mkiolJun 21, 2025

#SpeechNote 4.8.0 is now available on #Flathub!

Release highlights:
- New TTS engines: Kokoro, Parler-TTS, F5-TTS
- Support for Global Keyboard Shortcuts and "Insert into active window" on Wayland
- Many new STT and TTS models

If you are using the GPU add-on, update it to version 1.4.0 as well.

Video presenting all the changes: https://youtu.be/ww6skKOOzZ8

Full changelog: https://github.com/mkiol/dsnote/releases/tag/v4.8.0

Speech Note 4.8

YouTube
Show threadRavi Yee JoshiDec 25

@mkiol this is a game-changer for me. I'm so grateful you created this. My only request/suggestion is to be able to highlight text in the system and punch a single hotkey to have it read out loud without having to send it to the clipboard. I think there's an 'xsel' function, no?

I'm confident you've already looked into this, so your response saying "no this isn't possible or practical" is fine by me!

THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Show threadmkiol
@raviyeejoshi Hi. I think this is possible, as long as the text can be copied. It can be implemented with these steps:
1. User selects text and activates (new) global keyboard shortcut "read selected".
2. SN saves the current state of the clipboard.
3. SN simulates pressing the "Ctrl+C" keys, placing the selected text in the clipboard.
4. SN uses TTS to read out the text from the clipboard.
5. SN restores the original contents of the clipboard.
Good feature for Speech Note 4.9 :)
Dec 25 at 4:19pmWeb
Show threadRavi Yee JoshiJan 13

@mkiol thank you! Some cursory research also said that Wayland (vs X11) has explicit protections against other apps reading what’s selected in another window.

Perhaps there’s a workaround or proper way to do it.

Honestly I feel your utility should find its way into distros “out of the box”. For those of us with disabilities, it’s a necessity. Thank you!