Memory Notch
MEMORY NOTCH BLOG
Notes on recording, offline.
Short pieces on private recording, transcription, and keeping your notes on your own Mac.
- AI note taker, no subscription: 3-year costsSeptember 28, 2026Most AI note takers with no subscription are free tiers or betas. Over three years, US$79 once costs less than any plan here, minus AI summaries.
- Bot-free AI note takers: capture isn’t privacySeptember 28, 2026A bot-free AI note taker removes the extra attendee, not the upload. The three kinds, Google Meet’s September 29 change, and why consent is now yours.
- Claude meeting notes from transcripts you keepSeptember 28, 2026Claude writes solid minutes if you give it the transcript: paste it into a chat or point Claude Code at a folder. Either way the text leaves your Mac.
- Granola AI alternatives, by why you’d switchSeptember 28, 2026Granola sends your audio to a transcription provider, then deletes it. Five Granola alternatives, sorted by your reason to leave. Prices checked Sept 28.
- How the five-minute trial worksSeptember 28, 2026No account and no sign-up. Every recording stops at five minutes and keeps everything it captured. Here is why, and what a licence changes.
- Local AI note takers for Mac: what stays on itSeptember 28, 2026Five Mac note takers now transcribe on the Mac itself. Where they split is the summary: some write one locally, one sends it out, and one writes none.
- Parakeet vs Whisper, and why we use neither liveSeptember 28, 2026On recorded meetings, Parakeet gets fewer words wrong than Whisper in the vendors’ tests. Both transcribe files; a live transcript needs a streaming model.
- Why your meeting notes don’t need the cloudSeptember 28, 2026A meeting recorder can transcribe on the computer that captured the audio. Here is what that buys you, what it costs, and how to check it.