Release notes

Nota 0.3.0: offline Amharic notes you can write or speak. This release builds Hohe, the Amharic speech model, into the app. On Apple silicon Macs with macOS 14 or later, Windows and Linux, recordings turn into text and dictation types as you speak, offline from the first launch, with no Python and no model to download (Windows may need one Microsoft component: see First launch).

What's new

• Hohe built in. Hohe now comes inside Nota and runs on your own computer, offline: record, dictate or transcribe a file straight away.
• Sentence ends. Where Hohe is built in, a transcribed recording gets full stops and question marks from a small punctuation model that ships with it. Dictation types the words as Hohe hears them, without marks.
• Accuracy. On a standard Amharic test (the first 150 clips of FLEURS), built-in Hohe gets about 7 characters in 100 wrong (6.82%), the same as Hohe's 8-bit model under Python. In an earlier run on those clips, that 8-bit model scored 6.89% and the full-size model 6.88%.
• Speed. On an M1 Pro, this release turned a 77-second recording into text, sentence ends included, in 35 seconds.
• Memory. Hohe needs about 3 GB of free memory while it transcribes a long recording, and gives it back five minutes after it was last used.

Upgrading from 0.2.0. If you set up Hohe through Python, Nota now uses the built-in copy instead, except on macOS 13, where it keeps using the Python setup. On Apple silicon the Python setup ran Hohe on the GPU, so transcription there may now be slower. The Python setup is still used for BuzzASR. Your notes stay as they are.

Downloads

Not sure which? On a Mac, Apple menu → About This Mac: "Chip: Apple M…" is Apple silicon, "Processor: … Intel" is Intel. On Windows 11, Settings → System → About → System type says x64-based or ARM-based. On Linux, uname -m prints x86_64 or aarch64.

Take the first file in your row: the .dmg (open it and drag Nota to Applications), the -setup.exe (installs Nota) or the .AppImage (one file you run). The .zip and .tar.gz hold the same app unpacked: on a Mac drag Nota from it to Applications, on Windows open Nota.exe inside it, on Linux run nota inside it.

The Apple silicon, Windows and Linux files are about 0.9 GB each (GitHub lists them as 884–933 MB) because the speech models ship inside them. The Intel Mac files leave the models out and are about 125 MB.

First launch

• macOS: Nota isn't notarised by Apple yet, so macOS blocks its first launch. Drag Nota to Applications, then either open Terminal (Applications → Utilities), paste xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Nota.app and press Return; or open Nota once, and when macOS blocks it, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, choose Open Anyway, then open Nota again and confirm.
• Windows: Nota isn't signed yet. Your browser may warn that the file isn't commonly downloaded: choose to keep it. When Windows says "Windows protected your PC", choose More info → Run anyway. Built-in Hohe also needs the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable: on that page take vc_redist.x64.exe (on ARM64 PCs, vc_redist.arm64.exe). The setup guide says Hohe is ready even without it; if Nota then says "Hohe couldn't start" ("Hohe መጀመር አልቻለም" in Amharic) when you record, install it, then close Nota and open it again.
• Linux: AppImages need FUSE 2, which Ubuntu 22.04 and later don't install. On Ubuntu 24.04 run sudo apt install libfuse2t64 once (on 22.04, libfuse2). Then, in a terminal in your Downloads folder, run chmod +x Nota-0.3.0-linux-x86_64.AppImage and ./Nota-0.3.0-linux-x86_64.AppImage (on ARM64, use the linux-arm64 file). If it closes at once, as Ubuntu 24.04's sandbox rules can make it do, add --no-sandbox to the second command.
• Then: Nota opens its setup guide. Its Offline speech page should say "Hohe is ready. Speech works offline.": there is nothing to set up. Allow the microphone when asked, the first time you record or dictate. For the interface in Amharic, open Settings and choose አማርኛ under Language · ቋንቋ.

macOS 13

Built-in Hohe needs macOS 14 or later. On Apple silicon Macs still on macOS 13, Hohe runs through Python as in 0.2.0, and transcribed recordings don't get sentence ends.

• Set up Hohe in 0.2.0? Nothing to do: install 0.3.0 over the old Nota, and it keeps using your setup.
• New to Nota? The setup guide's Set up Hohe button downloads the model (2.4 GB) and a private Python runtime (about 0.6 GB) once. It needs Python 3.10–3.13 or uv installed first, and about 4 GB of free disk. Guide: Setting up Hohe on macOS 13.

Known issues

• On Intel Macs the setup guide still offers Set up Hohe, but the setup can't finish there: skip that page. Recording still saves the sound, but the note then says Hohe isn't set up, which can't be fixed on an Intel Mac.

Tested

These files were built on an Apple silicon Mac. The Apple silicon DMG above was run there: the setup guide showed Hohe built in and ready, and it transcribed a recording with sentence ends. The Intel Mac, Windows and Linux builds have not been run on those systems; the unpacked Windows and Linux builds these files were made from were checked to carry the right ONNX Runtime and the models. Please open an issue if anything goes wrong.

Credits

• Hohe ASR (snapwre/hohe-asr-amharic) is by Chapi and the Dataset.ET contributors, licensed CC BY 4.0, fine-tuned from badrex/Ethio-ASR-multilingual-600M (CC BY 4.0). Nota ships it with its weights quantized to 8 bits and exported to ONNX.
• The punctuation model, 1-800-BAD-CODE/xlm-roberta_punctuation_fullstop_truecase, is licensed Apache 2.0 and built on XLM-RoBERTa (MIT). Nota ships it cut to Amharic and quantized to 8 bits.
• ONNX Runtime is by Microsoft, MIT licensed.

Nota is MIT licensed.

Nota 0.2.0 adds a bilingual interface, the Ethiopian calendar, and tools for spoken notes.

What's new

• English or Amharic. The whole app, including the menu, follows the language you pick in Settings.
• Ethiopian calendar. Dates can show in the Ethiopian calendar, the Gregorian calendar, or both.
• Summarize and organize. A summary, suggested paragraphs, and suggested tags, worked out on your computer with no language model.
• Import a recording. Drop an audio file on the note list, or choose one, and Nota transcribes it into a note.
• A quieter window. Fold the sidebar, and open note info for the word count and reading time.
• A new icon. A quill on parchment.

Downloads

First launch

• macOS: not notarised yet. Right-click Nota → Open, or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Nota.app.
• Windows: not signed yet. In the SmartScreen warning, choose More info → Run anyway.
• Linux: chmod +x Nota-*.AppImage, then run it (add --no-sandbox if it closes at once on Ubuntu 24.04+).

Offline speech

The setup guide's Set up Hohe button downloads the model (2.4 GB) and a private Python runtime (about 0.6 GB) once. It needs Python 3.10–3.13 or uv. Full guide: Set up offline speech.

Tested

These installers were built on an Apple silicon Mac. The Intel Mac, Windows, and Linux builds have not been run on those systems; please open an issue if anything goes wrong.

Hohe ASR is by Chapi and the Dataset.ET contributors (CC BY 4.0). Nota is MIT licensed.

The first release of Nota: offline Amharic notes you can write or speak.

• Write in Amharic or English with Markdown shortcuts (# , - , [ ] , > , **bold**, ==highlight==…), 15 fonts with Ge'ez fallbacks, #tags, [[links]] with backlinks, pinning, an Archive, Today and Todo sections, search and sorting.
• Speak: record a voice note, or dictate into a note and watch the words appear after each pause. Transcription runs on your computer with the Hohe Amharic speech model.
• Zen mode for distraction-free writing and dictation, locked notes (encrypted with your password), export to Markdown, HTML or text, and a full set of keyboard shortcuts.
• Offline: after a one-time speech setup (the setup guide does it for you on first launch), nothing needs the internet.

Downloads

First launch

• macOS: not notarised yet. Right-click Nota → Open, or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Nota.app.
• Windows: not signed yet. In the SmartScreen warning, choose More info → Run anyway.
• Linux: chmod +x Nota-*.AppImage, then run it (add --no-sandbox if it closes at once on Ubuntu 24.04+).

Offline speech

The setup guide's Set up Hohe button downloads the model (2.4 GB) and a private Python runtime (about 0.6 GB) once. It needs Python 3.10–3.13 or uv. Full guide: Set up offline speech.

Tested

The macOS Apple-silicon build was tested end to end: fresh install, setup guide, in-app Hohe setup, offline transcription. The Intel Mac, Windows and Linux builds were built on macOS and have not yet been run on those systems; please open an issue if anything goes wrong.

Hohe ASR is by Chapi and the Dataset.ET contributors (CC BY 4.0). Nota is MIT licensed.