Pamela: personal assistant for Skype

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Utilities, Windows, Podcasting

Pamela: personal assistant for Skype

by Marc Orchant Jul 18th 2005

This looks like a great addition for Skype users. Pamela is a "personal assistant" for Skype that offers a bevy of features to handle Skype calls and IM's. Three versions are available. The Basic version is free. The Standard edition is 6 Euros (approximately $7.25 USD). The Professional Edition which records Skype calls, creates XML, and FTP files for podcasts (I'll be testing this for sure) is 17,50 Euros (approx. $21 USD).

Here's the Professional Edition feature list:

2-way call recording (automatically or manually) and full support for recording of conference calls (legally sound as Pamela informs about the call recording automatically!)
Create PodCasts (of course we call them PamCasts!) with XML file creation for RSS feeds and optional automatic FTP upload of audio and XML files
Recording time can be set from 1 minute to unlimited
Time scheduling function for activation and deactivation of Pamela
Personalisation of your Skype contact list: set greeting and chat responses per contact!
Email forwarding of voice messages (manual or automatic, with full proxy support)
Enter SkypeAPI commands directly via the Pamela console
Option to create log files of the SkypeAPI
Option to send an informative (customisable) chat message that the caller will be forwarded to voicemail
Optional (customisable) confirmation chat message sent to caller after message recording with duration of left message
COOL: Option to have Pamela send a (customisable) chat message to a new caller when you already are in an active call and don't want to be disturbed (ringing stops!)
COOL: Option to have Pamela change your Skype status automatically during a call
Option to only play a greeting message but not record messages
Visual notification which voice messages have been played and which ones are new
Optionally install the LAME codec and Pamela will automatically generate native MP3 files for you! (sampling rate and bit rate can be set)
Optional visual balloon notification when the status of your Skype contacts changes (with details about the new status, e.g. contact X is now “Online”)
Take a call answered by Pamela back to Skype to speak to the caller
32 languages included

30-day evaluations of the Standard and Professional Editions are available. A feature comparison chart is here. If, after the trial, you decide to use the free Basic Edition, you can install the it and retain your settings and password (nice).

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