Can Sound Recorder record the audio from calls?
3 Likes
When you got your phone, there was a set of pre-installed apps.
I am assuming that in the future as more become available, people getting their phones then will have more pre-installed apps.
What about people like you, @amarok? Do these new pre-installed apps get automatically installed when you run updates?
I could see why they may (so people who got the phone early on don’t miss out on something they might not know about) but also see an argument against that (Linux users usually HATE it when things get installed without their knowledge or consent).
For example, I would think once the camera driver is finished up and we have a Camera app, that this will be one of the default apps people get on the phone. But, will you have to install it manually since you already have the phone?
No, new apps haven’t been installing by themselves. The only thing that appeared in my app list without intervention from me was Scale Screen, and I think that was only because I had previously installed the librem5-goodies bundle before it became available in the store. Initially librem5-goodies added Contacts Importer, Screen Shot, and GNOME Disks (Edit: and Icon Browser) to my app collection. When Scale Screen later became part of Librem 5 Goodies, which is now an app package itself within the PureOS store, it auto-installed for me, presumably because I had already added the bundle.
I’m not sure if the camera app will install by itself, since it’s more or less considered basic functionality. I wouldn’t mind if it did, though.
Also, there is currently no notification to the user that new apps are available in the store. But whenever I check for and install system updates, and review the list (which does generate a notification on the phone), I also check for new adaptive apps in the store.
Actually, I should rephrase this. “Librem 5 Goodies” shows up on the “Installed” tab in the PureOS store on my phone, but not in the available adaptive apps on the main tab. (All the other adaptive apps appear on the main tab, whether I’ve installed them or not.) I guess that at some point, the bundle or the individual apps it includes will be added to the store.
Yes, it appears so. I started recording a call to the L5 from my other phone and then walked into a separate room. The app recorded my voice clearly, but I’m not sure whether the source it was picking up was the ear-speaker or the internals. (Kind of hard to test this by process of elimination when you’re just talking to yourself.) Sounded good enough to be internals, though.
You could contact the developers of the Sound Recorder app to find out for sure. https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/SoundRecorder
1 Like
Fun fact: those were in the repositories at Evergreen launch already, but there was a bug that prevented them from being displayed in the Store that now got fixed 
8 Likes
OK, but I’ll still grant you the “mad skills” comment! 
No; I mean, well, technically yes if you manually switch the audio device it records from, and you’d have to open it twice to record both audio streams (in and out).
Recording audio from calls is possible and pretty easy, but GNOME Sound Recorder isn’t an app that’s meant for that
3 Likes
Sorry for repeating @amarok , but I’m not sure if you saw the earlier message in other thread. This is only tangentially connected to voice and sound and possibly worth a new thread, but that can wait if it’s not possible to test yet. Regarding voice quality, if you have time and interest, could you test Simon and see if it works for voice commands…? Simon GUI probably doesn’t work that well with small screen (?) but maybe its voice commands can be used to ease L5 use as after initial setup the GUI shouldn’t be needed.
Some voice command ideas
Since it’s easier to remember a limited number of commands, a bit of a “recommended” list could be created based on suggestions. Not sure how some of these would be done in Simon. App opening commands could probably in most cases be piped with the the most common action (play music, read new messages etc.) but some of the apps could have other functions that are needed often too. How about, for starters:
- screen lock
- call emergency [911/999/000/112…]
- close microphones [SW switch]
- close networking [SW switch]
- close wifi [SW switch]
- music open [player - Lollypop or other]
- music play [from library or selection, random]
- music stop [pause]
- music skip [skip to next track]
- music close
- map open
- map location [show]
- map close
- tell battery left [percent or minutes]
- record sound [ambient, phone]
- recording stop
- browser open
- browser goto [+ bookmark name (predetermined address)]
- browser close
- reader open
- reader news [news feed topics?]
- reader close
- email open
- email inbox [new message topics and senders]
- email …
- email close
- messages open
- messages read [new messages/SMS…]
- messages close
- …
Educate me… I have no idea how to test that or where it can be obtained.
Edit: I see the package in the Linux Mint software manager, but it doesn’t show up when searching the PureOS store on the L5, so it must require a different repository.
It would be nice if the dialer simply had an option to save the audio of a call.
3 Likes
Ok. Here is a quick intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghfMMYNOwXo&feature=youtu.be&t=3m19s and more info https://www.maketecheasier.com/simon-linux-speech-recognition/ …and that’s the end of it. Unfortunately I seem to have operated from a fake memory or something. It seems to be discontinued. Which means at best compiling from an old source. Sorry, should have checked that first. I’ll have to see what the alternatives are currently.
As a side note, with linux phones, I would think such assisting technologies would get some new traction and life. Any possibility that some of these would find their way to L5 repo (hinting to @dos)?
As I mentioned, it’s still available in Linux Mint.
Searching on “speech” in the PureOS store pulls up only some transcription and speech synthesis apps.
Edit: And there are several accessibility apps…probably nothing with Simon’s capabilities.
1 Like
This.
I suppose the safe approach regarding the Camera app would have been to install a dummy app with the first Evergreens. Then there will be no need for someone to manually install the working app when it becomes available and no need for the operating system to install something without the user knowing about it.
1 Like
There were no pre-installed apps added since Evergreen release, FYI. We’ll very likely add camera, calendar and file browser apps in the future and then those will get installed automatically with updates (unless you have removed their metapackage from your system), but generally we try to keep the set of pre-installed apps to minimum.
2 Likes
to this.
I prefer the philosophy of starting with very little and the customer chooses to install what the customer wants. Rather than the ‘mass of bloatware’ that seems industry standard. With most people having internet connectivity and at least reasonable speed and reliability, the repository can be considered an extension of the phone, and the phone can grab things as and when they are needed.
This approach also reduces attack surface. Who wants to be pwned by a security bug in an app that they didn’t even know they had on their phone and have never used?
I wish all vendors (Apple, I’m looking at you) did that. There are a few default-installed apps on the spiPhone where each update of the app is like a gigabyte download. That is where I draw the line. App, be gone.
7 Likes
To my understanding Mycroft is web/cloud based and therefore gets the same status as Siri, Cortana and other spyassitants. Simon and others are standalone, fully in your personal control (with obvious drawback being of course some limited functionality in comparison, but still good for many voice commands and navigation).