dictation without internet?

[crankypuss]

Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
internet connection? TIA.

--
http://totally-portable-software.blogspot.com
[Sat Sep 03: "Associative Storage and Everything Everywhere"]

[Carlos E. R.]

On 2016-09-11 23:48, crankypuss wrote:
> Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
> internet connection? TIA.

You are the second chap I see asking that or similar :-)
In alt.comp.linux last week.

I don't remember the name, and I lost the device that did it. Perhaps I
kept backups and can have a look next week.

The TomTom car navigator does it in a limited way, and it runs in Linux.
The older device that I lost had one cute feature: you could have a look
at the filesystem and learn things. One of those things was the name of
the speech engine. If I recall correctly it was Italian and payware. In
a few days I may be able to look at backups and find out that name again
and tell you.

[...]

Wait, I just found I had a partial copy in the laptop. It is
"LoquendoTTS". Google finds hits on it. Probably you can find more from
that and tell us what you find :-)

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 09-11-2016 17:48, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> The TomTom car navigator does it in a limited way, and it runs in Linux.
> The older device that I lost had one cute feature: you could have a look
> at the filesystem and learn things. One of those things was the name of
> the speech engine. If I recall correctly it was Italian and payware. In
> a few days I may be able to look at backups and find out that name again
> and tell you.

Text-to-speech is not dictation.

But since you bring it up, I've never seen a GPS TTS that doesn't suck
in a country that doesn't use it's language. If you set it to English,
it will use English rules to pronounce the street names. In a country
speaking Spanish or Italian, this means that we've past the street by
the time I figure out what it was supposed to be saying.

--
Wes Groleau

[VanguardLH]

crankypuss wrote:

> Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
> internet connection? TIA.

What about the keyboard included in Android? I open the Memo app, state
a new not, and the keyboard shows up. In it is a microphone icon. Tap
on that and the Google voice input dialog appears. When it is ready, I
speak and the text shows up in the note. I can tap it again to pause
input and continue later. It's probably the same voice-to-text feature
that shows up when I do online searches; i.e., the mic icon in the
keyboard.

[Jasen Betts]

I'm fairly sure that connects to a server somewhere that does speech
to text, turn on "airplane mode" and see what happens.

--
This email has not been checked by half-arsed antivirus software

[Carlos E. R.]

On 2016-09-12 05:12, W. Wesley Groleau wrote:
> On 09-11-2016 17:48, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> The TomTom car navigator does it in a limited way, and it runs in Linux.
>> The older device that I lost had one cute feature: you could have a look
>> at the filesystem and learn things. One of those things was the name of
>> the speech engine. If I recall correctly it was Italian and payware. In
>> a few days I may be able to look at backups and find out that name again
>> and tell you.
>
> Text-to-speech is not dictation.

You can give it orders by voice. The vocabulary is limited, yes, it is
not that good as Google dictaphone, but it exists :-)

> But since you bring it up, I've never seen a GPS TTS that doesn't suck
> in a country that doesn't use it's language. If you set it to English,
> it will use English rules to pronounce the street names. In a country
> speaking Spanish or Italian, this means that we've past the street by
> the time I figure out what it was supposed to be saying.

Well, I have a tomtom, and most things it says I understand first time,
in Spanish. It is some city names that get weird pronunciation,
confusing a vowel (which is weird, because Spanish has strict
pronunciation rules from written text). Not as bad as not knowing what
it means, though. Only enough to laugh at it. For instance it pronounces
"Murcia" as "Murcie", and "giro" seems similar to "kiro".

The LoquendoTTS engine you can test at their website. What I do not know
for sure is if the voice recognition engine is from them, too.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

[Carlos E. R.]

Yes, it is "on line" service. They warn against using it for passwords
and other very sensitive data (in the conditions of use or in the help).

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

[Jolly Roger]

Carlos E. R. <robin_...@invalid.es> wrote:
>
> Yes, it is "on line" service. They warn against using it for passwords
> and other very sensitive data (in the conditions of use or in the help).

Then you aren't helping. The OP wrote:

"Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or

linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) *without* requiring an
internet connection? TIA."

--
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

[crankypuss]

What I find is Nuance's Dragon Dictation. I've heard it's good, but I
won't pay a nickel for anything that requires internet access, I already
have Siri for dictation as part of iOS but it's useless without internet
access and my connectivity through Verizon is marginal at best due to
location.

[crankypuss]

It's been a couple years since I last tried that. Just cranked it up
and remember why. It's mortally slow and grossly inaccurate. One word
in ten isn't going to make it, though it did get "shit" right every time
and censored "fuck" to "f***". It's garbage imo, but thanks for the
suggestion.

[Carlos E. R.]

On 2016-09-12 19:01, Jolly Roger wrote:
> Carlos E. R. <robin_...@invalid.es> wrote:
>>
>> Yes, it is "on line" service. They warn against using it for passwords
>> and other very sensitive data (in the conditions of use or in the help).
>
> Then you aren't helping. The OP wrote:
>
> "Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) *without* requiring an
> internet connection? TIA."

You are not reading.

Jasen wanted to confirm if it was online, answering a post by VanguardLH
who suggested it.

I suggested a set of libraries that work totally offline, in another
post. Payware. With doubts about it being good enough.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

[Carlos E. R.]

On 2016-09-12 18:50, crankypuss wrote:
> On 09/12/2016 12:06 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
>> crankypuss wrote:
>>
>>> Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
>>> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
>>> internet connection? TIA.
>>
>> What about the keyboard included in Android? I open the Memo app, state
>> a new not, and the keyboard shows up. In it is a microphone icon. Tap
>> on that and the Google voice input dialog appears. When it is ready, I
>> speak and the text shows up in the note. I can tap it again to pause
>> input and continue later. It's probably the same voice-to-text feature
>> that shows up when I do online searches; i.e., the mic icon in the
>> keyboard.
>>
>
> It's been a couple years since I last tried that. Just cranked it up
> and remember why. It's mortally slow and grossly inaccurate. One word
> in ten isn't going to make it, though it did get "shit" right every time
> and censored "fuck" to "f***". It's garbage imo, but thanks for the
> suggestion.

I find it here very accurate. You can disable the censoring. I have
written with it complete emails in a phone, but you have to review the
misses. Often tapping on a word or group of words it may suggest
alternatives and often one of those is the correct one.

However, it tries to be clever and guess the language, automatically,
and fails 50% of the time at that. I had to disable one language.

The biggest issue for you is that it needs an internet connection. The
conversion is not done locally, but on a server somewhere, apparently.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

[Jolly Roger]

Carlos E. R. <robin_...@invalid.es> wrote:
> On 2016-09-12 19:01, Jolly Roger wrote:
>> Carlos E. R. <robin_...@invalid.es> wrote:
>>>
>>> Yes, it is "on line" service. They warn against using it for passwords
>>> and other very sensitive data (in the conditions of use or in the help).
>>
>> Then you aren't helping. The OP wrote:
>>
>> "Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
>> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) *without* requiring an
>> internet connection? TIA."
>
> You are not reading.
>
> Jasen wanted to confirm if it was online, answering a post by VanguardLH
> who suggested it.

Thanks; it is VanguardLH who is not helping.

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 09-12-2016 11:36, crankypuss wrote:
> What I find is Nuance's Dragon Dictation. I've heard it's good, but I
> won't pay a nickel for anything that requires internet access, I already
> have Siri for dictation as part of iOS but it's useless without internet
> access and my connectivity through Verizon is marginal at best due to
> location.

I'm pretty sure Nuance is the engine for Dictation on the Mac. By
default it uses the 'net but it allows you to download what is needed to
use it off-line. I don't know the size of that stuff, but the IOS
version doesn't offer the option.

I found around a dozen dictation apps for IOS. Most of them stated they
need to contact a server. I didn't bother to try the ones that didn't
say. For two of them, "Dictation" meant you record your voice and then
hand the phone to a human typist. :-)

--
Wes Groleau

[VanguardLH]

Yep, just tested that. It doesn't work in Airplane mode (no data, no
wifi, no Bluetooth). That's probably why Jasen reported in his reply
that response is slow: has to get a server to do the transcribing.

[VanguardLH]

crankypuss wrote:

> Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
> internet connection? TIA.

My aunt has done more research than I. She said that all the [free]
apps [that she looked at] for voice-to-text transcription got mediocre
to bad reviews. Even Nuance's own [Dragon] Anywhere app isn't that
great according to her. Their app's description at Google's Play store
says it needs "view wi-fi connections" permissions. Why would it need
that unless it needed to connnect out? Well, it does have some cloud
features, so I don't know that the app needs wifi connectivity to only
do the voice-to-text transcription.

The app's description at the Google Play store doesn't mention price (or
mention it is free) and no mention of in-app purchases or ads. So I
can't tell if it is truly free (no ads as the cost) or if it is even
free. One reviewer noted a subscription price of £15/month which seems
damn high. Nuance's own web site (http://tinyurl.com/z6v6kag) shows $0
for their Anywhere app. When I click on their Buy Now button, yep, it
is subscriptionware. $15/mo, $40/qtr, or $150/yr. However, you never
mentioned "free" as a requirement. The weekly subscription is shown as
$0 but that's probably for the duration of a trial period. You could
test it to see if it meets your needs. You also didn't mention your
Android version, and Nuance Anywhare says it requires Android 4.4 or
later (and iOS 8.1 or later). I suspect this is a large-sized app so
you'll need to consider how much free memory you have. They don't give
memory requirements on their web site for that app.

[Lewis]

In message <otiiad-...@minas-tirith.valinor>

Carlos E. R. <robin_...@invalid.es> wrote:

> On 2016-09-12 05:12, W. Wesley Groleau wrote:
>> On 09-11-2016 17:48, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>>> The TomTom car navigator does it in a limited way, and it runs in Linux.
>>> The older device that I lost had one cute feature: you could have a look
>>> at the filesystem and learn things. One of those things was the name of
>>> the speech engine. If I recall correctly it was Italian and payware. In
>>> a few days I may be able to look at backups and find out that name again
>>> and tell you.
>>
>> Text-to-speech is not dictation.

> You can give it orders by voice. The vocabulary is limited, yes, it is
> not that good as Google dictaphone, but it exists :-)

That is not dictation.

--
"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on
it?" - Mark Twain

[crankypuss]

...who then uses one of the special court-recorder typewriters to input
the phonemes spoken, and given the list of phonemes and the language,
run that through a sound-index on the language's dictionary, and voila,
you have the text spoken.

Hey, if I thought I was the first to figure it out, and I wanted to make
a bunch of money, I'd stick the important stuff on a server too, and
rent the result to people who'd buy the idea that voice-to-text has to
run on a mainframe or some crap because of "all that data" and "all that
processing power". Every one of us has a mainframe in his pocket.

Whatever, this is the kind of crap you can expect in a monetized
society, dontcha think so, Aardvarks? Good thing I'm a touch typist, if
I had to rely on the shit that's available without network access, I'd
need to move to a city or shut my fat face.

[crankypuss]

On 09/13/2016 02:02 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
> crankypuss wrote:
>
>> Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
>> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
>> internet connection? TIA.
>
> My aunt has done more research than I. She said that all the [free]
> apps [that she looked at] for voice-to-text transcription got mediocre
> to bad reviews. Even Nuance's own [Dragon] Anywhere app isn't that
> great according to her. Their app's description at Google's Play store
> says it needs "view wi-fi connections" permissions. Why would it need
> that unless it needed to connnect out? Well, it does have some cloud
> features, so I don't know that the app needs wifi connectivity to only
> do the voice-to-text transcription.
>
> The app's description at the Google Play store doesn't mention price (or
> mention it is free) and no mention of in-app purchases or ads. So I
> can't tell if it is truly free (no ads as the cost) or if it is even
> free. One reviewer noted a subscription price of £15/month which seems
> damn high. Nuance's own web site (http://tinyurl.com/z6v6kag) shows $0
> for their Anywhere app. When I click on their Buy Now button, yep, it
> is subscriptionware. $15/mo, $40/qtr, or $150/yr. However, you never
> mentioned "free" as a requirement. The weekly subscription is shown as
> $0 but that's probably for the duration of a trial period. You could
> test it to see if it meets your needs.

I already pay a goodly sum for shitty internet access, I'm not going to
add another anchor to that boat: monthly fees absolutely will not fly
with me.

> You also didn't mention your
> Android version, and Nuance Anywhare says it requires Android 4.4 or
> later (and iOS 8.1 or later). I suspect this is a large-sized app so
> you'll need to consider how much free memory you have. They don't give
> memory requirements on their web site for that app.
>
>

Who cares what version of Android it runs under? I have two Android
machines and don't recall their versions. If I could find something I
thought would actually be useful, maybe I'd buy one of those swell new
Galaxy 7 things so I could be entertained by the fire while waiting for
some crappy offline translation to text.

When there's nothing on the market fit to buy, I tend to get a little
pissy about the whole modern circus, my bad, sorry.

[VanguardLH]

crankypuss wrote:

> On 09/13/2016 02:02 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
>> crankypuss wrote:
>>
>>> Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
>>> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
>>> internet connection? TIA.
>>

>> Nuance's own web site (http://tinyurl.com/z6v6kag) shows $0
>> for their Anywhere app. When I click on their Buy Now button, yep, it
>> is subscriptionware. $15/mo, $40/qtr, or $150/yr. However, you never
>> mentioned "free" as a requirement. The weekly subscription is shown as
>> $0 but that's probably for the duration of a trial period. You could
>> test it to see if it meets your needs.
>
> I already pay a goodly sum for shitty internet access, I'm not going to
> add another anchor to that boat: monthly fees absolutely will not fly
> with me.

Software vendors couldn't give a gnat's fart about how much you pay for
Internet access. They aren't ISPs. They write code. Your incidental
costs are irrelevant, especially since you inquired about a product that
doesn't need Internet access. For a local app that does local audio
crunching to convert to local text, Internet access is completely a
non-issue.

The gas station attendent doesn't care how much you pay for car
insurance, either. Not relevant to their sale (of fuel). Not relevant
to their product (fuel).

>> You also didn't mention your Android version, and Nuance Anywhare
>> says it requires Android 4.4 or later (and iOS 8.1 or later). I
>> suspect this is a large-sized app so you'll need to consider how
>> much free memory you have. They don't give memory requirements on
>> their web site for that app.
>
> Who cares what version of Android it runs under?

Ah c'mon, even noobs understand that software has minimal requirements
for support of it within the OS, and that things change with each
version of an OS (else every new version wouldn't be a new version since
it was the same as the prior version). There is some feature of Android
4.4 that Nuance's software requires. Same goes for ALL SOFTWARE. You
might find some apps that require Android 2.2 but then, again, they
aren't going to run under every version of the OS because they obviously
make use of some feature available at a minimal version of the OS. So
you DO care about the OS version because you DO care about using
software on THAT operating system.

In fact, some apps will list a range of versions of Android under which
they will run. Google may decide to remove features from an OS that an
app relied up, so the app cannot run under a later version of Android.
For example, there are anti-spam apps that claim to not only block spam
calls but also spam texts. However, I think it was Android 4.3 (maybe a
late sub-minor version of 4.2) that removed the ability of these apps
from looking at your texts or blocking them. So the anti-spam app has
lost a feature because Google took it away. Obviously the OS version is
important to you regardless of what software solution you might choose.

Memory constraints is another criteria that you haven't bothered to take
into account. Oh, you don't care about that either, uh huh, because you
apparently are the only user of hardware that has infinite memory
capacity.

You need to establish your criteria regarding price (now and possibly
later and perhaps repeatedly) along with hardware limitations (again
typically constrained by budget).

> When there's nothing on the market fit to buy, I tend to get a little
> pissy about the whole modern circus, my bad, sorry.

You just contradicted yourself. Now you're saying you would buy
something if it was "fit". Before you said you wouldn't *buy* anything.
Make up your mind. Do you have a requirement that the app be free? If
so, expect crappy quality or lots of in-app ads (or even rude popup ads
that appear outside the app when you don't think it is even running).
Will you pay for a solution? If so, you have to establish criteria as
to what you can afford and how often. You don't get a $150/yr program
for free unless you steal it - and this is not a pro-warez newsgroup.

First decide on your criteria: budget (now and later), hardware
constraints, and OS constraints. You seem to want a blanket solution
that provides for free an expensive commercialware app without any
hardware limitations and will run under every version of Android that
has ever existed since 2003 and will ever exist hereafter. <rolls eyes>

[Jolly Roger]

*slow clapping* : )

[Arno Welzel]

VanguardLH schrieb am 2016-09-13 um 10:02:

[...]

> The app's description at the Google Play store doesn't mention price (or
> mention it is free) and no mention of in-app purchases or ads. So I
> can't tell if it is truly free (no ads as the cost) or if it is even
> free. One reviewer noted a subscription price of £15/month which seems
> damn high. Nuance's own web site (http://tinyurl.com/z6v6kag) shows $0

[...]

"Dragon Anywhere is a professional-grade, cloud-based dictation solution"

Well - "cloud-based" looks like "we send the recorded voice online to a
server and get the text back". That's why they want money on a monthly
basis. As long you pay, you can use the *online* service.


--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de
http://de-rec-fahrrad.de
http://fahrradzukunft.de

[Arno Welzel]

crankypuss schrieb am 2016-09-11 um 23:48:

> Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
> internet connection? TIA.

<http://stackandroid.com/tutorial/how-to-enable-offline-speech-to-text-in-android/>

<http://www.kizeo.com/how-to-enable-offline-speech-recognition-on-samsungandroid-devices/>

HTH

[VanguardLH]

Arno Welzel wrote:

> VanguardLH schrieb am 2016-09-13 um 10:02:
>
> [...]
>> The app's description at the Google Play store doesn't mention price (or
>> mention it is free) and no mention of in-app purchases or ads. So I
>> can't tell if it is truly free (no ads as the cost) or if it is even
>> free. One reviewer noted a subscription price of £15/month which seems
>> damn high. Nuance's own web site (http://tinyurl.com/z6v6kag) shows $0
> [...]
>
> "Dragon Anywhere is a professional-grade, cloud-based dictation solution"
>
> Well - "cloud-based" looks like "we send the recorded voice online to a
> server and get the text back". That's why they want money on a monthly
> basis. As long you pay, you can use the *online* service.

Therein lies a fundamental defect in expecting smartphone or tablets to
replace desktops much less servers or a meshed network of them. Users
want toy computers to do massive computing, like buying a shovel to
replace their sod instead of renting a bobcat.

I did find in Anywhere's system requirements the statement "Active Wi-Fi
or cellular connection". A slow transfer rate to get the audio data up
to the server would impact responsiveness of the app for seeing when the
text got delivered back from the server. That's probably why Betts
noted the slowness of using the Google transcription feature: takes time
to upload the audio data, wait for the server to crunch it, and to get
the text from the server.

They also mention "By using Dragon Anywhere, you expressly consent and
agree that Speech Data, which may contain personal information, shall be
stored and processed in the United States. “Speech Data” means the audio
files, associated text, transcriptions and log files provided by you or
generated in connection with Nuance Products." So where you are could
also affect responsiveness, like you're stuck with a route that with
long delay (i.e., slow hosts as hops in the overseas/intercontinental
route from you to USA server).

I'm not surprised that Anywhere is a front end to the actual computation
that needs far more powerful computers to process the data up "in the
cloud" (which, to me, is just marketspeak for a client-server config).
This harkens back to when employees used dumb terminals to run programs
on the server. The workstations didn't have the power to do the work
and employers weren't going to buy racks of servers for each employee.

What the OP wants is no Internet connection required for a local app to
do speech analysis across many languages and variations and also do the
transcription immediately and do it for dirt cheap. I want a woman that
never argues with me and a 3-course t-bone meal for $2. Dream on.

As for the suggestion that I gave, cranky said "it's mortally slow".
Maybe he has a slow wifi connection, or no wifi and his cellular data
rate is slow. For me, the text appeared almost as fast as I spoke.
Yes, there are inaccuracies. This feature has no per-user learning
feature as would a robust speech analyzer. You don't get to record a
vocabulary of keywords to identify punctuation. Geez, what does he
expect for FREE? It's clear he isn't going to pay for anything better.

[VanguardLH]

Arno Welzel wrote:

> crankypuss schrieb am 2016-09-11 um 23:48:
>
>> Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
>> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
>> internet connection? TIA.
>
> <http://stackandroid.com/tutorial/how-to-enable-offline-speech-to-text-in-android/>
>
> <http://www.kizeo.com/how-to-enable-offline-speech-recognition-on-samsungandroid-devices/>

Hmm, when I navigated there, English (US) was already installed (it
wasn't me that did that). If I scroll to the right to see the
Auto-Update column, it shows "Auto-update languages over wi-fi only".
Whew, glad to know that they aren't going to suck up my cellular data
quota.

Thanks for that info. Might explain why the transcription (text) showed
up for me very quickly. Maybe cranky doesn't have his native language
downloaded and why there is a big lag for him for the transcription.

I did as Betts suggested and disabled wifi, cellular data, and Bluetooth
by enabling airplane mode. In that test and with no Internet access,
the voice input didn't work. This time it worked. Weird. Must've been
something else in my 1st test that interferred with using the local
language database.

A couple tests showed response was very quick; however, accuracy was
poor (passable for me but definitely not for cranky) and there is no way
to indentify punctuation. Well, it's free. Nuance claims 99% accuracy
but you have to pay for that far better accuracy.

[crankypuss]

On 09/13/2016 02:00 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> crankypuss wrote:
>
>> On 09/13/2016 02:02 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
>>> crankypuss wrote:
>>>
>>>> Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
>>>> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
>>>> internet connection? TIA.
>>>
>>> Nuance's own web site (http://tinyurl.com/z6v6kag) shows $0
>>> for their Anywhere app. When I click on their Buy Now button, yep, it
>>> is subscriptionware. $15/mo, $40/qtr, or $150/yr. However, you never
>>> mentioned "free" as a requirement. The weekly subscription is shown as
>>> $0 but that's probably for the duration of a trial period. You could
>>> test it to see if it meets your needs.
>>
>> I already pay a goodly sum for shitty internet access, I'm not going to
>> add another anchor to that boat: monthly fees absolutely will not fly
>> with me.
>

Do I really have time to dick around with this?

> Software vendors couldn't give a gnat's fart about how much you pay for
> Internet access. They aren't ISPs. They write code.

Having retired from a "career" as a software developer, I completely
understand their need for greed.

> Your incidental
> costs are irrelevant, especially since you inquired about a product that
> doesn't need Internet access. For a local app that does local audio
> crunching to convert to local text, Internet access is completely a
> non-issue.

So which one does the job and does it well without internet access?
What kind of box do I need to run it? What's the bottom-line cash
price? I don't rent anything I can buy.

>
> The gas station attendent doesn't care how much you pay for car
> insurance, either. Not relevant to their sale (of fuel). Not relevant
> to their product (fuel).
>

Either stop being an ass and get down to business, or piss off.

>>> You also didn't mention your Android version, and Nuance Anywhare
>>> says it requires Android 4.4 or later (and iOS 8.1 or later). I
>>> suspect this is a large-sized app so you'll need to consider how
>>> much free memory you have. They don't give memory requirements on
>>> their web site for that app.
>>
>> Who cares what version of Android it runs under?
>
> Ah c'mon, even noobs understand that software has minimal requirements
> for support of it within the OS, and that things change with each
> version of an OS (else every new version wouldn't be a new version since
> it was the same as the prior version). There is some feature of Android
> 4.4 that Nuance's software requires. Same goes for ALL SOFTWARE. You
> might find some apps that require Android 2.2 but then, again, they
> aren't going to run under every version of the OS because they obviously
> make use of some feature available at a minimal version of the OS. So
> you DO care about the OS version because you DO care about using
> software on THAT operating system.

You don't get it. I don't give a gnat's fart what kind of machine it
takes to run the fucking thing. If I don't already have hardware
that'll run the software, and they require specific hardware, somebody
out there will sell it to me.

>
> In fact, some apps will list a range of versions of Android under which
> they will run. Google may decide to remove features from an OS that an
> app relied up, so the app cannot run under a later version of Android.
> For example, there are anti-spam apps that claim to not only block spam
> calls but also spam texts. However, I think it was Android 4.3 (maybe a
> late sub-minor version of 4.2) that removed the ability of these apps
> from looking at your texts or blocking them. So the anti-spam app has
> lost a feature because Google took it away. Obviously the OS version is
> important to you regardless of what software solution you might choose.
>
> Memory constraints is another criteria that you haven't bothered to take
> into account. Oh, you don't care about that either, uh huh, because you
> apparently are the only user of hardware that has infinite memory
> capacity.

You're boring the shit out of me.

>
> You need to establish your criteria regarding price (now and possibly
> later and perhaps repeatedly) along with hardware limitations (again
> typically constrained by budget).

I already did that. I will not rent. Cash up front on proof of quality.

>
>> When there's nothing on the market fit to buy, I tend to get a little
>> pissy about the whole modern circus, my bad, sorry.
>
> You just contradicted yourself.

You just proved yourself to be an idiot.

> Now you're saying you would buy
> something if it was "fit". Before you said you wouldn't *buy* anything.

I said I wouldn't *rent* anything.

> Make up your mind. Do you have a requirement that the app be free? If
> so, expect crappy quality or lots of in-app ads (or even rude popup ads
> that appear outside the app when you don't think it is even running).
> Will you pay for a solution? If so, you have to establish criteria as
> to what you can afford and how often. You don't get a $150/yr program
> for free unless you steal it - and this is not a pro-warez newsgroup.
>
> First decide on your criteria: budget (now and later), hardware
> constraints, and OS constraints. You seem to want a blanket solution
> that provides for free an expensive commercialware app without any
> hardware limitations and will run under every version of Android that
> has ever existed since 2003 and will ever exist hereafter. <rolls eyes>
>

You sir are a fool and a waste of my time. Thank you nonetheless.

[crankypuss]

Dunno what you're clapping about, the guy's an idiot. I ask a question
and the moron tries to explain me out of it. If nobody can answer the
goddamn question I'm wasting my time here.

[Jolly Roger]

VanguardLH <V...@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
> Yes, there are inaccuracies. This feature has no per-user learning
> feature as would a robust speech analyzer. You don't get to record a
> vocabulary of keywords to identify punctuation. Geez, what does he
> expect for FREE? It's clear he isn't going to pay for anything better.

Siri on iOS has its inaccuracies as well, but it allows you to correct
pronunciation of words, recognize people by nickname like "my wife", and so
on, and it's free. Of course it, too, requires an Internet connection. : )

[Jolly Roger]

VanguardLH <V...@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
> A couple tests showed response was very quick; however, accuracy was
> poor (passable for me but definitely not for cranky) and there is no way
> to indentify punctuation.

You can't say "period" or "question mark" or "exclamation point" to end a
sentence?

[Carlos E. R.]

On 2016-09-14 10:00, VanguardLH wrote:

> What the OP wants is no Internet connection required for a local app to
> do speech analysis across many languages and variations and also do the
> transcription immediately and do it for dirt cheap. I want a woman that
> never argues with me and a 3-course t-bone meal for $2. Dream on.

No. The OP did not ask for many languages, nor do it cheap. The only
requirement was that it had to be local, without Internet. Nor did he
specify a size of machine or type of machine.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

[J G Miller]

On Sunday, September 11, 2016 at 15:48:08h -0600, Cranky Puss asked:

> Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
> internet connection?

Which languages do you require your software to recognise?

Does the "List of speech recognition applications" provide anything
appropriate to your specific needs? (Scroll down the page.)

<https://wiki.archlinux.ORG/index.php/Speech_recognition>

The two opensource that get favorable comments for their level of
sophistication on various web pages are CMU Sphinx

<http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.NET/>

and Julius.

<http://julius.osdn.JP/en_index.php?

[Arno Welzel]

VanguardLH schrieb am 2016-09-14 um 10:00:

[...]

> What the OP wants is no Internet connection required for a local app to
> do speech analysis across many languages and variations and also do the
> transcription immediately and do it for dirt cheap. I want a woman that
> never argues with me and a 3-course t-bone meal for $2. Dream on.

No - the OP asked for voice-to-speech without the need for an online
connection. I did *not* say it has to be free or very cheap:

"Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
internet connection? TIA."

[crankypuss]

In addition to being local (non-internet) it needs to actually work,
which is kind of assumed. And it has to run on something I can
physically carry around, not some mainframe complex that would require a
new building and additional infrastructure. English is plenty, it's the
only language I speak.

I asked what I thought was a fairly simple question. Is such a device
available to consumers and where can it be purchased?

I'm not sure why that's so difficult, it's "yes, xxxx", "nothing
exists", or "i dunno".

What I read instead is posturing by those who don't know the answer,
presume that I'm just as cheap as they are, then attempt to educate me,
apparently so they can feel better cuz I been educated already, I been
to college, I raised a family by cranking better code than the next guy,
I know how some of this stuff works.

I don't get it. Why do we waste our time on discussion groups filled
with trolls and others who are grasp at any opportunity to puff
themselves up? Better yet, why is our "civilization" such that the
emotionally needy comprise its majority?

Why do people assume that price is the first and only consideration?

First you find out if there's anything available that's actually worth
buying, *then* you shop and/or negotiate price. If nothing's available
it doesn't make any difference whether it's expensive, cheap, or free,
there ain't no such animal so price is irrelevant. One you find out
what you'd bother to own, you can either buy it or you can't. Easy-peasey.

The advertising and credit industries have been way too successful imo.
I've read half a dozen articles lately on the new phones. Lots of fancy
crap like better ways to play music while you pick your nose. People
are eating this shit up like there's no tomorrow.

I don't get it, so maybe there really is no tomorrow.

[crankypuss]

On 09/14/2016 07:08 PM, J G Miller wrote:
> On Sunday, September 11, 2016 at 15:48:08h -0600, Cranky Puss asked:
>
>> Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
>> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
>> internet connection?
>
> Which languages do you require your software to recognise?

English, it's all I can do to speak English. If it supports a dialect
called "American mushmouth" that would be handy.

>
> Does the "List of speech recognition applications" provide anything
> appropriate to your specific needs? (Scroll down the page.)
>
> <https://wiki.archlinux.ORG/index.php/Speech_recognition>

Heh, I like their "note to newcomers". I will read this page, thank you
for the link. (If the answers keep coming from the arch wiki as they so
often do, maybe someday I'll get around to installing arch.)

>
> The two opensource that get favorable comments for their level of
> sophistication on various web pages are CMU Sphinx
>
> <http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.NET/>
>
> and Julius.
>
> <http://julius.osdn.JP/en_index.php?
>

Given how long it takes to do things under iOS (user-interface for the
masses is slow going) and how tough it is for newbs like me to get linux
configured, it's enough to make a guy smile. <G>

It also reminds me that whenever I'm pursuing side interests like this
I'm not writing code. Thanks.

[J G Miller]

On Thursday, September 15th, 2016, at 05:31:24h -0600,
Cranky Puss postulated:

> (If the answers keep coming from the arch wiki as they so
> often do, maybe someday I'll get around to installing arch.)

Well the thing is the answers from the Arch Wiki are generally useful
for whichever GNU/Linux distribution one is using, albeit there could
be some variation on features available or file locations.

If you are thinkg a rolling distribution (which is what Archi Linux is)
would be of benefit (and remember rolling distributions usually need more
care and maintenance than stable releases) then to save yourself some work,
you should take a look at Manjaro Linux.

Manjaro Linux is based on Arch, has received very favorable reviews
of its most recent incarnation, removes all of the manual ground work
that is needed for pure Arch, and also appears to have a very active
and friendly user forum for answering questions and solving problems.

<https://manjaro.ORG/>

[Ken Hart]

On 09/15/2016 02:40 AM, Arno Welzel wrote:
> VanguardLH schrieb am 2016-09-14 um 10:00:
>
> [...]
>> What the OP wants is no Internet connection required for a local app to
>> do speech analysis across many languages and variations and also do the
>> transcription immediately and do it for dirt cheap. I want a woman that
>> never argues with me and a 3-course t-bone meal for $2. Dream on.
>
> No - the OP asked for voice-to-speech without the need for an online
> connection. I did *not* say it has to be free or very cheap:
>
> "Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
> internet connection? TIA."
>
>

I pasted the above quoted paragraph into Google, and the second hit was
this page:
https://zapier.com/blog/best-text-dictation-software/
which listed several programs and apps. Some were definitely online, but
some appeared to be offline. I didn't check them out.
--
Ken Hart
kwh...@frontier.com

[Lewis]

In message <nre14u$c14$1...@dont-email.me>

crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I asked what I thought was a fairly simple question. Is such a device
> available to consumers and where can it be purchased?

No, nothing like that exists.

You need an Internet connection or a desktop computer.

--
"We're philosophers. We think, therefore we am."

[VanguardLH]

Jolly Roger wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> A couple tests showed response was very quick; however, accuracy was
>> poor (passable for me but definitely not for cranky) and there is no way
>> to indentify punctuation.
>
> You can't say "period" or "question mark" or "exclamation point" to end a
> sentence?

Announcing punctuation sometimes works but you have to be clear on
saying period, comma, question mark, exclamation mark, etc. Saying
"semicolon" resulted in inputted that string, not the ";" character.
"Paragraph" resulted in inputting the word instead of a starting a new
paragraph. I might yet have to learn (instead of the program learning)
the style of voice input needed to get all punctuation recognized.

In my prior test, I would annonce a punctuation character right along
with the text and then continue speaking the next sentence; i.e., no
pause. I found that if I pause, especially after announcing the
punctuation character, like half a second, that first the string got
entered and then backspaced after a pause to replace the string with the
punctuation character. So it takes some training to get used to how to
comply with the needs of the program (rather than it learning your
voice).

[Lewis]

In message <e40kgp...@mid.individual.net>

VanguardLH <V...@nguard.LH> wrote:
> Jolly Roger wrote:

>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>
>>> A couple tests showed response was very quick; however, accuracy was
>>> poor (passable for me but definitely not for cranky) and there is no way
>>> to indentify punctuation.
>>
>> You can't say "period" or "question mark" or "exclamation point" to end a
>> sentence?

> Announcing punctuation sometimes works but you have to be clear on
> saying period, comma, question mark, exclamation mark, etc. Saying
> "semicolon" resulted in inputted that string, not the ";" character.
> "Paragraph" resulted in inputting the word instead of a starting a new
> paragraph. I might yet have to learn (instead of the program learning)
> the style of voice input needed to get all punctuation recognized.

If I say; I get a; and the command to start a paragraph is quote"

"

What I said: "If I say semi colon I get a semi colon and the command to
start a paragraph is quote new paragraph end quote."

> In my prior test, I would annonce a punctuation character right along
> with the text and then continue speaking the next sentence; i.e., no
> pause. I found that if I pause, especially after announcing the
> punctuation character, like half a second, that first the string got
> entered and then backspaced after a pause to replace the string with the
> punctuation character. So it takes some training to get used to how to
> comply with the needs of the program (rather than it learning your
> voice).

Siri dictation on both iOS and the Mac is much smarter than that. I can
dictate a whole paragraph and Siri will jump back and fix things as I
go. There is no need to pause.

(That previous paragraph was Siri dictation).

--
'I cannot! He has been kindness itself to me!' 'And you can be Death
itself to him.'

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 09-14-2016 02:04, Arno Welzel wrote:
> "Dragon Anywhere is a professional-grade, cloud-based dictation solution"
>
> Well - "cloud-based" looks like "we send the recorded voice online to a
> server and get the text back". That's why they want money on a monthly
> basis. As long you pay, you can use the *online* service.

To the best of my knowledge, Mac OS's built-in Dictation is the only app
for an Apple device that does it off-line.

Unfortunately, its performance seems to be pretty bad in recent
versions. It is still very accurate at recognizing words, but it is
MUCH slower. And it apparently has a much smaller buffer than before.
If I don't stop and wait for it to catch up at the end of every
sentence, it just quits completely.

I used to use it to save time typing. Now, typing is faster.

But back to the original question: re-read my first sentence.

--
Wes Groleau

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 09-14-2016 03:00, VanguardLH wrote:
> What the OP wants is no Internet connection required for a local app to
> do speech analysis across many languages and variations and also do the
> transcription immediately and do it for dirt cheap.

And it exists. But not for phones.


--
Wes Groleau

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 09-15-2016 06:21, crankypuss wrote:
> In addition to being local (non-internet) it needs to actually work,
> which is kind of assumed. And it has to run on something I can
> physically carry around,

And you already got at least one answer: doesn't exist.

So why waste time arguing about it, unless arguing is what you really
came here for?

Then again, can you be more precise about "can physically carry around"?

I physically carry around my Macbook Pro 90% of the time, and it does
Dictation off-line. Does an excellent job on single sentences. Sucks
if you want to do a whole paragraph.

--
Wes Groleau

[Jolly Roger]

That's interesting. Siri seems to get it right whether I pause or not.

[Jolly Roger]

On 2016-09-15, Lewis <g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>
> Siri dictation on both iOS and the Mac is much smarter than that. I can
> dictate a whole paragraph and Siri will jump back and fix things as I
> go. There is no need to pause.
>
> (That previous paragraph was Siri dictation).

Same here. I'm generally pleased with Siri's dictation.

[crankypuss]

I've figured something out (duh!)

Based on my previous 3-4 years of experience with linux, I'm not willing
to spend the month-or-so it would probably take me to get something set
up and configured. I can't afford the distraction. It would probably
be the best solution, the xps13 I'm using now has plenty of processor
and plenty of storage space, but I need to keep moving forward on this
code or it'll never happen.

I appreciate the links, but I need something like an Android or iOS app
that will just install and just work. Or maybe a preconfigured linux
box, or something that says "dictaphone" and is $9.97 at Walmart, I dunno.

Anyway the linux solution is the only one I've seen mentioned here,
which is unfortunate for me, but I'm trying to get a prototype flying by
new-years, and I've miles and miles to go. Thanks again.

[crankypuss]

Thanks, but I was mostly saying the arch wiki kicks ass and the distro
might be just that good.

In real-life I'll just stick with Debian jessie until it no longer
matters whether my code is running on linux or iOS, then I'll see what
happens. If I haven't croaked off from old-age first, you know how that
"time" business goes.

[crankypuss]

I can't even get NewsTap to let me type a letter in the case I type it
in, the autocorrection on iOS is ever so smart, just like Siri.

[crankypuss]

On 09/15/2016 01:38 PM, Lewis wrote:
> In message <nre14u$c14$1...@dont-email.me>
> crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I asked what I thought was a fairly simple question. Is such a device
>> available to consumers and where can it be purchased?
>
> No, nothing like that exists.
>
> You need an Internet connection or a desktop computer.
>

Forget the internet connection. I'm one of the few people in the States
who won't shit his pants if the internet suddenly goes away, because my
connectivity is so bad I'm used to working mostly without it.

The distinction between laptops and desktops is a little blurry to me
today. If I was to learn, for example, that Apple's Siri worked on a
MacBook with no internet connection, I'd might run flat out of excuses
not to buy one.

But I have some trust issues. I saw the salesman at the Apple store
speak and I saw text come out on the screen, but at the time I knew
nothing about Apple devices and couldn't tell if it was connected or
not. I'm pretty sure it was, the place positively hums with wifi.
Anyway I think I asked if it worked without internet and I think he
grunted in the affirmative, but it damn sure doesn't work without
internet. In fact I'm holding off on the iOS 10 install because I'm
afraid it might make it more difficult to turn off the useless Siri
component than it already is.

[crankypuss]

Then it doesn't work, right? If you wouldn't use it to dictate a book,
it won't do the job.

[David Empson]

crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 09/15/2016 01:38 PM, Lewis wrote:
> > In message <nre14u$c14$1...@dont-email.me>
> > crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> I asked what I thought was a fairly simple question. Is such a device
> >> available to consumers and where can it be purchased?
> >
> > No, nothing like that exists.
> >
> > You need an Internet connection or a desktop computer.
>
> Forget the internet connection. I'm one of the few people in the States
> who won't shit his pants if the internet suddenly goes away, because my
> connectivity is so bad I'm used to working mostly without it.
>
> The distinction between laptops and desktops is a little blurry to me
> today. If I was to learn, for example, that Apple's Siri worked on a
> MacBook with no internet connection, I'd might run flat out of excuses
> not to buy one.

Siri and dictation are different features. They both involve speech
recognition and share support code/data.

Assuming you meant dictation, then it can work on a MacBook Pro while it
is without Internet. (There is no difference between desktop and laptop
Macs in this area.)

Siri (the assistant) has not been a feature of the Mac to date. It is
one of the major new features in the next OS release (macOS Sierra,
version 10.12) which is due next week. Siri requires Internet access.

Dictation has been a built-in feature on the Mac for several years (and
major OS versions). A few years ago, Apple added an option to download
the necessary data for it to operate offline, which currently offers
more than 30 languages, including several variants of some (e.g. English
has Australia, Canada, UK and US). Some of them are over 1 GB.

There is also third party software (e.g. Dragon Dictate), which can
operate offline and is better than the built-in dictation as long as you
train it.

> But I have some trust issues. I saw the salesman at the Apple store
> speak and I saw text come out on the screen, but at the time I knew
> nothing about Apple devices and couldn't tell if it was connected or
> not.

It was probably online as they had good Internet, but it could be done
offline if the language pack had been downloaded.

Right now I'm typing this by speaking, with no Internet connection.

Dictation got that sentence 100% right. I had Wi-Fi turned off on my
MacBook Pro so no possibility of data going anywhere.

In other tests I've found dictation had too many errors for me to bother
with it. I'd rather type.

> I'm pretty sure it was, the place positively hums with wifi.
> Anyway I think I asked if it worked without internet and I think he
> grunted in the affirmative, but it damn sure doesn't work without
> internet.

It needs Internet access to download the language support, but once that
is done it works offline.

Of course all of this ignores the fact that the Mac OS expects a
reasonable broadband connection for doing regular software updates:
major OS releases since 2011 (annual but you can skip a year or two and
still get security updates) have all been over 4 GB, some over 6 GB.
Minor software updates (every couple of months) are usually hundreds of
MB and can be over 1 GB.

> In fact I'm holding off on the iOS 10 install because I'm afraid it might
> make it more difficult to turn off the useless Siri component than it
> already is.

Settings > Siri > (set slider to off position)

Same as before. How is that difficult?

--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz

[J G Miller]

On Friday, September 16th, 2016, at 04:21:08h -0600, Cranky Puss wrote:

> I appreciate the links, but I need something like an Android or iOS app
> that will just install and just work.

In that case do not waste everybody's time by posting your request
to a linux newsgroup. People soon tire of the "yes, but" syndrome.

In general, if you cannot find a product or software with a carefully
key worded web search, the probability that somebody in a newsgroup is
aware of it, is going to be even less.

[Arno Welzel]

Ken Hart schrieb am 2016-09-15 um 21:38:

> I pasted the above quoted paragraph into Google, and the second hit was
> this page:
> https://zapier.com/blog/best-text-dictation-software/
> which listed several programs and apps. Some were definitely online, but
> some appeared to be offline. I didn't check them out.

This lists:

Apple Dictation - not for Android
Windows Speech Recognition - not for Android
Google Docs Voice Typing - online in Google Docs in a browser
Dragon NaturallySpeaking - online only

I think the OP could do a Google search as well. Before posting just a
hit on Google you shouldn't answer at all.

[crankypuss]

From [http://www.nuancemobilelife.com/support/USA/engusa/dragon-dictation/]

"Do I need an Internet connection, data plan or WiFi?

Yes. Your transcribed texts as well as the result list are sent over the
Internet. You need either a WiFi or iPhone™ data connection. Make sure
you have internet connectivity before trying to use the application on
your iPad™ or iPod touch™."

So what's up with this?

>
>> But I have some trust issues. I saw the salesman at the Apple store
>> speak and I saw text come out on the screen, but at the time I knew
>> nothing about Apple devices and couldn't tell if it was connected or
>> not.
>
> It was probably online as they had good Internet, but it could be done
> offline if the language pack had been downloaded.
>
> Right now I'm typing this by speaking, with no Internet connection.

Then presumably, according to above website, you're using the MacBook
Pro's builtin Dictation feature?

>
> Dictation got that sentence 100% right. I had Wi-Fi turned off on my
> MacBook Pro so no possibility of data going anywhere.
>
> In other tests I've found dictation had too many errors for me to bother
> with it. I'd rather type.

Interesting, what's different?

>
>> I'm pretty sure it was, the place positively hums with wifi.
>> Anyway I think I asked if it worked without internet and I think he
>> grunted in the affirmative, but it damn sure doesn't work without
>> internet.
>
> It needs Internet access to download the language support, but once that
> is done it works offline.
>
> Of course all of this ignores the fact that the Mac OS expects a
> reasonable broadband connection for doing regular software updates:
> major OS releases since 2011 (annual but you can skip a year or two and
> still get security updates) have all been over 4 GB, some over 6 GB.
> Minor software updates (every couple of months) are usually hundreds of
> MB and can be over 1 GB.
>
>> In fact I'm holding off on the iOS 10 install because I'm afraid it might
>> make it more difficult to turn off the useless Siri component than it
>> already is.
>
> Settings > Siri > (set slider to off position)
>
> Same as before. How is that difficult?
>

Turn off Siri and on an iPhone and that turns on Voice Control which
cannot be disabled under iOS 9. I got tired of hearing about how there
is no music playing every time the iPhone in my pocked gets squeezed
against the home button. There are all kinds of silly conditions
required to keep the iPhone from "misbehaving".

[Jolly Roger]

Huh? I just turned off Siri on my iPhone running iOS 10, and Voice Control
is off, which is what I would expect since I've never used Voice Control
and have no need for it.

> I got tired of hearing about how there
> is no music playing every time the iPhone in my pocked gets squeezed
> against the home button.

That doesn't happen here either. So I'm not sure what you are talking
about.

> There are all kinds of silly conditions
> required to keep the iPhone from "misbehaving".

My iPhone behaves just fine by default.

[Frank Slootweg]

Lewis <g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
> In message <nre14u$c14$1...@dont-email.me>
> crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I asked what I thought was a fairly simple question. Is such a device
> > available to consumers and where can it be purchased?
>
> No, nothing like that exists.
>
> You need an Internet connection or a desktop computer.

Why "a desktop computer"? Why not a laptop, laptop-like device, etc.?

[Frank Slootweg]

He did not limit his platforms to "phones". Actually he did not even
mention phones, at least not in his OP (and AFAIR not since).

OTOH, he seemed to have dropped Linux as a possible platform.

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 09-16-2016 05:46, crankypuss wrote:
> On 09/15/2016 05:49 PM, W. Wesley Groleau wrote:
>> I physically carry around my Macbook Pro 90% of the time, and it does
>> Dictation off-line. Does an excellent job on single sentences. Sucks
>> if you want to do a whole paragraph.
>
> Then it doesn't work, right? If you wouldn't use it to dictate a book,
> it won't do the job.

It used to be fantastic. But now it acts like the buffer size has been
reduced so that I have to stop and wait for it to catch up after every
sentence. If I forget, it stops listening and I have to turn it off and
back on. The delays are such that typing is almost as fast.

Now, if I don't say anything else, people will advise me to buy more RAM
or a faster disk. But in fact, I have eight gig of RAM and an SSD
that's 600 gig empty.

--
Wes Groleau

[W. Wesley Groleau]

Correct. But he said something like "easy to carry around" without
defining "easy." Since he talks about IOS & Android a lot, I took a guess.

--
Wes Groleau

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 09-15-2016 20:16, Jolly Roger wrote:
> On 2016-09-15, Lewis <g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>>
>> Siri dictation on both iOS and the Mac is much smarter than that. I can
>> dictate a whole paragraph and Siri will jump back and fix things as I
>> go. There is no need to pause.
>>
>> (That previous paragraph was Siri dictation).
>
> Same here. I'm generally pleased with Siri's dictation.

Yeah, Siri puzzles me. Works well for some people, not at all for
others. Misinterprets me usually. Can't blame my speech, since Dragon
gets me quite well and Mac OS dictation gets me almost perfectly.

--
Wes Groleau

[Snit]

On 9/17/16, 1:59 PM, in article nrkas1$abs$1...@dont-email.me, "W. Wesley

I know a number of people who have a hard time with Siri because they talk
loud and slow and right in the mic. It seems to work better with just
natural speaking. Actually took me some time to get used to... I think of
computers as needing the extra "help."

Still will get some words wrong... it is far from perfect but generally
works well for me -- the few times I use it. Will try it on OS X when I
update.


--
* OS X / Linux: What is a file? <http://youtu.be/_dMbXGLW9PI>
* Mint MATE Trash, Panel, Menu: <http://youtu.be/C0y74FIf7uE>
* Mint KDE working with folders: <http://youtu.be/7C9nvniOoE0>
* Mint KDE creating files: <http://youtu.be/N7-fZJaJUv8>
* Mint KDE help: <http://youtu.be/3ikizUd3sa8>
* Mint KDE general navigation: <http://youtu.be/t9y14yZtQuI>
* Mint KDE bugs or Easter eggs? <http://youtu.be/CU-whJQvtfA>
* Easy on OS X / Hard on Linux: <http://youtu.be/D3BPWANQoIk>
* OS / Word Processor Comparison: <http://youtu.be/w6Qcl-w7s5c>

[VanguardLH]

A desktop or blade server host running Android would be off-topic of
this *mobile* newsgroup. So where is Android "mobile"? Smartphones and
tablets. The OP has, so far, decided not to reveal his actual hardware.
He has presented, so far, a very vague target. He hinted that he
doesn't have the hardware because of "What kind of box do I need to run
it?" Well, in that case, he needs to start first looking at software
solutions, determine which of those are within his budget, and then get
the hardware required by that software, again, within his budget.

Another ambiguity is if he wants a solution on just one of his mentioned
platforms or one solution that will run on them all. "Android or iOS or
linux" could mean is is look for a solution on one of them or one
solution for all of them.

With his introduction of strawman arguments and that he won't identify
the version of Android and his hardware, I don't see the point of
wasting further time trying to find him a software solution or a
nebulous platform for what is obviously a moving target. I'm not quite
sure he is really here to get help or just fan the flames to see what
happens to waft up into the air that he might like. It's like the user
that posts "What kind of computer should I buy?" I know enough to skip
those. Should've done the same with cranky; however, sometimes you have
to drill out more information from a poster, like hardware and budget
constraints, since few provide all the details in their opening post.

He hasn't even mentioned WHY he needs transcription software. No one
gets a word processor just to play with the software by itself. They
use it for something, like write letters, documentation, e-mails, or to
generate some output. Cranky has left everything vague as though there
be one product that will do everything and everywhere and within a
non-disclosed budget. Maybe he was really here to conduct of a poll of
"What transcription software do you use?" If that were his intent, I
wouldn't skipped his inquiry. I don't use any. If and when I actually
have a *use* for it then I will investigate, not to just play with it
for no purpose.

I've got lots of other newsgroups to visit that I don't see anything
productive in spending more time with cranky. He claims to have been a
software developer yet he hasn't a clue what is a Functional
Specification which provides the guidelines on how to accomplish the
task within a following Engineering Specification used by developers to
know just what they're supposed to do.

[David Empson]

I thought you were asking about dictation on a Mac. That is the mobile
version.

Here is the Mac version:

http://www.nuance.com/for-individuals/by-product/dragon-for-mac/index.htm

I've never considered using it due to the cost. I can type fast enough
that it has never really been an issue.

> >> But I have some trust issues. I saw the salesman at the Apple store
> >> speak and I saw text come out on the screen, but at the time I knew
> >> nothing about Apple devices and couldn't tell if it was connected or
> >> not.
> >
> > It was probably online as they had good Internet, but it could be done
> > offline if the language pack had been downloaded.
> >
> > Right now I'm typing this by speaking, with no Internet connection.
>
> Then presumably, according to above website, you're using the MacBook
> Pro's builtin Dictation feature?

Yes.

> > Dictation got that sentence 100% right. I had Wi-Fi turned off on my
> > MacBook Pro so no possibility of data going anywhere.
> >
> > In other tests I've found dictation had too many errors for me to bother
> > with it. I'd rather type.
>
> Interesting, what's different?

My main problem is it is the wrong language variant. I'm in New Zealand,
and the closest option is English (Australia). That means it doesn't
understand NZ place names, many of which are Maori. It also doesn't
handle technical terms well, and I tend to use them a lot.

It sometimes has trouble with the accent: some vowel sounds are quite
different between NZ and Australia. My accent is not as bad as the
stereotypical NZ lazy speech, e.g. I can hear other people in NZ saying
"fush and chups", but to me, many Australians sound like they are saying
"feesh and cheeps".

--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz

[Carlos E. R.]

On 2016-09-17 23:33, VanguardLH wrote:
> Frank Slootweg wrote:
>

>> W. Wesley Groleau <> wrote:
>>> On 09-14-2016 03:00, VanguardLH wrote:


>>> And it exists. But not for phones.
>>
>> He did not limit his platforms to "phones". Actually he did not even
>> mention phones, at least not in his OP (and AFAIR not since).
>>
>> OTOH, he seemed to have dropped Linux as a possible platform.
>
> A desktop or blade server host running Android would be off-topic of
> this *mobile* newsgroup. So where is Android "mobile"? Smartphones and
> tablets. The OP has, so far, decided not to reveal his actual hardware.

Because it does not matter. He intends to buy the hardware that does the
trick. As he doesn't know what hardware and software will do it, he has
to be vague :-)

> Another ambiguity is if he wants a solution on just one of his mentioned
> platforms or one solution that will run on them all. "Android or iOS or
> linux" could mean is is look for a solution on one of them or one
> solution for all of them.

I understand any of them. Thus, he posted on several groups.

> He hasn't even mentioned WHY he needs transcription software. No one
> gets a word processor just to play with the software by itself. They
> use it for something, like write letters, documentation, e-mails, or to
> generate some output.

Right, he did not specify the text to use for inputs. He mentioned on
another post "whole paragraphs". And the word "book" appeared.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

[Carlos E. R.]

On 2016-09-14 09:08, Arno Welzel wrote:

> crankypuss schrieb am 2016-09-11 um 23:48:
>
>> Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
>> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an

>> internet connection? TIA.
>
> <http://stackandroid.com/tutorial/how-to-enable-offline-speech-to-text-in-android/>

Just looked this out in my tablet (Asus zenpad 10), and the relevant
section: "Offline Speech recognition/manage downloaded languages" is
missing. However, it is present in my motorola phone, where my two
languages were already downloaded.

By the way, having two languages defined is a nuisance. Android tries to
decide the language automatically, guessing at what I say, and it does
so badly. Apparently one should be able to disable "automatic", but that
is not so in either of my devices. Go figure.


Besides that, I tried just now in my phone disabling networking
(airplane mode) to dictate a paragraph, and it worked quite accurately
and fast. You have to stop now and then to correct the errors, though.
End of paragraph, at least. Depends on the language and how your voice
deviates from the standard, I guess.

And I don't know if the device communicates later with the server what I
dictate or if it is kept private.

Thus, a phone or tablet certainly has enough power to do it.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

[Carlos E. R.]

On 2016-09-15 03:08, J G Miller wrote:

> Which languages do you require your software to recognise?
>

> Does the "List of speech recognition applications" provide anything
> appropriate to your specific needs? (Scroll down the page.)
>
> <https://wiki.archlinux.ORG/index.php/Speech_recognition>
>

> The two opensource that get favorable comments for their level of
> sophistication on various web pages are CMU Sphinx
>
> <http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.NET/>
>
> and Julius.
>
> <http://julius.osdn.JP/en_index.php?

I see an RPM of this one in my distribution, perhaps I'll try to play
with it. But it doesn't seem that it will be just install and play :-?


--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

[crankypuss]

On 09/17/2016 11:49 AM, Jolly Roger wrote:
> crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 09/16/2016 07:11 AM, David Empson wrote:
>>> crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> In fact I'm holding off on the iOS 10 install because I'm afraid it might
>>>> make it more difficult to turn off the useless Siri component than it
>>>> already is.
>>>
>>> Settings > Siri > (set slider to off position)
>>>
>>> Same as before. How is that difficult?
>>
>> Turn off Siri and on an iPhone and that turns on Voice Control which
>> cannot be disabled under iOS 9.
>
> Huh? I just turned off Siri on my iPhone running iOS 10, and Voice Control
> is off, which is what I would expect since I've never used Voice Control
> and have no need for it.

It doesn't sound like you even know what it is. With Siri disabled,
press and hold the home button. It makes a "pong!" sound and the
goddamn thing talks to you because it thinks it's an iPod. There is no
way to turn it off in iOS 9, and apparently no way to turn it off in iOS
10 either:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7665023?start=0&tstart=0

Voice control goes away if you enable Siri. If you enable Siri and your
network connectivity is as bad as mine, you'll find that battery usage
is such that you've used over 50% of the battery within 24 hours even if
you're not using the phone at all other than to receive calls.

Suggestions for putting a bug in Apple's ear? Obviously their
web-forums don't do shit, or the above link would not leave the issue
unresolved.

On the positive side, I do notice that they've fixed a couple bugs that
were causing NewsTap to misbehave. Every little bit helps.

[Jolly Roger]

crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 09/17/2016 11:49 AM, Jolly Roger wrote:
>> crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 09/16/2016 07:11 AM, David Empson wrote:
>>>> crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> In fact I'm holding off on the iOS 10 install because I'm afraid it might
>>>>> make it more difficult to turn off the useless Siri component than it
>>>>> already is.
>>>>
>>>> Settings > Siri > (set slider to off position)
>>>>
>>>> Same as before. How is that difficult?
>>>
>>> Turn off Siri and on an iPhone and that turns on Voice Control which
>>> cannot be disabled under iOS 9.
>>
>> Huh? I just turned off Siri on my iPhone running iOS 10, and Voice Control
>> is off, which is what I would expect since I've never used Voice Control
>> and have no need for it.
>
> It doesn't sound like you even know what it is.

Of course I do. It's a feature for people who want user interface elements
announced audibly.

> With Siri disabled,
> press and hold the home button.

Why would I bother holding the Home button if I've disabled Siri? I don't
see any need for holding it down since that's how you invoke Siri, which is
disabled.

> It makes a "pong!" sound and the
> goddamn thing talks to you because it thinks it's an iPod. There is no
> way to turn it off in iOS 9, and apparently no way to turn it off in iOS
> 10 either:
>
> https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7665023?start=0&tstart=0

Easily solved by not holding down the Home button.

> Voice control goes away if you enable Siri. If you enable Siri and your
> network connectivity is as bad as mine, you'll find that battery usage
> is such that you've used over 50% of the battery within 24 hours even if
> you're not using the phone at all other than to receive calls.

Bad network connectivity is definitely a problem. Glad I don't have it. If
I were living off the grid I'd have *some* sort of connectivity. And I
suppose if not, I'd disable Siri (and refrain from holding down the Home
button).

> Suggestions for putting a bug in Apple's ear? Obviously their
> web-forums don't do shit, or the above link would not leave the issue
> unresolved.

Those are community forums. If you want to file a big report, you want:

<https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/>

> On the positive side, I do notice that they've fixed a couple bugs that
> were causing NewsTap to misbehave. Every little bit helps.

I'm liking iOS 10, overall. Though there are things I dislike. AirPlay
seems to only offer mirroring on my iPhone 5 now, which makes playing
content on my Apple TV choppy and more problematic than normal. And a
couple apps I use obviously need a round of bug fixes. : (

[crankypuss]

That's great in theory, but if you carry the phone in a back pocket,
your ass may not implement that particular kind of restraint.

Sometimes we have decent connectivity, sometimes not. It seems to vary
greatly based on time of day (probably load-related) and atmospheric
conditions, higher humidity seems to give better signal strength on our
end than when things are dry. On Verizon's coverage map we're just
outside their claimed coverage area.

Doubtless I would have better connectivity if I moved to a city, but I'd
rather live with intermittent connectivity than live in a city.

It just seems way messed up that Apple's flagship mobile os can't cope
with bad connectivity conditions and drains the battery trying, they
seem to believe everybody lives in Cupertino; been there, have the
scars, not going back. It's not like turning off voice control has
never been asked for (cf above link), and it can't be that big change.

>
>> Suggestions for putting a bug in Apple's ear? Obviously their
>> web-forums don't do shit, or the above link would not leave the issue
>> unresolved.
>
> Those are community forums. If you want to file a big report, you want:
>
> <https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/>

Thanks, but I'm just going to wait and see. If it's fixed in the next
point-release that'll provide a little more confidence in Apple. If not
maybe I'll start moving back toward Android, or maybe not, I'm not sure
just how hooked I am on some of the iPhone's features. But it'll
provide me with more information than wasting some time filling out a
form they doubtless have dozens of already.

>
>> On the positive side, I do notice that they've fixed a couple bugs that
>> were causing NewsTap to misbehave. Every little bit helps.
>
> I'm liking iOS 10, overall. Though there are things I dislike. AirPlay
> seems to only offer mirroring on my iPhone 5 now, which makes playing
> content on my Apple TV choppy and more problematic than normal. And a
> couple apps I use obviously need a round of bug fixes. : (
>

I'm not seeing that much difference, other than the push-home-button
change which is reverted easily enough, and the new look for the
control-panel and notification-area. And the addition of the Home app,
which thankfully can now be disappeared.

Some things work better, others no worse mostly. Though I have been
seeing some instances of non-response in the Settings app, sometimes it
acts hung-up and doesn't notice a tap on a button, but going to Home and
back usually breaks it loose; I suspect this is due to some network
issue hogging the processor, which indicates some fairly crude code, but
it's theirs to solve and not mine.

I expect the boys in the back room are very busy putting together the
first point-release. First-project guys tend to think that once a major
release goes out they can relax and celebrate... that usually last for
about one Friday night in my experience, then it's time to fix bugs
again. <g>

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 09-22-2016 05:23, crankypuss wrote:
> That's great in theory, but if you carry the phone in a back pocket,
> your ass may not implement that particular kind of restraint.

If you wouldn't trust your phone to a donkey,
why would you trust it to an ass?

--
Wes Groleau

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 09-22-2016 05:23, crankypuss wrote:

> It just seems way messed up that Apple's flagship mobile os can't cope
> with bad connectivity conditions and drains the battery trying

Standard procedure among ALL cellphones is that if you don't get a
response from a tower, you increase the power and try again.

Cell system's original purpose was to not only send, but receive calls.
To do that, you have to tell the nearby towers where you are, and you
can't be sure you have done so until they respond. Add an always-on
data connection, and you are asking for that process to be magnified.

Add GPS (whether Apple or other) and even though it is receive-only, it
has to use power to process the data.

Plus, receiving data often requires sending back an acknowledgement that
you got it. Or that you didn't and need it again.

Short version: What you are complaining about is the laws of physics
regarding electromagnetic communications.

When I am on the road, I go into airplane mode a lot, turning it back on
briefly when I need it.

--
Wes Groleau

[Jolly Roger]

crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 09/21/2016 06:04 PM, Jolly Roger wrote:
>>
>> Bad network connectivity is definitely a problem. Glad I don't have it. If
>> I were living off the grid I'd have *some* sort of connectivity. And I
>> suppose if not, I'd disable Siri (and refrain from holding down the Home
>> button).
>
> That's great in theory, but if you carry the phone in a back pocket,
> your ass may not implement that particular kind of restraint.

Sounds like a personal problem. I never put my expensive electronic devices
in any situation where they can be mishandled, including forcing them to
endure all my weight by sitting on them. To me that's a very foolish thing
to do. I treat my expensive electronics with care because I intend to
either resell them for a profit or hand them down to someone else when I am
done with them.

> Sometimes we have decent connectivity, sometimes not. It seems to vary
> greatly based on time of day (probably load-related) and atmospheric
> conditions, higher humidity seems to give better signal strength on our
> end than when things are dry. On Verizon's coverage map we're just
> outside their claimed coverage area.
>
> Doubtless I would have better connectivity if I moved to a city, but I'd
> rather live with intermittent connectivity than live in a city.

Realistically, you don't have to live *in* a city to get good network
access - just near one. It's quite possible to have good connectivity
living somewhat far away from a city. It's only when you get really far
away from everything that you start to have problems.

> It just seems way messed up that Apple's flagship mobile os can't cope
> with bad connectivity conditions and drains the battery trying, they
> seem to believe everybody lives in Cupertino; been there, have the
> scars, not going back. It's not like turning off voice control has
> never been asked for (cf above link), and it can't be that big change.

Then again, considering it's clearly your choice to spend that much time in
areas with crappy connectivity, how hard is it for you to simply turn on
Airplane mode once you get there, and flip it back off when you leave?

>>> Suggestions for putting a bug in Apple's ear?
>>

>> If you want to file a big report, you want:
>>
>> <https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/>
>
> Thanks, but I'm just going to wait and see.

Then why'd you bother asking?

>> I'm liking iOS 10, overall. Though there are things I dislike. AirPlay
>> seems to only offer mirroring on my iPhone 5 now, which makes playing
>> content on my Apple TV choppy and more problematic than normal. And a
>> couple apps I use obviously need a round of bug fixes. : (
>
> I'm not seeing that much difference, other than the push-home-button
> change which is reverted easily enough,

Not on my iPhone 5, it seems. I now *have* to press the Home button twice
to log in. A minor irritation.

> and the new look for the
> control-panel and notification-area.

I like the changes to notifications; but the splitting of the control panel
into separate pages seems arbitrary. It complicates what was otherwise
simple and seems like a step backwards to me. For a day or so after the
upgrade, I thought iOS 20 was limited to only mirroring in AirPlay, until I
realized there was a second control page that had the normal AirPlay
control I needed. I hope they reverse the decision to split it up into
multiple pages, personally.

> And the addition of the Home app,
> which thankfully can now be disappeared.

I like the Home app, and hope to one day use it with my network cameras. I
like that you can hide some builtin apps too.

> Some things work better, others no worse mostly. Though I have been
> seeing some instances of non-response in the Settings app, sometimes it
> acts hung-up and doesn't notice a tap on a button, but going to Home and
> back usually breaks it loose; I suspect this is due to some network
> issue hogging the processor, which indicates some fairly crude code, but
> it's theirs to solve and not mine.

Airplane mode would likely fix most of your network-related issues.

[Jolly Roger]

W. Wesley Groleau <Grolea...@FreeShell.org> wrote:

Bingo.

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 09-22-2016 11:40, Jolly Roger wrote:
> like that you can hide some builtin apps too.

It's an improvement, but I'd prefer to delete them.
I am not short on space (yet), but ....

--
Wes Groleau

[nospam]

In article <ns1jp7$ibh$1...@dont-email.me>, W. Wesley Groleau

<Grolea...@FreeShell.org> wrote:

> > like that you can hide some builtin apps too.
>
> It's an improvement, but I'd prefer to delete them.
> I am not short on space (yet), but ....

their size is inconsequential.

[Jolly Roger]

W. Wesley Groleau <Grolea...@FreeShell.org> wrote:

There wouldn't be much point since they are relatively small in comparison
to many third-party apps and other data like music and so on. Deleting some
built-in apps results in a degraded user experience anyway, and since other
apps like Contacts are mostly just simple views into data that everyone
expects to be there no matter what, deleting them doesn't do much more than
hide the app anyway. So it's just not a problem in any meaningful way, and
would cause more of a problem than it supposedly solves.

[crankypuss]

It would be really nice to be able to leave cellular-data enabled and
have Siri turned off without turning Voice Control on. The thing was
showing 48% battery use by Siri, 4% no-cell-connectivity. The wife and
I are (apparently) old now, and I'd like either of us to be able to find
the other with find-friends, you know, in case we come down with a case
of senile dementia and get lost in the woods.

I know that battery stuff you're talking about. The software is not
adequate. btw, if you are in a marginal connectivity area, and turn
cellular-data off or on, Settings is now (in 10.0.1) locking up fairly
often (when signal is weak) and even the Home button sometimes doesn't
work. Apple needs to stuff a few of their testers in a Faraday Cage or
something so they can fix the network crap.

Of course it's more important to make sure all the emojis are correct.

So Aardvarks, you can keep your advice, but thanks for attempting to
start some newsgroup flamage.

[crankypuss]

On 09/22/2016 10:40 AM, Jolly Roger wrote:
> crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 09/21/2016 06:04 PM, Jolly Roger wrote:
>>>
>>> Bad network connectivity is definitely a problem. Glad I don't have it. If
>>> I were living off the grid I'd have *some* sort of connectivity. And I
>>> suppose if not, I'd disable Siri (and refrain from holding down the Home
>>> button).
>>
>> That's great in theory, but if you carry the phone in a back pocket,
>> your ass may not implement that particular kind of restraint.
>
> Sounds like a personal problem.

Then personally you can go fuck yourself.

> I never put my expensive electronic devices
> in any situation where they can be mishandled, including forcing them to
> endure all my weight by sitting on them. To me that's a very foolish thing
> to do. I treat my expensive electronics with care because I intend to
> either resell them for a profit or hand them down to someone else when I am
> done with them.

I throw my garbage in the trash, or recycle it somehow. I'm not going
to bow down and worship some $500 piece of junk, nor am I going to foist
it off on some innocent.

>
>> Sometimes we have decent connectivity, sometimes not. It seems to vary
>> greatly based on time of day (probably load-related) and atmospheric
>> conditions, higher humidity seems to give better signal strength on our
>> end than when things are dry. On Verizon's coverage map we're just
>> outside their claimed coverage area.
>>
>> Doubtless I would have better connectivity if I moved to a city, but I'd
>> rather live with intermittent connectivity than live in a city.
>
> Realistically, you don't have to live *in* a city to get good network
> access - just near one. It's quite possible to have good connectivity
> living somewhat far away from a city. It's only when you get really far
> away from everything that you start to have problems.

It's only when software providers are more interested in reaping the
dollars of kids who want emojis and constant music that you end up with
shit situations like this.

>
>> It just seems way messed up that Apple's flagship mobile os can't cope
>> with bad connectivity conditions and drains the battery trying, they
>> seem to believe everybody lives in Cupertino; been there, have the
>> scars, not going back. It's not like turning off voice control has
>> never been asked for (cf above link), and it can't be that big change.
>
> Then again, considering it's clearly your choice to spend that much time in
> areas with crappy connectivity, how hard is it for you to simply turn on
> Airplane mode once you get there, and flip it back off when you leave?
>

Currently the only way I can keep the thing charged all day is to leave
Siri on, cellular-data off. That sucks, imo.

Is Airplane mode better somehow than turning cellular-data off?

>>>> Suggestions for putting a bug in Apple's ear?
>>>
>>> If you want to file a big report, you want:
>>>
>>> <https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/>
>>
>> Thanks, but I'm just going to wait and see.
>
> Then why'd you bother asking?

Thought somebody might post their director of software's private email
address or something, go figure.

>
>>> I'm liking iOS 10, overall. Though there are things I dislike. AirPlay
>>> seems to only offer mirroring on my iPhone 5 now, which makes playing
>>> content on my Apple TV choppy and more problematic than normal. And a
>>> couple apps I use obviously need a round of bug fixes. : (
>>
>> I'm not seeing that much difference, other than the push-home-button
>> change which is reverted easily enough,
>
> Not on my iPhone 5, it seems. I now *have* to press the Home button twice
> to log in. A minor irritation.

Are you sure? It's in Settings>General>Accessability>Home-button as I
remember.

>
>> and the new look for the
>> control-panel and notification-area.
>
> I like the changes to notifications; but the splitting of the control panel
> into separate pages seems arbitrary.

It's a pain in the ass that they've added another swipe in order to get
to the widgets. They must have teenagers designing these things so they
can all play pokemon or some shit.

> It complicates what was otherwise
> simple and seems like a step backwards to me. For a day or so after the
> upgrade, I thought iOS 20 was limited to only mirroring in AirPlay, until I
> realized there was a second control page that had the normal AirPlay
> control I needed. I hope they reverse the decision to split it up into
> multiple pages, personally.
>
>> And the addition of the Home app,
>> which thankfully can now be disappeared.
>
> I like the Home app, and hope to one day use it with my network cameras. I
> like that you can hide some builtin apps too.
>
>> Some things work better, others no worse mostly. Though I have been
>> seeing some instances of non-response in the Settings app, sometimes it
>> acts hung-up and doesn't notice a tap on a button, but going to Home and
>> back usually breaks it loose; I suspect this is due to some network
>> issue hogging the processor, which indicates some fairly crude code, but
>> it's theirs to solve and not mine.
>
> Airplane mode would likely fix most of your network-related issues.
>

Why is "airplane mode" better than turning off cellular-data?

[Jolly Roger]

On 2016-09-23, crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 09/22/2016 10:40 AM, Jolly Roger wrote:
>> crankypuss <undisclo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 09/21/2016 06:04 PM, Jolly Roger wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Bad network connectivity is definitely a problem. Glad I don't have it. If
>>>> I were living off the grid I'd have *some* sort of connectivity. And I
>>>> suppose if not, I'd disable Siri (and refrain from holding down the Home
>>>> button).
>>>
>>> That's great in theory, but if you carry the phone in a back pocket,
>>> your ass may not implement that particular kind of restraint.
>>
>> Sounds like a personal problem.
>
> Then personally you can go fuck yourself.

And you should do whatever helps you feel better, of course.

>> I never put my expensive electronic devices
>> in any situation where they can be mishandled, including forcing them to
>> endure all my weight by sitting on them. To me that's a very foolish thing
>> to do. I treat my expensive electronics with care because I intend to
>> either resell them for a profit or hand them down to someone else when I am
>> done with them.
>
> I throw my garbage in the trash, or recycle it somehow. I'm not going
> to bow down and worship some $500 piece of junk, nor am I going to foist
> it off on some innocent.

Perhaps if you weren't mistreating your electronics, they wouldn't be
"garbage" to throw into the trash. In general, I've found if you keep
your expensive electronics in good condition, you can significantly
offset the cost of new/replacement kit when the time comes rather than
throwing all of it away for zero gain, which seems rather foolish to me.

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 09-23-2016 00:14, Jolly Roger wrote:
> hide the app anyway. So it's just not a problem in any meaningful way, and
> would cause more of a problem than it supposedly solves.

I highly doubt removing Newstand, small or not, would cause any
problems. Or "Home" and "Healthkit," the lack of which before their
invention caused no problems.

I'd also like to know what problem was solved by removing the compass
app from GPS-enabled iPads.

--
Wes Groleau

[nospam]

In article <ns4iut$ncg$1...@dont-email.me>, W. Wesley Groleau

<Grolea...@FreeShell.org> wrote:

> > hide the app anyway. So it's just not a problem in any meaningful way, and
> > would cause more of a problem than it supposedly solves.
>
> I highly doubt removing Newstand, small or not, would cause any
> problems.

it will break codesigning and you won't gain much space anyway.

> Or "Home" and "Healthkit," the lack of which before their
> invention caused no problems.

and after their invention, all sorts of problems have been solved.

in fact, home is one if the major reasons to upgrade to ios 10 because
third party homekit apps mostly suck.

> I'd also like to know what problem was solved by removing the compass
> app from GPS-enabled iPads.

you can't remove what was never there to begin with.

[Jolly Roger]

On 2016-09-24, W. Wesley Groleau <Grolea...@FreeShell.org> wrote:
> On 09-23-2016 00:14, Jolly Roger wrote:
>> hide the app anyway. So it's just not a problem in any meaningful way, and
>> would cause more of a problem than it supposedly solves.
>
> I highly doubt removing Newstand, small or not, would cause any
> problems.

I didn't say it would.

> Or "Home" and "Healthkit," the lack of which before their
> invention caused no problems.

Never said that either.

> I'd also like to know what problem was solved by removing the compass
> app from GPS-enabled iPads.

It was never "removed". It was simply never added. It was never there to
begin with on the iPad.

[Lewis]

In message <ns4iut$ncg$1...@dont-email.me>

W. Wesley Groleau <Grolea...@FreeShell.org> wrote:

> I'd also like to know what problem was solved by removing the compass
> app from GPS-enabled iPads.

It was not removed.

--
Footnote on the High Energy Magic building: It was here that the thaum,
hitherto believed to be the smallest possible particle of magic, was
successfully demonstrated to be made up of resons (lit: 'Thing-ies) or
reality fragments. Currently research indicates that each reson is
itself made up of a combination of at least five 'flavours', known as
'up', 'down', 'sideways', 'sex appeal' and 'peppermint'.

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 09-23-2016 20:03, nospam wrote:
> in fact, home is one if the major reasons to upgrade to ios 10 because
> third party homekit apps mostly suck.

When I had a home, I never needed to control it remotely.
Now that I live on the road, even less.

As for health, my providers and I communicate via their medical records
system, which Apple's API cannot do.

https://www.epic.com/software#PatientEngagement

--
Wes Groleau

[nospam]

In article <ns7963$4ll$1...@dont-email.me>, W. Wesley Groleau

<Grolea...@FreeShell.org> wrote:

> > in fact, home is one if the major reasons to upgrade to ios 10 because
> > third party homekit apps mostly suck.
>
> When I had a home, I never needed to control it remotely.
> Now that I live on the road, even less.

fortunately, apple is not influenced by your personal needs.

[Savageduck]

On 2016-09-25 01:27:39 +0000, "W. Wesley Groleau"

Strange, my healthcare providers manage to communicate via the medical
records system they use, "Healow". Apple's API seems to handle that OK,
on OSX and iOS, and that seems to interact with other systems such as
Epic.
<https://healow.com/apps/jsp/webview/index.jsp>

--
Regards,

Savageduck

[W. Wesley Groleau]

Perhaps I should check with Epic whether they have finally done that
interface. I don't see much point in finding a healow provider just so
Epic can route data through them to the iPad. :-)

Odd thing about Epic's MyChart. I broke an iPad on which I used that.
Was not able to restore backup onto the new one, but I could not find
MyChart in my "Purchased" screen, nor in the app store. I think I found
some info that you had to get a special link from the provider.

I had not gotten around to doing so, but after the IOS 10 install,
MyChart appeared on my home screen again!


--
Wes Groleau

[Arlen Holder]

On Sun, 11 Sep 2016 15:48:08 -0600, crankypuss wrote:

> Is there any application, free or paid, running under Android or iOS or
> linux, that performs dictation (voice-to-text) without requiring an
> internet connection? TIA.

UPDATE:
You can now share an Android offline audio transcription to a text file!
<https://i.postimg.cc/DZhJ3sft/recorder01.jpg>
<https://i.postimg.cc/76NCH6fb/recorder02.jpg>
<https://i.postimg.cc/zG2nnFzg/recorder03.jpg>

In response to this old question, asked of Android 6 in the past:
o offline speech to text
<https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.mobile.android/jDW4LKQ370I/BQ3GXYbiFgAJ>

And of this even older question, asked way back in 2016:
o dictation without internet?
<https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.mobile.android/rJ_UOqEyeoM/uCnpDETCDgAJ>

I just updated our capabilities as of today, at least on Android:
o Offline speech-to-text recorder/transcription unofficial Google Recorder APK port now available for many Android phones
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.mobile.android/_Amn35T16NA>

Here's what I tried on my new $100 Moto G7 on Android 9 (Pie) today:
1. I installed the XDA Developers' port of the "Google Recorder" APK.
2. I turned off WiFi & Cellular Data (and put the phone on Airplane Mode).
3. I recorded a series of audio files and saved them.
4. I pressed the button to transcribe them to text offline.
5. I searched offline for a keyword in one of the transcribed files.
6. I selected that transcription & pressed the "share" button.
7. That gave me the option to share as audio, text, or both.

If you share as "text", it will provide options for note-taking apps.
If you share as "both", you only get the option of email apps.
<https://i.postimg.cc/zG2nnFzg/recorder03.jpg>

As for the OP's question about whether iOS can do this modern
functionality, please see the results from this thread today:
o How do you run speech to text transcription offline on iOS?
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/misc.phone.mobile.iphone/V-piSLZ_I3w>

--
Usenet is a world-wide public potluck to share users' experiences & ideas.