Usage insights expanded - Usage now splits into Time Savings and Valued in Dollars pages, with a custom rate calculator to measure what your time is worth.
Filler word filter - Optionally strips "um" and "uh" from transcriptions.
Branded installer - Custom installer wizard with SimplyTalk artwork and welcome text.
⚡ Improved
Audio reliability overhaul - Microphone signal normalization, zombie stream detection, and a minimum clip length to prevent cut-off dictations.
Faster hotkey activation - Activation delay reduced from 600ms to 300ms with Ctrl+Shift as the default hotkey.
Lower memory footprint - Smarter model loading and GPU cleanup across engine switches.
⚑ Fixed
Memory leak, hotkey misfires, and orb z-order issues resolved.
Calibration wizard float32 crash fixed; orb crash detection tightened from 30s to 10s.
Extensive logging and shutdown hardening across the board.
v1.2.9
May 14, 2026Stable
⚑ Critical Fixes
Float32 JSON serialization (P0) - Resolves config save crashes and eliminates the majority of unclean shutdowns.
Shutdown safety net (P1) - _do_quit() no longer crashes if config save fails, ensuring a clean exit every time.
🛡️ Stability
Orb health monitor (P2) - Automatically detects and restarts the equalizer orb if its process dies silently.
Modifier hold threshold (P2) - Increased from 400ms to 600ms, reducing accidental hotkey triggers during normal typing.
Usage stats restore (P3) - Merges backup data if primary stats were reset during an upgrade, preserving your history.
🔧 Quality of Life
Log rotation - Automatically trims the log file to 1 MB on startup, preventing unbounded disk usage.
Reduced log verbosity - Combined INJECTING/INJECTED events into a single log line for cleaner diagnostics.
v1.2.8
May 13, 2026Stable
✨ Interface
Redesigned About section with sub-navigation
Cleaner License page with inline validation badge
GPU detection results cached for faster page loads
Hotkey suppression during text injection prevents echo
🔧 Stability
Clean log flush on shutdown for accurate diagnostics
Orb overlay positioning uses Win32 work area bounds
Float32 serialization fix for calibration data
v1.2.7
May 13, 2026Stable
🎨 Interface
Redesigned License page - New hero status card with visual indicators for Licensed, Trial, and Expired states. Cleaner key entry area with monospace formatting and a refined layout throughout.
Redesigned About page - Privacy-first messaging with visual pillars highlighting No Cloud, No Subscription, and No Tracking. Improved text hierarchy, clickable website link, and version badge.
Premium card styling - Technology specs and open-source acknowledgments now feature icon headers and alternating row backgrounds for better readability.
Software Updates section repositioned above Technology for faster access.
⚡ Performance
GPU detection caching - System hardware info is now cached after the first lookup, eliminating repeated delays when navigating to the About page.
Persistent audio stream - The microphone stream stays open for the lifetime of the app, removing the overhead of opening/closing it on every dictation.
Performance diagnostics - Each dictation now logs memory usage, inference time, and stream health for proactive monitoring.
GPU memory management - Automatic garbage collection after every dictation to reclaim GPU tensor memory and prevent accumulation during long sessions.
🛡️ Stability
Fixed shutdown crash - Resolved a JSON serialization error (float32) that could cause a crash when saving calibration data on exit.
Fixed desktop shortcut icon - The installer now explicitly sets the SimplyTalk icon on all shortcuts, preventing Windows from displaying a generic icon due to stale cache.
Migrated to file logging - All diagnostic output is written to simplytalk.log instead of console, ensuring errors are always captured in the bundled application.
RNNT engine cleanup - Proper GPU resource release when switching between voice engines.
🔧 Quality of Life
License transfer - Deactivate your license on one machine and re-activate it on another. Your key stays valid.
Hotkey injection guard - Dictation input is suppressed while text is being pasted, preventing accidental re-triggers.
Auto-save config defaults - New settings are automatically populated with safe defaults on first launch, preventing missing-key errors.
Custom app icon - SimplyTalk now displays its own icon in the taskbar, system tray, title bar, and desktop shortcut.
v1.0.0
May 12, 2026Stable
✦ Initial Release
NVIDIA Parakeet RNNT speech-to-text engine with real-time streaming
Moonshine AI fallback engine for CPU-only systems
Push-to-talk dictation with global hotkey (Ctrl+Shift)
System-wide text injection into any active application
Floating equalizer overlay with real-time audio visualization
Smart punctuation and automatic sentence formatting
Usage analytics dashboard with session tracking
7-day free trial with full feature access
License key activation with one-time online verification