GearVox Change Log

2003/04/21 3.0.6.6

Fixes problem of GearVox not accepting some registration keys
Updated method for POP3 message size checking code
Enhanced error trapping code in the message checker

2003/04/16 3.0.6.3

Updated help file, finalize documentation

2003/04/09 3.0.5.95

Updated help file for version 3.0 features
Added the standard minimize bar to the main window title bar. This will minimize GearVox to the system tray.
Scroll lock light e-mail notification is now monitor “Power Saver” friendly in addition to “Screen Saver” friendly
New accessibility feature: Pressing Alt-F1 will read aloud the flyover hint for the current control
Cut, copy and paste now work correctly in the Notification Action Editor
Several non-critical bug fixes

2003/03/20 3.0.4.74

First Public Beta 3.X, Many new features
MAPI (Microsoft Exchange Server) support
IMAP server support
Enhanced MIME message decoding engine
Global hotkey support for checking mail, muting sounds, launching e-mail, marking read messages, speaking clipboard and more
Tray icon double click action is now user configurable
Enhanced e-mail reminder function, ability to set reminder interval and play a wav file
Tips dialog now can be spoken aloud
Additional options for spoken e-mail notification
Optional playing of wav files on new mail
Enhanced scroll lock light notification, now screen saver friendly
Enchanced action editor supporting multiple column sorting and color coding
Lower memory usage for POP and IMAP account types
Minimize to tray is now a function of clicking the window title bar “X”
GearVox is now shareware, freeware mode removed

2002/08/27 2.2.4.9

Minor Change:
Release of non-english translations

2002/08/22 2.2.4.8

Minor Change:
Enhance error trapping for conditions when no e-mail accounts are enabled.
Correct a couple of typos

2002/08/21 2.2.3.3 Final

Changes:
Inserted a 1/2 second pause after speaking e-mail to prevent abrupt ending of spoken message.
Prevent the Agent from speaking repeated characters (~~~~…).
Final 2.2 cleanup.

2002/08/20 2.2.2.106 Beta

Feature Additions:
Registered users can use the advanced tags #TOD#, #SEQ#, and #RAN# in the Agent spoken greeting. These tags insert time of day (TOD) greetings, “Good Morning” etc. and Sequential (SEQ) or Random (RAN) quotes respectively via a user configurable text file. A demo text file, QuoteVox.ini is included in the distribution.

Changes:
Modified Notification Action grid editor.
Completed documentation and help for Notification Actions.
Notification Action grid now displays filtered message headers as well as recently received message headers.
Exposed all translation strings for new version 2.2 features.

2002/08/07 2.2.1.74 BETA

Feature Additions:
GearVox can now perform filtering (Notification Actions) on incoming message headers. You can ignore/allow speaking of messages based on values in the From, Subject, To and CC fields. Regular expression pattern matching is supported. The Notifiation Actions editor allows testing of filters on recently received messages.
Added XP themes support, optimized screen layout for XP

Changes:
Speak Sender/Subject is now two separate options. You can have GearVox speak just the sender, just to subject or both for e-mail notification.
Setting the scheduled mute on and off times to the same time will prevent the Agent from ever speaking, you will still get ballon text e-mail announced and read.
Double clicking Agent now marks e-mail as read by GearVox as well as stops the Agent from talking.
Single clicking the GearVox tray icon will now mark mail as read, previously single clicking did nothing. Double clicking is unchanged. Double clicking the tray icon will launch e-mail if you have mail waiting or open GearVox if no mail is waiting.
Agent no longer says “Message” for blank message bodies
Agent no longer says the name of the account if you only have one account active. i.e. “You have 2 new messages on ACCOUNT NAME” will now just be “You have 2 new messages”
Removed double quotes from From: header in Recent Messages menu display
Removed Repair data files button, this functionality is now automatic

Fixes:
Embedded style sheets are now stripped from html formatted messages before reading
Minor fixes for reading e-mail including quoted-printable encoded messages

2002/05/19 2.1.5.10

Updated German, Italian and Spanish language files

2002/05/16 2.1.5.10

Added Language version file checking. “Click for Automatic Update” will offer you new language files if they exist.
Added support for speaking body text of 7bit encoded mime messsages
Minor changes to error message text for timeouts during message download
Fixed problem problem when speaking some plain text formatted e-mail

2002/05/09 2.1.5.2

Minor fix for status line text not reflecting program state properly under certain conditions.

2002/05/05 2.1.5.0

Final 2.1 release clean up, no major changes.

2002/04/29 2.1.4.76 BETA

Fixes:
Minor rewrite of the POP checking code to fix problems created by non-standard e-mail headers
Fixed a bug that would report “Connection Closed Gracefully” instead of the proper “Connection Timed out” message
Corrected problem in greeting edit box that caused inadvertant highlighting of text when the hint box popped up.
Fixed color glitch on timeout slider

Changes:
New e-mail “Last Error” dialog will list e-mail checking errors by account with associated help file text updates
You will no longer get the Suspend Email checks hint when you don’t have the option checked on the E-mail tab

2002/04/24 2.1.3.69 BETA

Fixes:
Mime type email message body handling corrected, will handle a wider variety of encoded message bodies
Speak the clipboard text function modified to prevent failure when try to speak large text blocks

Changes:
New Advanced Option to Skip speaking the quoted original message body portions following “~~- Original Message -~~”
All appropriate menu and speaking strings are now exposed for translation. Updates to existing 2.0 translation files will be done after the 2.1 official release.
Added more “Don’t show this message again” usage hints
Help file updated for Version 2.1 features

2002/04/16 2.1.2.50 BETA

Fixes:
Broken support link on popup menu fixed
Draw marks checkbox on time screen now properly remembers its state between sessions
Fixed clock face drawing when Window’s desktop set to use large fonts
Greeting randomizer now works properly with 3d party Agent characters
Implemented workaround for improperly displayed “&” in the Agent balloon. Fixes balloon problems with some 3d party Agent characters.
Improved speech engine initialization code for non-engish users

Changes:
Option added to announce number of new e-mail messages when saying the time.
Better handling of URLS in spoken messages. URLs will not be spoken by the agent but will display in the text balloon.
Added Time pickers for the scheduled mute function. The time format can be forced to a 24-hour format by selecting 24-hour from the Notification Tab’s spoken time format section.
More tips added to the tip dialog
Added more error message popups and Hint Popups. All new popups have a “Don’t show this message again” checkbox.

2002/03/05 2.1.1.36 BETA

Fixes:
Complete MIME encoded e-mail support for speaking the message body, should handle html as well as text messages
Several minor bug fixes
Several cosmetic fixes

Changes:
Technical support tab now active, features problem diagnosis and help request form

2002/02/20 2.1.0.9 BETA

Fixes:
Fixed a not so obscure crash bug

Changes:
None

2002/02/20 2.1.0.8 BETA

Fixes:
Fixed a couple obscure crash bugs

Changes:
Added a Support Wizard to the Support Tab
Added a Repair data files function to the Support Tab

2002/02/20 2.1.0.7 BETA

Changes:
Max Timeout changed from 5 minutes to 10 minutes
Added optional Tips dialog to startup
Greeting may take the form “Hello Master|Hi Robert|Greetings!|” where text between the “|” symbol will be randomly chosen.
Shift-clicking the agent while speaking messages will skip to the next message or stop speaking if last message is being read.
Added “Speak All Recent” messages function. The registered/Trial NOT expired versions of GearVox will optionally read the entire email
Shift-scroll lock now skips to next message
Alt-Scroll lock stops agent from reading current messages and marks them as read

ADVANCED/ Registered Only Feature Additions:
GearVox can now optionally read the entire e-mail or portions to you. You can select messages to skip based on size and limit the number of lines read.
Added Mute feature, when enabled, no sound will be made by GearVox though the Agent will still announce messages silently (via the balloon text).
Added Scheduled Mute feature, set the on time, off time for scheduled mute. This is useful for folks that leave their computer running constantly.
Added speak clipboard text function

2001/12/19 2.0.11.103

Fixes:
ISO encoded text now is spoken correctly, no more =?iso-8859-1?Q?… if you receive ISO-8859 encoded e-mail.
Load time reduced when first starting GearVox
Numerous cosmetic and minor bug fixes

Changes:
All new improved tray icon graphics.
Email launching via the Scroll Lock key now requires that the “Flash Scroll Lock Keyboard Light” option be enabled. This was needed for system compatibility.

Notes:
If you don’t like seeing the Genie’s lamp in the tray, try Max the Dog, 570k at http://www.msagentring.org/

2001/11/30 Final release 2.0.10.92

Fixes:
Fixed a bug that would sometimes prevent the saving of e-mail account information on reboot.

Changes:
NONE

2001/11/25 Beta release 2.0.9 (RC1)

Fixes:
NONE

Changes:
Added a parameters box for launching e-mail client that may need command line options. Outlook Express does not require this option to work properly.
Added complete help file

2001/11/16 Beta release 2.0.8

Fixes:
Corrected another problem launching e-mail software. (Win NT 4 only) Grrrrr…
Main configuration screen now properly remembers its position after minimizing to the tray area.

Changes:
New option on notification tab: “Don’t move Character” If selected, the agent will stay in one position all the time. You can move the character around with the mouse and it will remember its position between sessions.
A partially translated German Language setup is available at http://www.gearheadforhire.com/languages/ You should install 2.0.8 before testing this language file.

2001/11/05 Beta release 2.0.7

Fixes:
Corrected problem launching e-mail software under NT
Auto start under win95 now works correctly
Configuration for notification locked out on wizard if agent was not installed
Fixed problem on systems that don’t have the American English TTS engine installed. Default.lng is now the default language file

Changes:
Scroll lock key will launch email without having the “Flash Scroll Lock Key” option enabled
Added integrity checks on message store files at startup
Pressing “Check Now” will mark your messages as Read (seen) by GearVox.
Stop button more responsive now
Modified Scroll Lock button code under Windows 9x/ME

2001/11/01 Beta release 2.0.6

This release fixes a BIG bug that prevented new messages from being announced by GearVox in certain situations. All beta users should upgrade to this version. Thanks to all that reported this especially Joe and Sean, who were insistant and helpful enough that I finally found it.

2001/10/31 Beta release 2.0.5

Launching e-mail application with the scroll lock key now brings it to the foreground
Fixed bug with Win9x/ME that prevents the Alt-TAB Window’s function from operating properly with the Scroll Lock flashing
Added full text english language file, a German version is in the works, if you edit the english.lng file, make sure you pick a unique name (don’t pick spanish.lng, german.lng, etc use someth like “_british.lng”) as subsequent releases will overwrite this file.
More code optimization

2001/10/28 Beta release 2.0.4

Fixed bug that caused the Agent to talk from off-screen on first run after booting
More optimizations, reduced memory footprint
Changes to the tray icon code to increase compatibility with 3d party menu managers
Launching e-mail now changes to the working directory of e-mail application

2001/10/24 Beta release 2.0.3

Bug Fix:
Tweaked the Scroll Lock Flash code, remember to press and HOLD ScrollLock or Shift-ScrollLock to either launch e-mail or Mark As Read by GearVox.
Lots of minor changes and resource optimizations
Stop button now cancels checking e-mail all accounts rather than just the one currently being checked.

Change:
The Agent will now speak “No New Messages” if you click “Check Now”.

2001/10/22 Beta release 2.0.2

Bug Fix:
Main configuration screen properly remembers its position now.
Replaced missing status messages and agent voice prompts when annoucing mail and time.
No error message was displayed if there wasn’t any entry in the Email Account editor
Fixed problem that caused GearVox to show the About screen on reboot instead of going automatically to the icon tray area.
Tweaked Tab orders in the dialog boxes

Change:
Added right click menu and hot keys to the Email account editor
ScrollLock light now flashes when new mail arrives, press and hold (about 1/2 sec or more) scrollLock to launch e-mail client and stop agent from talking. Press and Hold Shift-ScrollLock to mark as seen without launching e-mail client. Flash Scrollock Options must be checked for this functionality to work.

2001/10/19 Beta release 2.0.1

Numerous changes and enhancements, see the main website for details.

2001/02/10 First Release

Changes:
Added help file.
Minor cosmetic changes.

2001/02/12 Beta release 0.995

Bug Fix:
This version is a Windows 2000 compatibility fix, if you have Win2k, you’ll want this release.

Minor Change:
Added right click taskbar functionality to the main GearVox tabbed windows.

2000/06/04 Beta release 0.817

Changes:
POP error messages are now more user friendly
E-mail toolbar buttons are now accessible from all the tab screens
POP server timeout is now configurable from the new “E-mail Server” tab. The default is 30 seconds.

2000/05/15 Beta release 0.816

Bug Fix:
Window’s default sound notification now works properly if Agent is not used

Changes:
Double clicking on the Agent while speaking will shut him up
Double clicking the task bar icon when you have new mail will open your e-mail client software
The tray icon menu “Recent messages” is functional
Added more popup hints
Expanded tray icon menu options
Expanded e-mail checking error reporting
Added “Mark as Read” button to e-mail option screen
Added “Show last error” menu choice from tray icon
Modified tray icon graphics

2000/04/26 Beta release 0.808

Bug Fix:
Fixed error that prevented program startup if Dial-up Networking not installed

Changes:
Expanded tray icon menu options
Updates and Support URL passes current version number to server for version checking

2000/04/23 Beta Release 0.800

If you already have the first release, there is no compelling reason to
get version 0.800. 0.800 was released primarily to provide a smaller download
for users that already have the Microsoft Agent 2.0 installed.

Changes:

Two separate download setups, one without the Agent support files
Fixed problem of settings not being saved at Window’s shutdown
Prompt for e-mail client if not defined
Updated MSAgent information URL on About page

Discontinued Product

GearVox