Let’s take a look at how it fares.

Skyping is a way to avoid the phone calls that are limited by regular landlines or cell phones. If long distance is too expensive, or you don’t have enough minutes left, the call can always be completed via Skype. Those who have used Skype before are familiar with the process and will already have a Skype Name and Password. Those who aren’t familiar with it can either sign up at the site or via the app once it’s downloaded. The basic use of Skyping is free, and it gives you a phone number that your friends can use to contact you.

When you sign in to the Skype app for iPad, it takes you to a Home screen where you will see your contacts and most recent calls. It also allows you to make changes to your profile by clicking on your name at the top left. Contacts that are online have a green checkmark, and those that are offline have a white X.

Skype gives you an option for a test call, just so that you can check your settings and audio. You can initiate a call to see if everything is working right before you place a more important call and find it failing you when you need it the most.

The visual for the iPad app is so much better than it was for the iPhone app. It shows you your own contact image as well as the image of the person who is calling you, or who you are calling, as it works on connecting you.

You have the choice of completing your call with video, audio, or text. With the video option, it provides a larger video of the person on the other line, and a smaller video of yourself. The sound and video are off slightly, but that’s to be expected.

With the iPad 2 and its back and front cameras, instead of having the video be of yourself as you are calling, you can have it be of a person or people who are with you and facing the back of the camera. You can even switch back and forth so that everyone there can get in on the action.

If you need to discuss something in private while you’re on your call, there’s a Mute option that works either with just audio, or with the video. It displays an icon on the screen to let you know that you’re on mute.

If you want to see the person you’re talking to, yet exchange text instead of talking verbally, you can provide a video in the back, and text in the front. This could be helpful if you want to share links with the person you’re speaking to.

There is also an option to make the video full screen. If you’re not bouncing back and forth between other conversations, and are talking to just one person, this is great. The video can be so big and close, it’s like you’re really talking face-to-face.

If you decide you’re done with the video and audio and just want to have text, you can change over to that quickly enough. You can even display the text after you’ve ended your call. Even though my call ended hours ago, I can click on this contact and see what it was we were discussing during a chat. It includes a history of everything we have discussed recently.

If you are just doing an Audio call, you will only see the contact picture of the person you’re talking to. It can be a one-sided video, however, like in the picture above. I have video capabilities, but the person I’m talking to does not. In this case, she can see the video  of me on her end, while I just see her picture.

It’s also possible to forward the calls that come through. If you’re offline, you can have Skype forward the call to any number. However, if you’re forwarding it to a phone that doesn’t have Skype, the person calling has to pay a premium using Skype credit. Group conference calls are available as well with Skype credit.

Because I have an iPhone with a good calling plan, I never had the need for Skype before. However, with my son headed off to college, I want to be able to use the video-calling feature. It will be the next best thing to being there. My iPhone is a 3GS, so I can’t do FaceTime on it. By using Skype on my iPad, i can get the same benefits, and I can talk to my son while he uses his computer. It’s the next best thing to being there.

If yes, then ManyCam is a brilliant webcam application which you will love using.

ManyCam lets you use your webcam with multiple applications simultaneously. After you have installed ManyCam, you can stream the video capture to multiple applications or devices.

Let’s say you are recording a video from the webcam and want to stream the same video recording to one of your Skype friends, parallely. Normally, only one application is allowed to access the webcam hardware at any given instance of time.

ManyCam acts an intermediate between the webcam and the applications accessing it, allowing multiple applications to use the webcam at the same time (supports Yahoo, MSN, CamFrog, PalTalk, ICQ, Skype, YouTube and more). You can also add text, colors and other graphical effects to the webcam video window.

Download Manycam and install it on your computer. The program is a free download and works with Windows and Mac. Once the installation is completed, run the application and  double click the system tray icon to launch the “Options” window.

From the Options window, you can configure the tool as per your requirements. This includes adjusting the webcam brightness, contrast, color depth. Following is a set of features that I thought makes the tool a complete solution for every webcam problem and enhancement.

To control the webcam parameters, go to “Properties” -> sources -> cameras -> choose camera -> properties“.

Here you can zoom the webcam to get a clearer view if you want to show something on the webcam. The flipping options are useful when you have your webcam showing inverted videos due to some faulty configurations with the device. Should you want to use your laptop’s inbuilt webcam and a USB webcam parallely, ManyCam will let you choose and switch webcams with the touch of a button.

Although Manycam selects your webcam out of the box, there are quite a few other things which you can share as your webcam video.

• You can stream movies as a webcam video – simply open the video file in ManyCam window and your friends can directly see the video clip streamed from the webcam window.
• You can take snapshots with your webcam and they can be set as your webcam’s output.
• You can share your desktop for a video demonstration. To do this, choose the source as “Desktop” and then select the portion of the screen which you want to be streamed as your webcam video.
• ManyCam also supports playlists, all the above streaming options can be combined produce a unique video streaming effect.

What’s impressive regarding ManyCam is the Effects panel which lets you add a wide number of color and graphic effects (found under the Effects tab in the Options window). Here are some example effects I applied to my webcam window using ManyCam:

You can add date, time and even draw on your webcam’s video stream. You can configure it to start as the Windows starts or if you choose, it will only be launched once any application is requesting for a webcam access.

All in all, ManyCam is one of my favorite applications for adding effects to the Webcam window, playing with graphics and custom texts and using the cam with multiple apps at any given point of time. Give this a try and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Simkl is an application that will keep all of your chat histories stored in the clouds. This means you can access a chat from anywhere you have internet access, not just your local machine.

Something to download

Even though everything is stored in the clouds, there is still an application you need to download and run on your local machine. Simkl isn’t magic, it needs something on your machine to record your conversations.

What Simkl works with

Right now you can use a few different instant messaging services. Skype, Windows Live Messenger (WLM), ICQ, Yahoo and AIM can all have their chat histories recorded and stored online. You will also see you do not need to use the actual application. Simkl has been tested with apps like iChat, Pidgin, Digsby and many others.

Why use Simkl?

I asked myself this question when I looked at Simkl. For a freelancer or person who travels a lot for their job, having access to your chat history can save you a lot of headaches.

Imagine you are on the first day of your business trip and you get an email from a client asking the exact price of the quote you talked about via Skype chat. Instead of telling them you will need to get back to them in 4 days when you return, you can login to Simkl and look up your chat with that client.

What you can save

If you use any of the instant message services, you can save the chat logs. These histories will be saved for later reading on history.im. Saving your chat logs in the clouds is a fantastic feature for those of you who use multiple computers during the course of their work week. Using Simkl will combine your chat logs so you don’t need to remember which computer you were on when you talked to a certain person.

If you are using Skype or Windows Live Messenger, you also have the luxury of storing your voice chats as well. For those of you who conduct interviews through WLM, there really isn’t a good way to record your chats. If you use Skype, you will need to use a 3^rd party application to review the dialog.

Having access to the voice conversation recording is ideal if you want to go back later and transcribe the conversation.

What else Simkl does

Another feature of Simkl is saving your instant message contacts. This may not seem important because you can always just re-download the IM application and sign in again if your PC crashes. Well, what if your account gets hacked and you can’t access it?

If you are looking for a specific part of a conversation but don’t remember when it was, you can search through all of your logs for a specific bit of text. I don’t know about you, but I am a big IM user and it can be a huge pain to remember who you talked to about what. Searching for a phrase can be a monstrous time saver.

What are your must have instant messaging applications or add-ons?

This is where imo.im can help. Imo.im is a web based instant messaging application that lets you log into all of the major IM services including Skype and Facebook. Having access to some of these apps in an all-in-one web app is a damn good idea; I’m surprised these kind of web based apps aren’t more popular.

There are three ways to use this service:

1. Browser

If you are constantly at your computer with your browser open, you can opt to use imo.im from the site. It has no OS dependencies because it is web based. As long as you can access the web, you can IM until your heart is content.

2. Pop-out

If you prefer to, there is an option to IM via a pop out window. This option will still require you to have your browser open. Also, make sure the your pop up blocker lets it “pop out”.

3. Desktop App

The third option is a downloadable desktop application for Windows computers. Aside from not needing to have a browser running, there is no difference between the web and desktop version. Even though it is a downloaded application, it is pretty much just like the browser pop out.

Video

Depending on the IM service you choose to log into, you can access some of the features usually associated with their individual desktop application. For example, with Yahoo IM there is an option for video chat when I use the desktop app on my Mac. If I am using Adium, I lose this option. By logging onto the imo.im site, I  regain the use of video. If you are on a computer equipped with a webcam, you can use the video chat feature offered by some IM services. If you are out running errands and remember you have a 2:30 Skype video conference, you could pop into a Best Buy and use one of the demo computers. It would be really unprofessional of you, but you could do it if you had to.

Audio

The same is true with voice chat. Like webcams, most computers have a microphone of some kind or at the very least, an option to plug one in. If you are doing other things on the web and simply don’t want to type, you can utilize imo.im to speak your mind via services like Skype hands free.

Signing In

To make your signing in easier, imo.im lets you link the accounts you use the most together for ease of logging in. All this really does is allow one click sign in for all of the accounts you have linked.

Other Goodies – Picture Sharing

Imo.im has a photo sharing program. To share, simply email the photo to photos@imo.im from the email address you registered; that’s it. You have 2GB of space to store your photographic masterpieces.

Whiteboard

The whiteboard is a basic collaboration tool. It is almost like a collaborative Microsoft Paint. You can type, use the pre-made shapes and even doodle or write in the open area. I could see this being handy for an impromptu brainstorming session.

Overall, the basics of this web based service are pretty similar to many of the desktop apps available Adium, Trillium and Digsby. The biggest difference over the desktop counterparts is being able to access it from any computer with an internet connection. Great if you are traveling sans laptop and have to use the hotel lobby computer in a pinch.

What other web based IM services are available?

There are several ways to record inbound and outbound audio in Linux, but Skype Call Recorder (SCR) is specifically designed for Skype. It is a free and open-source application with which you can record calls in MP3, Ogg Vorbis, or WAV format. It supports manual and automatic recording, which can be configured for specific callers.

Installation

1. Go to the Skype Call Recorder website.
2. Scroll to the download area on the main page. Packages are available for Ubuntu (x86 and x86_64), Debian, Asus Eee PC (running Xandros), RPM-based (x86 and x86_64), Arch Linux, a Gentoo ebuild and a source code tarball.
3. Download and install the Skype Call Recorder package for your system. It should then appear in your application menu.

Preparation

1. Start Skype.
2. Open your application launcher menu and start Skype Call Recorder. If you cannot find it, you can manually start it by running the command “skype-call-recorder“.
3. Skype should pop up a window saying “A program “SkypeCallRecorder” is trying to connect to Skype”.  Click “Yes“. If you want, you may also check “Remember this selection”.
4. Right click on the new icon in your system tray area and click “Preferences“.
5. Select whether you want it to automatically record every call, ask before recording, or not at all. From this tab you can also edit “per-caller recording”.
6. Click the “File Names” tab and select the folder where you want SKR to save your files.
7. Click the “File Format” tab and select the format you prefer. Ogg Vorbis is an open format and less lossy than MP3, but MP3 is more widely available for playback on portable devices. WAV will be uncompressed but will produce a large file if you have long calls. You can raise the MP3 bitrate to improve quality.
8. When you are satisfied with your preferences, click “Close”.

Making a call

Assuming you have already used Skype, your audio mixer settings should be ready to record calls. If not, you need to make sure you have “mic” or microphone set to record and that “capture” is enabled. To test it, you can use a regular sound recorder to record your own voice.

1. Start a Skype call the way you normally would. Click on a contact or enter a number.
2. The call will ring as it normally does, but when the person on the other end answers, a window will appear asking you if you would like to continue recording. Select “Yes“, and your call will now be recorded until you hang up.
3. After you end the call, check the folder you specified for your phone call file. You should be able to listen to it in whatever music player you prefer.

That is all it takes to record your Skype calls. Anytime you want to record calls, it will be configured and ready to go.

*Note: Please be advised that it is illegal in some countries to record calls without the consent of the other party. Even if it is not in your country, it is considered ethical by most people to inform the other person that you are recording them.