we decided to re-write the entire module from ground up based on DirectX. This is a Windows subsystem which allows for easy access to audio and video components in Windows.

The engineers have created a first test application which works flawlessly already. The CPU usage is between 3-5% and thus really low. The output file is WMV format which is compressed and a lot smaller then the current AVI. There will also be no more requirement to select a codec or install one so the trouble with this will be gone too. We are testing this internally and plan to release this in Pamela 4.6.

The inital results are very promising. I will keep you updated as the development progresses.

Oh, you may ask yourself when we plan to release this module? With a bit of luck it should be out second week of July.

Pamela for Skype made more stable

A few weeks ago we have added a new module to Pamela for Skype and Pamela Call Recorder which will provide us better feedback when the application causes a crash. Unfortunately, despite all the testing, there are always situations where an application might become instable.

For this reason we decided to upgrade the reporter module. We added this to Pamela and PCR (Pamela Call Recorder) three weeks ago and have had some very good feedback. With this information we have released two new builds (versions) of Pamela and PCR and activated the auto update function too. So next time you start Pamela you should be notified that there is a new version available with the offer to download.

We have decided to push out a new release, based on feedback, every Friday. This of course only when there is enough feedback to justify this.

With this regular update cycle we want to further improve the stability of the applications to provide you with the best service possible.

On a side note, we will also release some changes to the video recording module to address some issues reported. Video remains high on the radar and we have been doing deep investigation into how to improve this function in Pamela further. Based on this research some changes will be implemented in this weeks update.

Updates for Pamela and Call Recorder released

We released new Pamela for Skype and Pamela Call Recorder updates.

In Pamela several things were fixed like a bug when recording conference calls which resulted in the recording stopping when you added a person to the conference. We also fixed the call transfer feature which was broken in 4.5.0.96. A potential crash situation after finishing a call recording was also implemented.

In addition we decided to auto upgrade the entire Pamela user base to the new version. So all users who are still using an older Pamela version  will receive an automatic update notification when they start Pamela.

In Pamela Call Recorder we also fixed the conference call bug and an issue related to settings not being saved as well as some minor things. The released version is 4.5.0.50 and is available from www.pamcorder.com. The new version has an improved installation routine which now will also allow starting the call recorder from the Skype Tools, Do More menu (requirement is that Skype Extras Manager is installed).

We activated the auto update for Pamela Call Recorder as well as we think the new version has several important fixes. People starting Pamela Call Recorder with an olderversion number then 4.5.0.49 will receive an automatic update notification.

Pamela for Skype version 4.5 released

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.

New domain name for Pamela

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.

What does Pamela stand for?

Today I received an interesting newpaper clipping from the Dutch NRC. It was about the European satellite mission called….. PAMELA.

The article went on to explain what Pamela stands for: Payload for Antimater Exploration and Light-nuclet Astrophysics. This is a European experiment and the article was about an information leak regarding the results which appeared on www.arxiv.org.