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Local Transcriber 0.10

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@teconomix teconomix released this 28 Oct 11:31
· 5 commits to main since this release
v0.10
045ee35

Recordings from your iPhone, speech recognition with half the memory, and a thorough review for reliability and privacy.

Install or update (Apple Silicon, macOS 14+): in the app, “Copy update command”, or

curl -fsSL https://transcriber.teconomix.net/install.sh | bash

Homebrew: brew upgrade --cask local-transcriber.

New: recordings from your iPhone (Settings › Recording › iPhone, off by default)

  • Shortcut “Send to Transcriber”: add it with the QR code or via AirDrop from Settings; share a voice memo to it and it lands on your Mac, gets transcribed and named.
  • iCloud inbox: recordings saved to iCloud Drive › Transcriber are moved to ~/Transcriber/iPhone and removed from iCloud.
  • AirDrop inbox, no cloud: audio files you AirDrop to the Mac are picked up from Downloads (only audio that arrived via AirDrop after you turned this on – everything else stays where it is).
  • Multi-track voice memos (.qta) are supported.
  • New and little tested on real iPhones yet – feedback welcome.

New: Whisper in 8-bit

  • New installations use Whisper large-v3-turbo in 8-bit: measured on 70 recordings just as accurate as the full model, half the disk space (~0.9 instead of 1.6 GB) and about 0.8 GB less memory, also for dictation.
  • Existing installations keep their model. Switch or delete models in Settings › Recording › Speech recognition; the installer accepts --compact / --fp16.

Also new

  • Start the AI server on demand: for a local model, Settings › AI › “Start command” starts it when needed and stops it after a while without use.
  • Panel: entries can be collapsed, show the first paragraph of a short summary, and are sorted by last edited (sorting and time range selectable in Settings › General).
  • All transcriptions: a window with every transcript under ~/Transcriber – filter by folder, sort, search titles, events and names.
  • Delete audio after 30 days now covers all of ~/Transcriber including subfolders and videos, counted from the transcription date.

More reliable

  • Recordings survive a crash: the file is written in fragments, so a crash, forced restart or power loss no longer destroys the whole recording; interrupted recordings show up again when the app starts.
  • Warnings during recording if the microphone stops delivering sound or the file cannot be written – instead of noticing only afterwards.
  • The All transcriptions window could hang once the library grew past about 100 transcripts – fixed.
  • The folder watcher restarts itself after an update and picks up changed settings (e.g. the model) without a restart.
  • Dictation: if you switch apps before the text is inserted, it goes to the clipboard instead of the wrong app.

Privacy

  • Names protected more thoroughly before a cloud model sees a transcript: also possessive forms (“Anna’s”), all caps, other Unicode forms, and the names of everyone in your voice database – in the transcript and in the title.
  • The MCP tool summarize_transcript uses a cloud model only if the app allows it without a click.
  • Deleting: the 30-day deletion checks that a file really is the transcribed one (reused names like “New Recording.m4a”); disconnected drives are never touched; leftover audio copies of failed jobs are removed. Deleting audio and transcript in Finder keeps your voice profiles – “Delete everything” in the app removes them.
  • The app's data folder is readable only by you; bug reports also hide folder names.

Fixed

  • Installer and website state the current model sizes.
  • Many smaller fixes from a full code review (bug reports no longer go to Downloads, settings saved without pressing Return, deleting a template asks first).
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