Guides and engineering notes from building Tota — practical transcription how-tos, and what it takes to run Whisper and a language model entirely on a Mac. Written by the developer, verified against the shipping app.
File transcription
How to Transcribe Apple Voice Memos on a Mac
Turn any Apple Voice Memo into a text transcript on your Mac — offline, with automatic speaker labels, and no upload. Step-by-step, plus when Apple's built-in transcript is enough.
Local AI
Whisper Model Sizes Explained: Which One Should Your Mac Run?
Tiny, Base, Small, Medium, Large v3, Large v3 Turbo — what actually changes between Whisper model sizes, what each needs from your Mac, and which one to pick for dictation vs file transcription.
