You come back from lunch, press your talk key, and wait. And wait. The on-device voice model had been put away while you were gone, and it took 20 to 25 seconds to load again. In 1.5.22 it stays loaded.
The voice model stays ready
Cue used to unload the on-device model after three hours without a dictation. The idea was to give memory back to your Mac.
We measured what that really saved. macOS already takes back the memory the model uses within seconds of your last dictation. A model that sits idle holds only 20 to 60 MB. So unloading it saved almost nothing and cost you a long wait.
Cue no longer unloads it. The Unload Model setting now applies only to the older models that run on the processor.
Two smaller things on the same theme. If you start talking before the model is ready, Cue now loads the part that writes your text first. It used to start with the part that shows the live preview, which that dictation cannot use. And the card you see in that moment says what is going on: "Model is warming up. Keep talking. It will take longer for the first dictation."
A better meeting pill
The pill is the small bar that sits on your screen while a meeting records.
- Bars that follow your voice. The bars are now Cue orange. They used to stop moving after a second whenever there was steady sound in the room, such as the call playing through your speakers, because any sound above a very low level counted as full height. They now measure how far your voice rises above the background.
- The card follows the pill. Drag the pill and its note card folds away, then opens again beside the pill where you drop it. It used to stay behind.
- The card opens at once. The first click on the pill took about 1.5 seconds to show the card. It now opens as soon as it has loaded.
- One height. The pill is about 10% taller and no longer changes height when your pointer reaches it.
Dictation in the menu bar
The Private Mode checkbox in the menu bar is now a "Dictation" menu with three choices:
- Cloud. Your voice is written out in the cloud.
- On-device (Cleanup). Your voice stays on the Mac. Tidying the text may use the cloud.
- On-device (Private). Dictation and meetings run on your Mac, with on-device cleanup or no cleanup. Analytics is off.
If you pick an on-device choice with no model downloaded, Cue opens the Models page instead of switching to an engine that cannot run.
Shortcuts that name the side
The orb used to show "⌥" for your talk key. Cue's default keys are on the right side of the keyboard, so people pressed the left one and nothing happened. The orb now says "Right ⌥" to dictate and "R⌘ + N" for a note.
A calmer chat
When Cue looks things up on the way to an answer, every step used to show in full above the reply. They now fold into one line that names the step running right now, such as "Searched notes · launch date". Click it to see every step. A step that needs your approval still opens by itself.
Also in this release
- The four cards on the Dictation page (History, Edits, Modes, Dictionary) look like buttons. Each shows how much is inside, shows "Open" and a small preview when you point at it, and presses in when clicked.
- Coming up on the Meetings page and the Calendar tab show the meetings they last loaded straight away, then refresh. They used to say "Loading upcoming meetings…" every time.
- The engine switcher in the footer is titled Dictation and shows the Meetings engine underneath. It no longer says "Not loaded" for a model that is already warm.
- A menu bar item with no translation in your language shows in English instead of as a blank row.