Loudtalks

Loudtalks Lite 0.9.0.70 is available for download today for PC and Windows phones.

Release notes:

All platforms

1. [fix] Sometimes received non-empty messages didn’t play and appeared having 0:00 length in the history
2. [new] Improved public channels reliability
3. [new] Option to view the list of users currently connected to the public channel

Windows

1. [fix] Prevent application from “stealing” focus while reconnecting

Download Loudtalks Lite for Windows

Download Loudtalks Lite for Windows Mobile

The most recent update of Loudtalks Lite introduces new important feature — public talk channels. Public channels are open conversations between Loudtalks users, where as many as 100 people can participate at once. The concept is somewhat similar to Skypecasts, which were offered by Skype until discontinued in 2008.

Public channels are useful to:

1. Meet the new people from around the world
2. Discuss a topic with like minded strangers
3. Share and receive updates on important time-sensitive information (traffic situation in your area, stocks market etc)
4. Broadcast your status updates to interested followers (yes, like twitter)
5. Learn a new language

Connecting to existing channels

1. Use menu Tools > Add a channel…

2. Enter channel name or the keywords (you can try ‘lobby’ or ’support’) and press Next

3. It’ll show the list of the channels found. Click on the desired channel name to select it and click Next

4. After confirmation screen the channel will appear in your contacts.

5. To talk to the channel, select it in the contacts and use PTT key as usual. Please note that some channels may be “read-only”.

6. Use right-click on the channel name to Connect or Disconnect the channel or setup Auto-connect, when you log in.

7. If you want to delete the channel from your contacts you can use Tools > Delete selected contact(s) menu command.

When receiving a message from a channel both user name and channel name are displayed. In Loudtalks history you can use context menu on the incoming message to add the user who sent it to your contacts with one click. We are building the directory of the channels available to make the discovery easier.

Creating and managing your own channel

Have something interesting to share with the world? You can create one or more channels yourself!

1. Use Tools > Create a channel… menu command.

2. Name your channel, add description, select the channel type and click Next.

It’s very important to write a good and detailed description — the keywords it includes can be used by others to find your channel. Include the language of your channel, and its location (for location-sensitive information) into description. You can either allow anyone to talk on the channel or make it broadcast-only so you can talk uninterrupted. In the later case you may want to create another channel specifically for comments and mention it in the main channel description.

3. If the channel name is available, it’ll be created, added to your contacts and available for others to join.

4. The person who created the channel becomes channel administrator and have additional functions available in the context menu on incoming message in the history.

To fight abuse the channel admin can block any user from accessing the channel (or unblock the user previously blocked).

Hope you’ll enjoy the new feature! It’s still an early version of it so please share your suggestions and feedback — either in comments here or via ’support’ channel in Loudtalks Lite.

Update (May 12, 2010): Now you can browse the public channels online.

Loudtalks Lite just got a major update. 0.9.0.67 is an early release featuring public talk channels and only available for desktop platform for now. The next post will discuss public channels feature in details. Here is the complete list of changes in the new version:

All platforms

1. [new] Italian translation, contributed by Giacomo Girotto
2. [new] Chinese translation, contributed by 施宗杰 (JieJie)
3. [update] Updated Swedish, Romanian and Czech translations (kudos to Leif Larsson, Alexandru Bogdan Munteanu, and Ondřej Verzich)
4. [fix] Handling of concurrent incoming messages
5. [fix] Fixed playback of new message / new conversation notifications

Windows

1. [new] Public talk channels
2. [new] Added View > History… menu command to show the messages history for all contacts
3. [fix] Random crash in VOX mode

Download Loudtalks Lite for Windows

Download Loudtalks Lite for Windows Mobile

A little more than a year after public beta launch, a dozen of releases, and a hundred of fixed bugs later Loudtalks Cloud is now officially out of beta.

What it means for you?

1. The service is considered stable and suitable for the use in production environment
2. Core features set is complete but we have some new exciting plans in the roadmap (more on this later in this post)
3. If you use a Basic service plan (up to 10 users), you can continue using it
4. If you use a beta version of a premium service plan, you need to switch to a paid version before your beta expires to assure the uninterrupted use of the service.

Switching to a paid service plan

1. Check out Loudtalks Cloud pricing and available service plans
2. Log-in to your Loudtalks Cloud admin console, go to Account page and switch to the selected service plan
3. If you decided to use a free service plan you may need to remove the users and radio gateways to fit into the service plan limits first
4. If you are switching to a premium service plan, proceed to Account > Payment to complete the payment and activate your service plan.
5. Beta service plans are set to expire on March 15, 2010. Please switch to appropriate paid (or free) service plan before that date.

What’s next?

Here are a few things we want to focus on in the near future:

1. Extend and improve the SDK to allow developers better leverage our platform
2. Support more mobile platforms. iPhone, Blackberry and Android are in the short list.

The latter goal is quite ambitious but we strongly feel it’s very important. If you agree and want to help us making it happen earlier, go ahead and sign up for a premium Loudtalks Cloud service plan!

One more thing

If you have tested Loudtalks Cloud and planning to continue to use it, send us your feedback or suggestions on how we can improve the service, and we’ll credit your network account with $100, which you could use to pay for the premium service.

Release notes:

Windows

- Added animated status while connecting a call (only applicable if you use Clear to send)

- Improved sound capture

- Updated Romanian and Swedish translations

Windows Mobile

- Added animated status while connecting a call

- Fixed audio recording problems on some devices (particularly Samsung SGH-i627, Samsung SCH-i770, Intermec CN50)

- Correctly handle screen orientation changes

- Updated Romanian and Swedish translations

The update will be delivered through automatic updates today or you can download it manually now:

Download Loudtalks Lite for Windows

Download Loudtalks Lite for Windows Mobile

A minor Loudtalks Lite update is published today.

Release notes

Windows

1. [new] Automatic updates configuration. You can select one of three modes — Download automatically (default), Notify only and Disable
2. [new] Recording and playback level adjustment. Use this option if Loudtalks volume is too low or too loud. This control should be used with caution because if you set volume too high, it’ll cause sound “clipping” and bad artifacts.

Windows Mobile

1. [new] Automatic updates support
2. [new] Recording and playback level adjustment.
3. [fix] Distorted graphics and icons in 320×320 and 320×240 modes
4. [new] Automatic scrolling when the UI form doesn’t fit into device screen

Loudtalks for Windows
Loudtalks for Windows Mobile

Known issues

1. The current Windows Mobile build doesn’t display correctly on VGA and higher-resolution screens. The issue will be addressed in the next release. In the interim users with hi-res screens may use Loudtalks 0.9.0.54 (download .cab)
2. AT&T Tilt users are not able to assign device’s PTT button as a hotkey in Loudtalks. If you have this device and want to help fixing this issue please contact us at support@loudtalks.com
3. Some users report that Loudtalks can’t capture sound on their HTC-made Windows Mobile phone (HTC Touch and other models). We weren’t able to reproduce or isolate this issue yet. If you experience it, please contact us.
4. When running Loudtalks under Linux on WINE, you must disable notification sounds, otherwise it crashes on the incoming message.

Yesterday we’ve released a major Loudtalks update. It’s significant as it introduces major improvements to sound quality and the brand new voice-controlled hands-free operation mode. Here are the release notes:

Windows: 

1. [new] VOX-controlled handsfree option (more on this in the next post)
2. [new] Noise suppression
3. [new] Reduced latency to ~300 ms (under perfect conditions i.e LAN, could be longer due to network delay but in any case you’ll notice that this version is MUCH faster)
4. [new] Re-grouped settings to combine Hotkeys and Alerts on a single tab
5. [new] Show an overlay icon in the contacts for the users, who connect from mobile device
6. [fix] Crash when restoring from sleep / hibernate
7. [fix] Tray icon sometimes disappears

Windows Mobile:

1. [new] Noise suppression
2. [new] Reduced latency to ~300 ms (under perfect conditions)
3. [new] Added status line to the UI (shows your current online status)

Download the new release

This is unplanned follow-up release, which resolves crash issue we thought we’ve fixed in 0.9.0.48. It affected both desktop and mobile versions so if you experienced Loudtalks crashes be sure to update to this version.

Release notes

1. Fixed random crash, and connection issues for the users, who connect over TCP
2. Added “Use TCP connection only” option to Windows Mobile build

Download Loudtalks Lite 0.9.0.49 for Windows
Download Loudtalks Lite 0.9.0.49 for Windows Mobile

Updated desktop version of Loudtalks is available for download.

Changes list

1. Fixed random crash when connected over TCP
2. Disable running multiple copies of Loudtalks simultaneously by default. Added new checkbox to the Options to enable it back if you need.
3. Added Swedish localization, contributed by Leif Larsson. Not only he translated Loudtalks to Swedish but also helped refining English text both in the software and the site, and suggested many valuable improvements to the software (like the item above and some other things still in work). Tack, Leif!

Download Loudtalks Lite 0.9.0.48