…and annoying.  For some reason our domain name registrar didn’t auto-renew our domain name, sent us no notification or warnings, etc. and our main domain was taken off the air, despite the fact we have been with them for around 14 years or so.  As soon as we realized what had happened we got it sorted out, but it meant the website was down for at least 24 hours.  If you had problems reaching our website or contacting us, please accept my apologies.

If all goes according to plan, PhonePad 4.15 will be released within the next week or so.  In addition to improved performance and some other changes, we think you will appreciate the enhanced Follow Up functionality.

This will be a free upgrade for all licensed PhonePad users.

Stay tuned.

We are pleased to announce that PhonePad Version 4.14 has been released and is now available for download. This is a free upgrade for all licensed PhonePad clients which can be downloaded from My PhonePad Account.

New Features

• Import Users – PhonePad Admin can now import users in one batch via CSV or XML files. This should make it easier for networks with a lot of users.

• New Reports – New statistics reports added to PhonePad Admin.

Changes and Problems Fixed

• Added Refresh option to user list in Receptionist mode.
• Added Quick Print option for printing messages in a compact format to save paper.
• Fixed problem with message area default font not observing settings in Preferences.
• Fixed problem with flash notification option continually flashing.
• In Receptionist mode, the search option should search the selected user’s Inbox – fixed.
• Search not returning all results – bug in search code – fixed.
• Fixed problem with PhonePad Admin starting with a blank user list when there was a database connection error.
• Fixed problem with user list in Receptionist mode showing blank entries.
• Removed Logged In status from PhonePad Admin as it is not reliable.
• Miscellaneous fixes in In-Out Board.
• Updated links in SupportCenter.

Downloading PhonePad

PhonePad Version 4.14 can be downloaded from My PhonePad Account under the My Downloads section: http://www.myaccount.cybercom-software.com.

Seasons greetings! To all PhonePad users, those thinking of becoming PhonePad users, and to those who decided PhonePad isn’t for them, we wish you and your families all the very best for this holiday period.

PS. Support will be available over the holiday period, with the exception of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

We have just released a new version of DBRepair, the utility for fixing problems with your PhonePad data.  This new version has an improved interface and can fix problems the previous version couldn’t.

During the repair process with previous versions it would sometime appear as though DBRepair had frozen, when in fact it was not refreshing the user interface because of intense repair operations.  This has been improved with the new version, as you can see from the screenshot below.

In addition to the overall progress, DBRepair now displays the progress of the individual operation being performed.  Icons make it easy to identify any problems that need your attention.

The current version of PhonePad has been rebuilt with the new version of DBRepair.  You can either re-download PhonePad Version 4.13, or you can download DBRepair using the links below.

• Download DBRepair application
• Download DBRepair help file
• Download DBRepair user guide
• Access DBRepair online help

Hey, guess what.  We decided to totally revamp the client portal and, after a few weeks of development in the dungeon, it’s now online and ready for use.  The previous version of the portal was known as Client Central.  The new portal is called My PhonePad Account.  You know, ’cause you have PhonePad and it’s, umm, your account.  Well, it made sense to me.

Alrighty then.

If you’re not sure what the client portal is all about then let me fill you in.  Once you login to your account (you get an account when you purchase PhonePad), you can view and update your contact information, access your license details, download earlier versions of PhonePad (but only if you want to), as well as do a few other useful things.

We’re planning on adding more features over the next few months to make it a (hopefully) handy resource for you.  And we’ll be jazzing it up a bit more as well.  Maybe adding a few decorations here and there.

One good thing about the portal is that you can maintain your contact information, such as address, phone number, email address, or what have you.  This is real important stuff as it means we can not only keep you up to date as new versions are released, but if you need to retrieve your license info at any stage it ensures you actually receive it.  That’s a good thing, right?  Otherwise, it might end up going to an old email address or whatever the Internet equivalent of a dead letter office is.

We were going to send out passwords to everyone for the new portal, but instead of bombarding you with unexpected emails we thought we’d wait until you’re ready.  So, to get your password sent to you, click on the “Forgotten Your Password” link on the portal home page.  Our magic elves work 24 hours a day so your password will be emailed to you within a couple of minutes.  If you don’t receive it *please* check your spam folder – your spam filter may have gobbled it up.

Oh, nearly forgot, you can access your My PhonePad Account (does that make sense, sounds kind of funny to me) by clicking the My Account button on any page on the website.  Or just click here.  Whatever takes your fancy.

As always, if you have any problems please let us know.

Most of the PhonePad applications (PhonePad, PhonePad Admin, DBConnect, AutoBackup, etc.) come with their own help files to, well, help you.

In addition to your application help files, you can now access the same help via the Internet.  All of the help files are available online from our website, complete with indexes and a search facility to help you quickly locate the information you’re after.

The online help page has a list of all available help.  Just click on the one you want and you’ll be taken straight to the relevant help.

The online help files will be updated whenever the application help files are updated.

If your help files are located on a network drive and you have applied the Microsoft Security Update 896358, you won’t be able to display these files. There are ways around this, which we published in an article in our online knowledge base a few years ago.

Forgetting to backup your data is normally not a good thing.  However, if you have the PhonePad Automatic Backup system (DBAutoBackup) installed you can forget to do your backups and they’ll still be done!

Just set your backup schedule and then you can forget about backing up your data.  Just like before, except this time you’re covered.

AutoBackup runs as a Windows service, which means it’s always running, even when the server or host computer is logged out (but not if you turn it off, of course).  As AutoBackup doesn’t have its own user interface, it comes with AutoBackup Manager so you can easily create your backup schedule and manage various settings.  It also makes it simple to install and run the AutoBackup service.

You can get it now for a measly $24.95.  You only need one license for your network so that’s pretty cheap insurance.  Get it quickly though because we may be increasing the price soon.

We all know how important it is to backup data on a regular basis.  But who remembers to do it as often as we should? It’s usually not until something happens and we scramble for the latest backup that we realize just how long ago the last backup was done.  Having had 3 hard drive failures in the last 5 years, I know that dreaded feeling.

To make it easy for you to remember to back up your PhonePad, or perhaps not remember, we will be shortly releasing PhonePad Automatic Backup.  This new application runs as a Windows service that you can literally set and forget.  Just specify how often you want backups performed and Automatic Backup will take care of the rest.   Amazingly, users don’t have to log out while backups are being done – they can be performed even when users are still logged in and using PhonePad.

PhonePad Automatic Backup should be available in the next few days at a very reasonable price.

We have discovered that user accounts for the support forums have not been successfully migrated during our recent change in web servers.  Damn.  Sorry about that.  We’ll get it sorted out as soon as we can.