All features are free for 14 days. After the 14 days, you have the option to purchase Skylook. When you purchase, all of the features are active – i.e. the full version. If you don’t purchase, Skylook reverts to a free mode. This matrix shows the features which are active in the free mode, and in the paid mode.

2.0.3.21 Changes

Skylook now has German Language support. Other languages will be added over the coming months.

Full Windows 7 & Windows Vista Support.

Support for recording calls and voice mails to WMA (Windows Media Audio) format.

Anti-drift on call recording. (Keeps both sides of the call in sync, even if microphone and speaker hardware devices run at slightly different rates).

Improved recording reliability.

Better performance when navigating through emails and contacts in Outlook, particularly when connected to an Exchange Server.

Support for all Outlook phone numbers (previously only supported Business, Home and Mobile).

Fixed: Alerts via SMS failed if the SMS text contained non-ASCII Unicode characters.

Fixed: When making calls to BCM contacts, error messages would be shown on call completion or when closing the contact window.

Fixed: Incorrect warning window appeared when starting conversion of voice mail recording.

2.0.2.1 Changes

Fixed: On rare occasions, incorrect phone numbers were displayed in the Skylook toolbar in the Contact window

Fixed: Under rare circumstances, Outlook security messages were shown after a call was recorded

Fixed: Unable to record calls on Windows Vista

Fixed: Incorrect Version No was shown in Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs.

Fixed: Skylook interfered with entry of multi-byte character set text in Outlook 2007.

2.0.1.64 Changes

First release as part of Skype Extras Manager

2.0.1.61 Changes

Support for Skype 3.0

New Skylook 2.0 Update (2.0.3.21) Available
We’ve improved Skylook and we recommend you update your copy by clicking here.

You can see what the improvements are by clicking here.

(Note: We recommend all users update. If you previously purchased Skylook 2.0, this update is free and will continue to operate with your existing serial number. If you haven’t purchased Skylook 2.0, but are in the middle of your free 14 day trial, your trial period will not be affected by the update. If you haven’t purchased Skylook 2.0 and your trial has finished but you are continuing to use the free functionality, that free functionality will continue to operate after the update).

Skylook Testimonials

“I congratulate you on your program! This implementation rocks!” – Karsten Gerhardt – www.3si2.com

“Superb product. It makes my audio recording so easy it is unreal!” – David Chriscole

“There’s no way I can do without Skylook” – Ruud Hein – www.ruudhein.com

“Your software is fantastic” – David Brown – www.dbrownmanagement.com

“It skypefies Outlook and it’s awesome.” – Michael Arrington – www.techcrunch.com

“Skylook is a wonderful productivity enhancement. I’ve been using a competitor’s Skype recorder for my phone consultations, but the quality, beautiful design, and intuitive features of yours won me over. Skylook even enhances Outlook in ways that have nothing to do with Skype. For instance, I like that whenever you’re reading an e-mail message, the Skylook toolbar displays the name of the contact, with a drop-down menu of various options, such as creating a new appointment with that contact.” – Michael Ray Brown – Story Sense

“W….O….W!!! If ever there was a software upgrade you ‘must’ get if you even dream you might want to use Skype… THIS IS IT!” – Lee Hopkins – leehopkins.net

“You guys definitely have the best technical support in the business” – Michael Ray Brown – Story Sense

“I’ve been using Skylook since version 1.x, and I’m thoroughly impressed with it – the product is excellent and the support is as good, if not better (in the rare event that you need it). I would highly recommend this to all Skype users who use Outlook.” – Rob Iles, UK

“A fantastic product!” – Rick Blaisdell – www.mailmethods.com

“Many, many, many thanks for your stellar customer support.” – Kaelin Kelly – Online Skype Classes

“If you use Skype… Skylook is a must have extension.” – David Anderson – www.grupo-utopia.com

“Skylook, which records Skype conversations in the MP3 format, has become a mainstay for me.” – Howard Wolinsky – Chicago Sun-Times

“I was really impressed with the support and overall good attitude this company has with me as first a beta user and now a paying customer, and I thought it was very refreshing that they listen to their customers requirements and suggestions…the American software vendors that I am use to dealing with could learn a thing or too from the good software folks down under at Skylook” – Kyle Jones – St.Petersburg, Florida USA

“I love your product.” – Ryan Bradshaw – www.buildstar.com

“…an indispensable utility for Skype” – Mike Strock – www.myhomeoffice.org

“I wish all software products had the support that you provide!” – Federico Chan

“A dream for podcasting with supreme audio quality and variable output options” – James Woodcock – www.jameswoodcock.co.uk

“Fantastic product by the way. It has really improved the way I work and communicate with people throughout the day.” – Managing Director, Maylane Polska – www.maylane.com

“Great work on Skylook and the latest update.” – Chris Saad – www.faradaymedia.com

“Wow — this works like a charm… Really nice interface, too” – Regina Nuzzo – Freelance Science Journalist

“Top Skype add on … can’t think of anything I’ve come across for Skype that is better.” – Adam Davies – www.justhom.com

“Skylook used to be a tool to use Skype from Outlook. Now it is more than that. It is a tool that lets Outlook leverage Skype. … Brilliant.” – Mark Cohen – beingmarkcohen.com

“The Skylook software is just amazing!” – Oliver Staudenmann – www.team14.info

1.5.3.240:
Fixed problem that was causing Outlook to crash when recording calls using Skype 3.0.

Fixed problem preventing calls to Outlook contacts from the contact window in Outlook 2007.

1.5.3.232:
Fixed issue preventing entry of text in Outlook 2007 when using a multi-byte character set.

1.5.3.230:
Resolved issue with Skylook answering machine audio when used with Skype 2.6 Beta. NOTE: 1.5.3.230 will only work correctly with Skype 1.3 – 2.5, and Skype 2.6.0.105 or later.

1.5.3.229:
Resolved issue with Skylook recording when used with Skype 2.6 Beta. NOTE: 1.5.3.229 will only work correctly with Skype 1.3 – 2.5, and Skype 2.6.0.105 or later.

1.5.3.228:
Resolved issue where Skylook slows down dramatically after a long period of use.

Resolved issue with Answering Machine audio when using Skype 2.6.

Resolved issue with Purchasing wizard not connecting properly to the Purchasing Server.

1.5.3.227:
Resolved issue where some calls were treated incorrectly as “failed” calls.

More reliable initial configuration of recording to remove the need to perform manual configuration steps on some PCs.

1.5.3.226:
Fixed recording bugs that occurred when using Skype 2.6.

1.5.3.225:
Support for recording when using Skype 2.6.

1.5.3.223:
Fixed bug in “New Conversation” dialog when multiple contacts are selected.

1.5.3.221:
Greatly improved performance on PCs with many Outlook contacts and/or many Skype contacts.

1.5.3.218:
Support for PCs with Multibyte Windows (e.g. Chinese) installed.

1.5.3.211:
Fixed problem causing hang when using Skype 2.5 Beta.

1.5.3.210:
Fixed call answering issue when using Skype 2.5 Beta.

***New 1.5 update available (free to 1.0 and 1.5 customers)***

The latest release of Skylook 1.5 is 1.5.3.240 (released December 19 2006).

IMPORTANT: You must update to Skylook 1.5.3.240 if you are running, or intend to upgrade to, Skype 3.0.

To see what is different compared to your current version, click here.

***OTHER UPGRADE NEWS***

Skylook 2.0 is now available.

Key benefits compared to 1.5:

A major development in the VoIP world today: Skype 3.0 Beta has been released.

One of the major additions is the new platform for the extension of Skype by third parties. This new platform is called “Extras Manager”.

There are around sixteen Extras in total, but you can expect this number to grow fairly rapidly. We are proud that Skype have chosen to include our product Skylook in the first Skype Extras Manager release.

Here is what the Extras Manager looks like:

Skype has been very strong on third party support for quite some time now. Around two years ago they released the Skype Public API, providing the ability for third parties to hook into most of Skype’s features. Since then they have improved the API and built other mechanisms on top of this, including the easier-to-program Skype4Com, and now the Extras Manager.

We see Skype’s emphasis on nurturing a third party developer ecosystem as one of its key strengths.

Extras Manager’s strengths (compared to the previously existing APIs) are:

• It provides much greater exposure for third party extensions to Skype
• It allows much deeper integration than has been possible previously – with the ability to add menu options to Skype’s menus and embed functionality so that it feels “as one” with the Skype user interface

Skype 3.0 Beta is a free download from the Skype web site but is currently only recommended for experienced/advanced users. If you rely on Skype for your day-to-day activities it may be best to hold off for a while.

The Extras Manager is available from the “Tools > Do More” menu item in Skype. NOTE: When you first run Skype 3.0, this menu item may be greyed out. If it is, just wait a few seconds and click the “Tools” menu again. Extras Manager items are retrieved from a web server and can take a few seconds to appear.

When you run an Extra for the first time, it is retrieved from Skype’s servers and run locally on your PC. Subsequent runs are, of course, run directly from the files previously copied to your PC.

All in all, a very interesting and compelling release, and that’s just the Beta! Exciting times ahead for Skype and their growing third-party army.

If you are unable to start a Skype conference call, this may be due to add-on software or hardware drivers interfering with Skype.

One known example is the software that gets installed with the Logitech QuickCam. (See this link).

If you suspect add-on software or hardware of causing an issue such as this, try uninstalling your add-ons one by one to find out which one is causing the problem.

Thanks to Kyle Jones for making us aware of this.

What is VoIP?

VoIP means making “phone” calls using the Internet to transfer your voice instead of traditional phone cables.

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol.

In layman’s terms, your Voice is converted to ones and zeros and sent over the Internet to someone else, and vice-versa. (The Protocol part makes up the commonly used term “Internet Protocol”, which means the rules and mechanisms via which data is transmitted over the Internet).

Because there’s only the Internet between you and the person you are talking to, there are often no charges over and above your Internet Service Provider fees. Once your voice is converted to data and put out on the ‘net, the ‘net doesn’t discriminate – it’s all data and so there’s no reason to charge you extra.

The term VoIP can also cover situations where only one end of the call is on the Internet and the other end is on a traditional phone. In this case there are generally charges involved as the traditional phone network has to be used to do this.

Advantages of VoIP over traditional phones

• It’s generally free for pure VoIP calls, and cheap for international calls to traditional phones
• On pure VoIP calls (where no traditional phone is involved), the call can sound a lot “higher-fidelity” than a traditional phone
• Natural tie-in with many PC applications (e.g. contact managers)

Disadvantages

• The Internet has no “Quality of service” built in, so on some calls quality can be poor (although generally if you and the callee both have good broadband connections this doesn’t tend to be a problem)
• Messing around with a headset on your PC can be a pain
• Generally can’t be used to make emergency calls
• Sometimes can’t be used to call freecall numbers (e.g. 1800-).

Popular VoIP Providers

• Skype
• Gizmo Project
• Vonage
• ViaTalk
• Verizon VoiceWing
• AT&T CallVantage
• SunRocket
• Lingo
• NetZeroVoice
• BroadVoice

This article shows you how to record phone or VoIP interviews, with high quality, for Podcasting or Broadcasting, with a standard PC, no expensive audio equipment and no prior training in audio production.

These steps assume you have Outlook installed (see Skylook prerequisites for details). They guide you through:

• Setting up Skype so that you can make phone and PC-to-PC calls from your PC
• Setting up recording of calls using Skylook
• (Optional) Editing of the resulting audio using Audacity

1. Follow these instructions to set up Skype if you don’t already use it.

2. If you don’t already have Skylook, download and install it from here.

3. Start Outlook. If you are running Skylook for the first time, you will see the Skylook licensing wizard and the Skylook Welcome wizard. Follow the prompts to set up Skylook the way you want.

4. Click this button on the Skylook toolbar:

then click the Recording option page and set the options as shown:

The key options are: Allow call recording, Start recording automatically when each call starts and Store raw audio in addition to the audio recorded in the format above. The Raw audio folder option defaults to a folder in your “My Documents” directory.

Setting the options this way means you will get two WAV files for each call, one which is a recording of your voice and one which is a recording of the interviewee. Each WAV file is a digital recording of the actual sound that was picked up by the microphone and played through your headset during the call, and is therefore the highest quality possible for a Skype call.

If you don’t need ultra-high quality and would prefer to save disk space and/or editing time, leave the Store raw audio… option unchecked instead. This will give you a single MP3 file with you and the interviewee combined. This is sufficient for many purposes.

If you need high quality but you don’t need yourself and the interviewee split into different sound files, leave the Store raw audio… option unchecked, and instead click the Change button and in the window that appears, set Format to “PCM” and Attributes to “48 kHz, 16 Bit, Mono 93 kb/sec” then click OK.

Click OK to save your settings.

5. If the interviewee has Skype, your best option in terms of quality is to conduct the interview over a Skype-to-Skype call. However, in many cases your interviewee won’t have Skype, in which case you will need to conduct the interview by calling a standard land-line or mobile phone using Skype.

If you need to make a call to a standard phone you will need to purchase Skype Credit. You can buy SkypeOut credit here. If you need to take a call made from a standard phone line, you will need a SkypeIn number. You can purchase a SkypeIn number here if you do not already have one.

6. Start your phone call or PC-to-PC call, either from Outlook or directly from the Skype application. (Skylook will still record calls that you do not start from within Outlook). (NOTE: Recording this way also works for incoming calls, and for conference calls started directly from the Skype application).

7. Recording will start automatically, as indicated by the Skylook call window, which will appear at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen:

8. You can see more detail about the recording by clicking the “Show Details” button:

9. Conduct the interview, and when finished, hang up the call. (NOTE: It is recommended that you do a small test interview to make sure everything works correctly before conducting a full-scale “real” interview).

10. In Outlook, click on the “Skylook Conversations” folder. Your conversation, with the attached MP3 or WAV file is listed as an item in the folder.

(Can’t find it? Choose “Go > Folder” from the main Outlook menu, then choose “Skylook Conversations” from the list).

11. To listen to the interview, click on the item. A “Play” button appears in the toolbar:

Click it to hear the recording.

12. If you chose the Store raw audio… option above, click the “Browse” button in the Skylook toolbar:

This will take you to the folder that contains the two WAV files, one for you and one for the interviewee. (The files are called “This Side.wav” and “Other Side.wav” respectively).

If you did not choose the Store raw audio… option above, just open the Outlook item and save the attachment somewhere for use in your Podcast or Broadcast. (You can skip the remaining steps as they discuss how to edit and combine the two WAV files. Your attachment already contains your voice and the interviewee combined).

13. All that remains is to edit the audio ready for podcast or broadcast. There is a free product called Audacity that allows you to do this. Download and install Audacity from here.

14. Start Audacity, choose File > Open… from the main menu, and choose the file “This Side.wav” that you browsed to above. Your Audacity window should look something like this:

15. Now add the other side of the call by choosing Project > Import Audio… from the main menu, then choosing the file “Other Side.wav”. Your Audacity window should now look something like this (expand the window if you cannot see both audio files):

16. You now have two “tracks” which can be edited independently or together. Usually the main editing you will need to do will be to remove superfluous parts of the interview (e.g. preliminary chat, closing goodbyes). To remove parts of the interview from both tracks, do the following:

• Click in the top track at the point where you want to delete from.
• Hold down the SHIFT key
• Click in the bottom track at the point where you want to delete to. (You can also drag to adjust this point)
• The selected range is highlighted in both tracks. Click the Play button to listen to the selected section.
• Press the DELETE button on your keyboard, or the “Cut” icon on the Audacity toolbar

17. When you have finished editing, choose File > Export as WAV…, File > Export as MP3… or File > Export as Ogg Vorbis… to save a single audio file with both sides of the call combined, using the format of your choice. (NOTE: To export as MP3 you will need to install a separate free program called LAME – Audacity will guide you through this process).

If you have problems, refer to the troubleshooting tips here, or contact us for help.

COMING SOON. The information on this page is an indication only, of the Skylook affiliate program soon to be implemented. Do not follow the steps noted until further notice.

To coincide with the release of Skylook 2.0 we are launching improved facilities for affiliates who wish to earn commission through selling Skylook from their web sites.

We now offer:

• The ability to earn commission simply by referring potential customers to our home page (see “Page Referral Commission” below).
• A discount coupon for you to offer to your potential customers.

Page Referral Commission

If you link to our site with the URL shown below (after modifying it to include your affiliate id), you will receive commission on any sales made to customers who visit our site via that link (as long as the customer has cookies turned on in their browser).

When the customer clicks the link, they are taken to our site via a redirect page. The redirect page writes your affiliate id into a cookie on the customer’s PC. If the customer goes on to purchase Skylook at any time from that PC, the purchase page reads your affiliate id from the cookie and credits you with your commission.

Here is the URL:
<a href="http://get.esellerate.net/get/ALP767895586/default.htm?skuid=SKU76770210715&affid=AFLnnnnnnnnnn&at=">Skylook 2.0</a>
NOTES:
Replace AFLnnnnnnnnnn with your affiliate id.
Replace “Skylook 2.0″ with text of your choice.

Discount Coupon

Affiliates receive a discount coupon to offer to potential customers. If you have signed up but not received your coupon please email us at skylook@skylook.biz.

How to start earning commission on Skylook 2.0

• If you have not already signed up as an affiliate, sign up here via “eSellerate”, our e-marketing partners.
• Within the eSellerate site, sign up to sell all Skylook 2.0 and 1.5 products. (There is no charge to sign up).
• Link to our site as instructed in the “Page Referral Commission” section above. NOTE: This is a cookie-based referral system, and is therefore dependant on a) The user not having cookies turned off and b) The user not deleting cookies in the time between you referring them and the time they purchase. We offer page referral commission on the basis that we believe such cases are a small proportion of all cases, but please use your own judgement.
• Optionally offer an “EST” download of Skylook. This is your own special version of the Skylook setup file, with your affiliate id embedded. This will still work if the user does not have cookies turned on, but is more complicated to set up and manage, and more difficult for you to sell as you do not have the benefit of our web site to inform the user about the benefits of Skylook. Instructions regarding EST downloads are available on the eSellerate site.
• Optionally offer a “Buy Now” link on your site. Again, this will work in the case where the user does not have cookies turned on, but may be ineffective as you do not have the benefit of our web site to inform the user about the benefits of Skylook.

Benefits of the Page Referral Commission method

With Skylook 2.0 we are shifting emphasis from EST downloads to page referral.

Our reasons are as follows:

• Skylook is a unique product that does not have a natural “tag” that allows people to say instantly “Oh, I know what that is”. Probably the closest tag is “Unified Messaging”, but this means little to most people and is probably too broad a term anyway. In the future this situation may change as Skylook gets more competitors and a better-known market “space” develops, but for the moment there is no single word or phrase that allows us, or you as affiliates, to instantly communicate what Skylook is. This makes it difficult to sell Skylook with a simple text or banner link to a download file.
• For Skylook 2.0 we have put a lot of effort into developing rich content that shows visitors how Skylook can benefit them. We want you, as an affiliate, to also be able to use this rich content to help inform potential customers. We think this will lead to more effective affiliate sales performance.
• The reason we put so much effort into developing rich web site content is that it is really the only way we can do the product justice. The new site has lots of screenshots and “how to” pages so that visitors can quickly get a feel for the product. We believe that your customers are no different to ours – they need to be able to quickly get a feel for the product too. We know that most affiliates have a range of products and can’t afford to spend too much time on each one, so the best way to allow customers to quickly get a feel for the product is to refer them on to our site.

Questions?

If you have any questions about the Skylook affiliate program, please email us at skylook@skylook.biz.