Ollama adds local text-to-speech for Apple Silicon Macs

Ollama version 0.40.11 adds Phonon text-to-speech models on Apple Silicon Macs, with speech available in five languages. The reports describe real-time playback and say Windows and Linux support is planned, but no release date is given.

• Ollama added text-to-speech support through Phonon, a family of models developed by Gradium, for Apple Silicon Macs running version 0.40.11 or later.· 2 sources
• The models support English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese, with separate language models and a multilingual option.· 2 sources
• Speech can begin as text arrives, including while a chat model is still generating its response.· 2 sources
• Ollama says its MLX-based implementation was 35% faster than Gradium’s runtime in tests on an M5 Max MacBook Pro; Notebookcheck notes the comparison used different model precision.· 2 sources
• The English model is available under Apache 2.0; the other language models are reported as restricted to non-commercial use. Windows and Linux support is expected, but no date is specified.· 2 sources