Phonon 1.0.1

Fixes from the launch feedback, a few features people asked for, and a correction model that puts the question mark back.

What's new

• Questions end with "?". Parakeet often ends a spoken question with a period, and the old model kept it. The new correction model ends a question with "?" in every writing mode, casual included, without adding one to statements: on a 40-question probe in minimal mode it went from 19 to 40 right (casual from 0 to 40), with no false "?" on 40 look-alike statements in any mode.
• Answer words and confirmation tags stay. A leading "Yeah," or "No," and a closing "..., right?" are kept instead of being cut as filler.
• Better text overall. On 2,522 real dictations, a local judge preferred the new model's text over 1.0's 575 times to 248 (1,200 came out the same), and it kept the meaning better 156 to 98. Details on the model card.
• Tap to start and stop. Settings, under Shortcut, "Tap to start and stop": one tap of Globe (fn) or Right Option starts dictation, the next press stops it. Holding still works as push-to-talk. Off by default. (#34)
• Lists and emails get line breaks. Dictated steps become a numbered list with one item per line in every mode but casual, and in email a dictated greeting and sign-off go on their own lines. Casual chat stays one paragraph.
• Writing mode per app. Settings > Advanced lets you pin minimal, casual, formal or prompt for any app, overriding the automatic pick.
• Your own model, if you want one. "Your own model endpoint" in Settings can send the transcript to any OpenAI-compatible endpoint you choose, with the key kept in your Keychain. Off by default; there is no Phonon server. Phonon uses the endpoint's text only if it arrives within 6 seconds and passes the same safety check as the local model, otherwise the local result. Speech recognition always stays on your Mac. (#24)
• Other audio gets out of the way. While you hold the key, music or a video playing through your speakers fades down (or mutes, your choice in Settings > Dictation) so it does not end up in the transcript, then fades back.
• New microphone? Phonon asks once whether to use it first.
• Import from other dictation apps. Bring your dictionary, replacements, snippets, history and shortcut over from Wispr Flow, Aqua Voice, superwhisper, VoiceInk, MacWhisper or FluidVoice. Dictations into private apps stay out.
• Whispers count. The silence check lets more softly spoken dictations through (it used to drop close to half of whispered clips).

Fixes

• Left Option no longer starts a Right Option dictation. Thanks @oazabir (#29, fixes #23).
• Control-Space is only reserved when your shortcut uses it, so it switches input sources again in the default setup. Thanks @jmmarotta (#32).
• Globe (fn) is more reliable: a press after a lost key release now starts dictation instead of being ignored, and two quick taps that recorded nothing show a hint to hold the key. If macOS is set to do something else when you press Globe, Phonon now tells you. (#21)
• Every card above the capsule has a close button. (#22)
• Phonon tells you when Input Monitoring is off, on every page and in the menu bar, instead of silently ignoring the hold key.
• The MLX fallback's memory no longer keeps growing with every dictation. Thanks @jmmarotta (#33, fixes #27).

Updating

• Updating downloads the new correction model, about 2.1 GB (its GGUF and its MLX fallback). Parakeet is unchanged.

Known issues

• In Slack, Teams and Google Chat (formal mode), a dictated greeting such as "Hi Sam," can land on its own line.
• "Now what?"-style questions are often trimmed.
• About half of self-corrections are still missed.
• Tested on M4 and M4 Max. M1 to M3 have not been tested on hardware yet; if the Metal engine fails its startup self-test there, Phonon uses MLX as before.
• English only.

Install

brew install --cask infatoshi/tap/phonon

or download Phonon.dmg below (signed and notarized). Existing installs see the update within a day, or run brew upgrade --cask phonon.

License

Phonon stays GPL-3.0. The refiner weights are under the LFM Open License v1.0. Parakeet is CC-BY-4.0 (NVIDIA). The engine links llama.cpp (MIT, commit 39febd2 plus the patch in third_party/llama.cpp).