I decided some time back that I was going to try and use Skype for most of my phone calls, despite my never-ending struggle to get a decent level of sound quality to my calls (it varies wildly between shouting and whispering). One of the things that helped me to make the decision to switch more of my calls to Skype was the ability to record my phone calls as downloadable audio files.

Now this is not an automatic built-in feature of Skype (although it SHOULD be). Instead I finally found a reliable software tool to do my recording for me (and it isn't that irritating Pamela recorder that fights like an alleycat when you try to uninstall it). I've always wanted to record my phone calls but either a) the recording tools have been mediocre in standard or b) the damn thing tells the other caller that they are being recorded! I mean, what's the point of recording the calls if the other person knows they are being recorded? Kind of defeats the purpose of recording your calls in the first place. I only want the recordings as my own private personal record of what was said. I don't want the other person to start getting paranoid about what sinister motives I may have for recording their every utterance. It isn't as if I'm going to start issuing blackmail demands.

Anyway, I found a software program called PowerGramo which converts all the recordings into digital audio files ("wav" files but you can also make them into mp3 files if you download a separate plug-in or "ogg" files). The sound quality is amazingly clear and exporting them from the software interface to your computer is extremely easy. There's also no warning to the other side that they are being recorded. My girlfriend's brother was recorded this morning when he was called on Skype and he had absolutely no idea he was being recorded (neither did my girlfriend for that matter!).

The free version would normally be good enough for most people as it allows you to record Skype-to-Skype calls. However if you also want to record your SkypeIn and SkypeOut calls to normal numbers then you need to pay $25 and upgrade to the pro version. So it was that this afternoon, I broke the habit of a lifetime by paying for a piece of software - I purchased an upgrade!