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..
Written by Dick on 11. September 2009 in category General News,Pamela for Skype,PamFax
The PamConsult Team grows again: please welcome our latest two new employees with me. They will both extend our team in our development office in Ebstorf, Germany.
Matthias is a developer who worked in web development before. He will be part of the web development team and will work on projects from our customers as well as on PamFax, the websites, etc.
Tobias is a new apprentice who will learn software development in the next 3 years in our company. Through his existing knowledge, he will also help developing our products and projects.
So, welcome!
Written by Dick on 19. August 2009 in category General News,PamConsult
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
Written by Dick on 18. August 2009 in category Pamela for Skype
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…
- Increased revenue by more then 100%
- Completed company consolidation, all software products are now sold via Scendix Software GmbH and all consulting is concentrated in PamConsult GmbH
- Expanded our staff
- Improved our IT infrastructure for future growth
- Major PamFax infrastructure update done in January 2008
- PamFax reached 130.000 users
- In Q2 2009 we plan to release PamFax 2.0 with fax-in and Macintosh support (yeah!)
- Our Pamela for Skype products have seen great user growth with a total of over 5 million downloads
- Pamela for Skype version 4.5 is almost ready to go with exciting new functions and improvements
- Implemented a new and professional shopping platform on PamFax, Pamela and Scendix websites
- mcePhone, the Skype integration tool for Media Center, made it to version 3.0 and will be out of beta soon
- In June we received the Ebay Innovation Award for our Jaast for Wii solution which provides you with Ebay access from your Wii
- With our annual charity BBQ we raised €400 which we double to €800 and give half/half to the “Tafel” in Ebstorf and Freising. These are voluntary projects which provide food supply for poor(er) people.
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
Written by Dick on 25. December 2008 in category General News
Our company continues to grow: welcome to our two newest team members in our development office in Ebstorf, Germany:
Horst will do customer support for all products (Pamela, PamFax, Scendix Software) and will also be our “face” on fares and exhibitions. Some of you might already know him as he already worked from time to time for us at Cebit and other fares.
Michael is a PHP develeoper who will add his experience to various projects we are currently working on.
Written by Dick on 5. September 2008 in category PamConsult
PamFax finally passed the Skype certification: Now you can be sure that this add-on for Skype does what we promise and is of high quality. The certification-team at Skype did some very intense tests of PamFax and also helped us improve PamFax.
We are very proud to welcome our fourth add-on for Skype in the “Skype certified” family: Pamela for Skype was the first add-on that passed this certification by Skype at all, then our mcePhone for Skype was the second one, Pamela Call Recorder for Skype (which is also Skype Premium directly under Tools -> Do More in every Skype) and now there is also PamFax for Skype as Skype certified add-on application.
Is there any other company out there which has 4 Skype add-ons certified by Skype?
Written by Dick on 20. April 2008 in category PamFax
ct, a famous german computer magazine just printed an article about our software Pamela for Skype 4.0. And we are just preparing the next version 4.1 of Pamela with cool new features! Keep an eye on this blog for updates.
Click the image to read the full article (in german):
Written by Dick on 25. January 2008 in category Pamela for Skype
