Update README for 1.4.1

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Bump version to 1.4.1
2026-09-16 14:18:04 +02:00 · 2026-09-16 14:17:44 +02:00 · 2026-09-16 14:17:44 +02:00 · 2026-09-16 12:25:58 +02:00 · 2026-09-16 11:29:30 +02:00 · 2026-09-16 11:29:30 +02:00
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -12,21 +12,46 @@ A simple menu bar app for voice dictation using OpenAI Whisper (local, offline).

 ## macOS

+### What's new in 1.4.1
+
+- 🎨 **Native icons instead of emoji** — the menu bar icon, recording overlay, download window, menus and Settings now use macOS SF Symbols: sharp at any size, matching light/dark menu bars, and the menu bar microphone turns red while recording
+
+### What's new in 1.4.0
+
+- 💬 **Live preview while recording** — the recording overlay shows what you're saying as you speak, using macOS's on-device dictation model (works in Hungarian too). It's a preview: the pasted text still comes from Whisper, so it can differ slightly. Toggle it in Settings.
+
+### What's new in 1.3.1
+
+- 🪶 **Quantized models** — *Large v3 Turbo q5_0* keeps the transcription server at ~0.7 GB RAM instead of ~1.75 GB, at the same speed (also Small q5_1, Medium q5_0, Turbo q8_0 and Large v3 q5_0)
+- 📥 **Download progress window** — progress bar, size, speed, time remaining, Cancel/Retry; progress also shows in the menu bar and Settings
+- 🔥 **Model warm-up at recording start** — if the model was paged out after a pause, it starts loading as soon as you start talking, not after you stop; the HUD tells you when a transcription is slower because the model is still loading
+
+### What's new in 1.3.0
+
+- ⚡ **Warm transcription server** — the Whisper model stays loaded in a background `whisper-server`, so each dictation is a fast local call (~0.5s) instead of reloading the 1.5–1.6 GB model on every utterance
+- 📊 **Live mic-level HUD** while recording, which warns ("No audio input?") if the microphone stays silent
+- 📖 **Custom dictionary** — an editable *Heard → Replacement* table that fixes names/jargon in the transcript and also biases recognition
+
 ### Features

 - 🎤 Global hotkey (⌃⌥D) to start/stop recording
+- ⚡ Fast transcription via a warm whisper-server (model stays loaded — no per-dictation reload), with automatic fallback to `whisper-cli`
+- 📊 Live mic-level meter while recording, with a "no audio input" warning
+- 💬 Live transcript preview in the recording overlay (on-device Apple dictation model; Whisper still produces the pasted text)
+- 📖 Custom dictionary (heard → replacement) that also biases recognition
 - 🔒 Fully offline - uses local Whisper model
- ⚡ Automatic paste into any focused app
+- ⌨️ Automatic paste into any focused app
 - 📋 Clipboard preservation - your copied content is restored after paste
 - ⚙️ Settings window with model selection dropdown
- 📥 Built-in model downloader with progress indicator
+- 📥 Built-in model downloader with a progress window (speed, time remaining, cancel/retry)
+- 🪶 Quantized model options for much lower memory use
 - 🚀 Launch at login support
 - 🔊 Sound feedback (optional)
- 📦 Self-contained - whisper-cli bundled in app
+- 📦 Self-contained - whisper-cli and whisper-server bundled in the app

 ### Requirements

- macOS 13.0+
+- macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later
 - Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) or Intel Mac

 ### Quick Install (Download)
@@ -64,9 +89,9 @@ make install
 ### Usage

 1. Launch WhisperDictate from Applications
-2. Look for the 🎤 icon in your menu bar
+2. Look for the microphone icon in your menu bar
 3. Press **⌃⌥D** (Control + Option + D) to start recording
-4. Speak (icon changes to 🔴)
+4. Speak (the menu bar microphone turns red)
 5. Press **⌃⌥D** again to stop and transcribe
 6. Text is automatically pasted where your cursor is

@@ -74,8 +99,10 @@ make install

 Click the menu bar icon → Settings to configure:
 - **Language**: Auto-detect or 31 supported languages
- **Model**: Select from installed models or download new ones
+- **Model**: Select from installed models or download new ones (✓ marks models already downloaded)
+- **Dictionary**: Add *Heard → Replacement* pairs to fix names/jargon (use `\n` for a newline); the replacement terms also improve recognition
 - **Sound feedback**: Toggle audio feedback on/off
+- **Live preview while recording**: Show a rough live transcript in the recording overlay (on by default)
 - **Launch at login**: Start automatically when you log in

 ### Whisper Models
@@ -91,8 +118,22 @@ Download models directly from the app or manually:
 | Large v3 Turbo | 1.6 GB | ~4 sec | Best | **Recommended** - fast like Medium, accurate like Large |
 | Large v3 | 3.1 GB | ~8 sec | Maximum | Difficult audio, max accuracy |

+**Quantized variants** (q5/q8) have much smaller weights, so the model uses far less memory, with a small accuracy trade-off:
+
+| Model | Size | Full-size equivalent |
+|-------|------|----------------------|
+| Small q5_1 | 181 MB | Small (466 MB) |
+| Medium q5_0 | 514 MB | Medium (1.5 GB) |
+| Large v3 Turbo q5_0 | 547 MB | Large v3 Turbo (1.6 GB) — measured ~0.7 GB RAM vs ~1.75 GB, same speed |
+| Large v3 Turbo q8_0 | 833 MB | Large v3 Turbo (1.6 GB) — near-identical accuracy |
+| Large v3 q5_0 | 1.0 GB | Large v3 (3.1 GB) |
+
 Models are stored in `~/.whisper-models/`

+> With the warm server (1.3.0+), the selected model loads once at startup (a few seconds); after that each dictation skips the reload, so the speeds above are roughly the per-dictation transcription time.
+>
+> The server keeps the whole model in memory while it runs. If macOS pages it out after a long pause, 1.3.1+ starts loading it back as soon as you start recording, and the HUD shows *"Loading model into memory…"* if that takes a moment.
+
 ### Audio Feedback

 - 🔔 **Tink** - Recording started
@@ -114,6 +155,8 @@ Grant these in System Settings → Privacy & Security:
 ## Security

 - All processing is done locally - no data leaves your device
+- The live preview uses macOS's on-device dictation model (SpeechAnalyzer); it needs no extra permission beyond the microphone
+- The bundled `whisper-server` is bound to `127.0.0.1` (loopback only) and is never exposed on the network
 - Audio files are stored in private temp directory and deleted after transcription
 - Clipboard is cleared after paste (transcript doesn't remain accessible)
 - Original clipboard content is preserved and restored after paste
--- a/macos/Makefile
+++ b/macos/Makefile
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@

 APP_NAME = WhisperDictate
 APP_BUNDLE = $(APP_NAME).app
-VERSION = 1.2.1
+VERSION = 1.4.1

 # Directories
 SRC_DIR = src
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ BUNDLE_DIR = $(APP_BUNDLE)/Contents

 # Compiler settings
 SWIFT = swiftc
-SWIFT_FLAGS = -O -framework Cocoa -framework AVFoundation -framework Carbon -framework CoreGraphics -framework ServiceManagement
+SWIFT_FLAGS = -O -framework Cocoa -framework AVFoundation -framework Speech -framework Carbon -framework CoreGraphics -framework ServiceManagement

 .PHONY: all clean build bundle install run dmg

--- a/macos/WhisperDictate.app/Contents/Info.plist
+++ b/macos/WhisperDictate.app/Contents/Info.plist
@@ -19,9 +19,9 @@
 	<key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
 	<string>APPL</string>
 	<key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
-	<string>1.2.1</string>
+	<string>1.4.1</string>
 	<key>CFBundleVersion</key>
-	<string>2</string>
+	<string>6</string>
 	<key>LSMinimumSystemVersion</key>
 	<string>13.0</string>
 	<key>LSUIElement</key>
--- a/macos/src/main.swift
+++ b/macos/src/main.swift
Szerző	SHA1	Üzenet	Dátum
hariel1985	c2bd30bbf5	Update README for 1.4.1 Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-09-16 14:18:04 +02:00
hariel1985	8bbea20dcc	Bump version to 1.4.1 Patch release: native SF Symbols icons instead of emoji in the menu bar, recording HUD, download window, menus and Settings. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-09-16 14:17:44 +02:00
hariel1985	6b6d9342a9	Replace emoji icons with SF Symbols The menu bar, recording HUD, download window, menus and Settings used emoji as icons. They now use SF Symbols: vector, crisp at any scale, and template-rendered in the menu bar so they follow light, dark and tinted menu bars. Menu bar: mic (idle), red mic.fill (recording), hourglass (transcribing / loading the model), arrow.down.circle with the percentage (downloading). The icon is now driven by a state (idle/recording/busy) instead of comparing emoji strings, so download progress can't overwrite the recording indicator. Icons carry accessibility descriptions. Coloured symbols are tinted by drawing the monochrome symbol, which keeps knockouts transparent (a one-colour palette filled in the tick of checkmark.circle.fill). Status warnings take a warning flag and show a yellow triangle instead of a "⚠️" prefix. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-09-16 14:17:44 +02:00
hariel1985	78caac8d04	Fix silent live preview on stereo and multi-input audio interfaces AVAudioConverter keeps only channel 1 when downmixing stereo and outputs pure silence for layout-less multi-channel inputs (e.g. a 4-input USB interface such as the UA Volt 476P), so the dictation model heard nothing and the HUD never showed text. Pick the channel that carries the voice (loudest on smoothed energy, switching only on a clear 6 dB margin) and convert it as mono. Also reserve the dictation locale, which the Speech framework warns will become required, and log the mic format. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-09-16 12:25:58 +02:00
hariel1985	fef0cd4ade	Update README for 1.4.0 Also correct the requirement to macOS 26: the app is built against the macOS 26 SDK with a macOS 26 deployment target. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-09-16 11:29:30 +02:00
hariel1985	3890cd8ab4	Bump version to 1.4.0 Minor release: live transcript preview in the recording HUD using the on-device Apple dictation model, with Whisper still producing the final pasted text. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-09-16 11:29:30 +02:00
hariel1985	0983ba0fde	Add live transcript preview in the recording HUD While recording, the HUD now shows a rough live transcript using macOS's on-device dictation model (SpeechAnalyzer + DictationTranscriber), which also supports Hungarian. It is only a preview: Whisper still produces the pasted text. The preview captures the microphone with its own AVAudioEngine, leaving the AVAudioRecorder path for Whisper untouched, so a preview failure just means no preview. Audio is buffered from the moment recording starts so the first words aren't lost while the model spins up; dictionary terms are passed as contextual strings and replacements are applied to the preview text. The dictation model for the selected language is registered/downloaded at launch and on language change, and awaited inline if needed. The HUD is wider and shows the last three lines of the transcript; after recording it stays up as "Transcribing…" until the final text is pasted. A "Live preview while recording" setting (on by default) turns it off. No extra permission is required beyond the microphone. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-09-16 11:29:30 +02:00
hariel1985	b8f4a222f8	Update README for 1.3.1 Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-09-16 11:00:27 +02:00
hariel1985	71178c81bd	Bump version to 1.3.1 Patch release: quantized Whisper models (Turbo q5_0 needs ~0.7 GB RAM instead of ~1.75 GB), a download progress window, and model warm-up at recording start with a HUD notice when the first transcription is slow. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-09-16 11:00:02 +02:00
hariel1985	4584d30e02	Add quantized models, download progress window and model warm-up Quantized models: add Small q5_1, Medium q5_0, Large v3 Turbo q5_0/q8_0 and Large v3 q5_0 to the catalog. Turbo q5_0 keeps whisper-server at ~0.7 GB instead of ~1.75 GB with the same speed. Installed models show their catalog name; the first-run wizard uses a popup instead of one button per model. Download feedback: a progress window with bar, size, speed, time left, cancel and retry, followed by "loading" and "ready" steps. Progress also shows in the menu bar icon, the status menu and the Settings button, and the Settings model list refreshes when done. Only one download runs at a time, an existing model is replaced only after a successful download, and HTTP errors are reported instead of saving the error page as a model. Model warm-up: start loading the model when recording starts instead of after it stops. After 2+ minutes idle a tiny silent request pages the model back in while the user talks; a dead server is restarted, and a server that is still loading is awaited rather than loading the model a second time via whisper-cli. If loading takes over 2.5 s the recording HUD explains why this transcription is slower. Server start no longer overwrites the recording/transcribing menu bar icon. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-09-16 11:00:02 +02:00
hariel1985	29d0c0e503	Update README for 1.3.0 Document the warm whisper-server, live mic-level HUD, and custom dictionary; add them to the feature list and Settings; note the loopback-only server and the one-time model load at startup. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-06-27 16:02:20 +02:00
hariel1985	fdf8bf9743	Use English for all UI strings (HUD + dictionary) The new HUD label and the dictionary table labels/placeholders were in Hungarian; the rest of the app is English. Translated: "No audio input?", "Recording…", "Dictionary (heard → replacement):", column titles "Heard"/"Replacement", and the field placeholders/hint. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-06-27 09:26:35 +02:00
hariel1985	aa241f55c8	Bump version to 1.3.0 Minor release: warm whisper-server backend (no per-dictation model reload), live mic-level HUD with silence warning, and a custom recognised->replacement dictionary that also biases the whisper prompt. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-06-27 09:20:33 +02:00