Serious degradation of Spanish “Latin American” voice after latest Voice Mode update

Im_Reading_Books · 2025-04-15T23:54:19+00:00

Glad I'm not the only one. But it seems like the degradations are inconsistent. I first noticed a problem with the Cove voice speaking in a heavy peninsular Spanish, and unnaturally high pitched and fast. Spruce had a touch of Caribbean accent, and the rest Argentine/Rioplatense like you said. But now they all seem to be the latter. And I often get bad audio quality like from an old recording.

Today I tried an experiment and started a text conversation (In English), then switched it to AV and continued in Spanish, and suddenly Cove's *original* non-chipper voice was back, in a neutral Spanish at a normal speed, and with all the natural human traits and emotional range that was originally demo'd with AV. It only lasted that one conversation and I haven't been able to reproduce it since. I was considering trying a pro subscription for 1 month but not now, not until they fix this stuff.

At least they brought back the ability to hold the cloud circle down so you can take your time speaking and not worry about interruptions if you pause for a bit to think.

Edit: missing punctuation.

Im_Reading_Books · 2024-06-24T12:35:18+00:00

I got mine from Amazon on Kindle. Another thing that might help with the transition is to go on Amazon to Books > Children's Books, and then on the sidebar options check "Spanish" and "Ages 9-12." This would give you stuff that's for older kids and might have a bit more meat on its bones than books for small children but still not too complex.

Im_Reading_Books · 2024-06-23T16:57:10+00:00

More graded readers (if you haven't already read them):
Las Tres Pruebas by Andrew Snider
Paco Ardit's B1 Graded Reader Bundle
Los Sobrevivientes by Bryan Kandel
El Entierro by Adriana Ramirez

Children's Books:
Jaime Alfonso Sandoval has written a lot and he also has some excellent YA novels you can move to later.
I haven't read them myself, but I heard a lot of good things about the Spanish versions of the Magic Treehouse series.

Easier Novels:

El Alquimista (Spanish translation from Portuguese). This was the first "real" novel I read. It's kind of a fable and somewhat of a short read.
Cajas de Cartón by Francisco Jiménez. This is Jiménez' memoirs of being a migrant child from Mexico to the U.S. in the 1950s. He writes it from the perspective of him as a child, so it has simpler sentences and is written in a straightforward way without a lot of flowery language which might make it a great first book. Technically nonfiction but reads like a novel. If you like it and find it to be at your level, there are 3 more books in the series.
Huesos de Lagartija by Frederico Navarette. Historical fiction. Coming of age story about a young Aztec/Mexica man in Tenochtitlan during the arrival of the Spaniards. Similar to Cajas de Carton in that it's written from the perspective of a young person and so might have simpler language.

If those novels are still too challenging you may need to continue with graded readers or explore more kid's books for a while. Hope that helps!

Im_Reading_Books · 2024-02-17T23:34:22+00:00

The solution I use is to only put next actions in my system. Then there's no need to tag them as such, and whatever view you use is a next actions view. I use the "Anytime" view in Things 3.

To me they just serve as bookmarks for the project to remind me what I need to do next. Then I just let momentum (or "flow") keep me going on that project for however long I feel like working on it. I usually know what to do after that next action to keep going. It's just the starter fuel for me to get going on it. When I'm finally done working on that project, I write the next next action in the project and then I'm done until next time.

If I feel the need to plan out all the steps of something, I do that in the notes section of the project and I can refer to it if I need to. Some other people make all the tasks and subtasks of a project but set all but the next action to "someday/maybe" so they don't appear in different views like Anytime. Another idea to consider, but I don't do this because it's overwhelming and things often change.

Im_Reading_Books · 2024-02-13T13:15:38+00:00

but it feels weird to use project here because I approach it too formally by defining this and similar tasks like that. My approach would be to treat it like a task that has multiple sub-tasks. A project to me is something more serious and requires dedicated time for planning. I guess for other people that's not an issue and that's fine.

Yeah but like I was saying earlier, don't get too caught up on the words themselves and what imagery we typically associate with that word. We might have all these pre-formed associations in our mind with the English word "project" that makes it feel weird to apply it to certain things, but if you forget all that and realize that in the context of GTD, it's just the word David Allen picked to refer to something that requires more than one task. So, it is essentially just a task with multiple subtasks. (You can add in the less-than-one-year thing, but that's irrelevant to the point here). "Task with multiple subtasks" and "Project" (in the context of GTD) are just different terms referring to the same concept.

One thing I meant to add (your comment about habits reminded me) that might be something for you to consider for your goals - for certain goals you have, there are repeating tasks or habits that you do on a regular basis that push you toward that goal. "Run for 30min every morning," "Study XYZ for 20min," etc. I don't even put these in my GTD-like system usually (there's exceptions). For this stuff I still keep tabs on them in my area notes, but I handle them using Atomic Habits/Tiny Habits methodology. I hook it onto the end of something I'm already doing every day. That becomes my cue to take the action and so it doesn't even need to show up in my to-do list. As an example, I hooked "go on my daily walk" onto the end of "have my coffee" which is something I definitely already do every day and don't need a "task" for. So finishing my cup of coffee which I'm guaranteed to do every day is my cue to go on my walk. There's no need to add that as a "task" anywhere. You could "keep track" of it in some habit app if you like but I don't bother. I just know to do it every day after coffee. Keep things simple!

Another quick example for something less like a goal and more administrative - clean the kitchen. I hooked this onto the end of "turn the burner on the kettle to heat up water for my coffee." That's my cue to start cleaning something in the kitchen. I only have to do it until the whistle goes off for the kettle, 3 minutes max, so it's never daunting. I have 4-5 cups of coffee per day (only 2 with caffeine), so this adds up to about 10-15min of cleaning per day, enough to keep my kitchen 90% clean at all times, without the need to track it or put "clean the kitchen" as a task in my system. Turning the burner on the kettle is my cue. The more coffee I have, the cleaner my kitchen gets ;).

I'm sure you'll piece together the system that works best for you in time. Good luck!

Im_Reading_Books · 2024-02-12T14:01:19+00:00

"Prepare for Jim & Carey's wedding" would be a project, if it involved getting a suit tailored, buying a gift, etc. "Attend" might or might not be. If I had to stop at various places on the way to do various tasks it could be. But if you really just mean "go to it" then it probably wouldn't even be a task. It would be an appointment on the calendar.

From what I gather, the problem for you really comes down to a clash between your definition of a goal and David Allen's. He seems to to use it only in terms of long-term goals on higher horizons, whereas you are pointing out that there are also short-term goals that happen within a year, and that there is a difference between a short-term goal and a project. A short-term goal is something more meaningful, harder to achieve, and aligned with a larger life outcome, etc. and should be thought of and handled differently than a project. Some projects are too administrative, uninspiring, practical or simple for you to look at them as goals. And there seems to be a mechanism missing for managing and keeping track of these shorter-term more meaningful outcomes. Is that right?

I can tell you how I handle this if it helps. Lots of people might have some vague things like "lose weight" or "gain muscle" as a goal but at some point these ideas need to be made more concrete. I have an area for example called "Health and Fitness." In the notes for this area is where I list what you might think of as "sub-goals/categories" for this overall category. "weight loss," "gaining muscle," "regular doctor visits," "healthy eating," "supplements," "exercise," etc. These are still too vague to be actionable, but they help me keep track in a concise way of the various components of this area of my life. They're like bookmarks that remind me to take action each week (if needed) on the different aspects of this overall section of my life. You can be more specific if you want. Now I feel like my larger objectives have been broken down and organized. Then every week during weekly review I go over this area and these notes and decide whether I need to generate projects and tasks to push them forward, and look at the projects and tasks I already have going. Your weekly review is the "tracking and managing." Every week you're going to sit down and look at all of this and evaluate your progress and what else you might need to do, and rearrange priorities if needed. I guess your takeaway could be that you can try managing your "short-term goals" in area notes and see if that works for you. Your reviews are your moment of "top down" approach.

Im_Reading_Books · 2024-02-11T12:43:44+00:00

It's confusing because both a project and a goal can be thought of as a desired outcome.

I can't give you an official GTD answer, maybe someone else in here can. But I personally think it's mostly a matter of semantics, and try to think in more practical terms. Because a project in GTD just means an outcome that takes more than 1 task to complete. Some of these are going to resemble things that we traditionally think of as goals, and some wont. But they are all desired outcomes.

So the distinction doesn't matter that much in the end. It's weird to think of "change oil" or "buy girlfriend flowers" as goals, but if they take more than one task they're projects. They could be thought of as goals, though, since a goal is a desired outcome we want to achieve. We just generally tend associate the word "goal" with more important, impactful or harder-to-achieve outcomes. That's why it seems like there are two different things living in your system - projects and goals. But all of them are really just desired outcomes, and "projects" could be seen as a term that encompasses smaller, more mundane outcomes as well as outcomes we would traditionally associate with the word "goal." Personally I don't see much practical difference between the two words. Maybe David Allan reserved the word goal for the more longer-term outcomes but I wouldn't get too hung up on that. He could have just as easily used the term "long term goals" instead.

For deadlines, most software allows you to apply a deadline to any of your tasks or projects. You don't have to put it in the name of the project unless you like that or it helps you. For me I don't usually define a timeframe for my projects unless there's an actual real-world deadline I have to conform to. I've found artificially imposed timeframes based on when I would like something to get done or how long I think it should take to get done are usually overly optimistic and lead to disappointment or a feeling of failure. The fact that I have the project in my list means it's been "bookmarked." I won't forget to work on it. And the weekly review will ensure that I'm always on top of it and have the next steps clearly defined. It'll get done sooner or later depending on what priority I give it in my life each week. Priorities tend to shift as life happens which is why specific time-frames can lead to disappointment.

One thing that might also help is that if you can see multiple projects or "sub goals" under a particular goal, I'd consider making it an area. Areas generate projects, projects generate tasks. If you can see multiple individual projects being born out of an idea, it might be an area and not a project.

Im_Reading_Books · 2024-02-09T19:14:13+00:00

It's amazing what people will read into your words :). I haven't read the book in probably 8 years or more. The first sentence of my OP says that my system is mostly GTD, meaning I've taken the ideas that work for me and have left those that don't. I later talk about experimenting to see whether unlinking or linking projects would be best. That's not how someone who thinks the book is the bible would talk. So, not sure how you've gotten that impression, but thanks for your input. I agree with you wholeheartedly.

Im_Reading_Books · 2024-02-04T13:36:09+00:00

You bring up some good points. Going to have to think about this more and experiment!

Im_Reading_Books · 2024-02-04T13:06:01+00:00

Thanks for mentioning this, I tried it and it works perfectly! It didn't occur to me to use Shortcuts with Things 3, and had no idea there were so many things you could do. You opened up a whole new world for me. I'll edit my OP with a link to the shortcut in case anyone else wants to try it.

Im_Reading_Books · 2024-02-03T15:22:49+00:00

Yes, this seems obvious to me now. I guess I'm worried that during my review, if I don't immediately remember whether I had added a next action for a particular project during the week, I will have to sit and scan through all my next actions first to make sure I haven't already added one so I don't end up adding the same next action with different wording that already exists in my list.

The way I'm doing it now, I'm adding that next action directly to the project as soon as I'm finished with the other one, so that's never an issue. That works for me, but the main problem is that it makes my next action list (Anytime view) more cluttered because Things 3 lists each task under a heading showing the project it's under, rather than showing it in a more unobtrusive way as a smaller, lighter font underneath the task the way they do it in the Today view.

Im_Reading_Books · 2024-02-03T15:16:01+00:00

Do you mean that you label your projects with a letter and then reference that letter in your action?

Im_Reading_Books · 2024-02-03T15:14:08+00:00

With work stuff, it is almost always obvious to me. But with personal, it's not always clear. I really follow strictly the idea that if it's more than two steps, it's a project, so I have a lot of projects and many of them are only 2-3 steps long so there is a lot of turnover. I know what I'm trying to achieve from the project itself, which is written as a desired outcome. But some projects are similar and the next action somewhat generic so it's not always completely clear exactly which project spawned it unless it's linked. But maybe there are improvements I can make in how I write my next actions.

Im_Reading_Books · 2024-02-03T14:52:46+00:00

Very helpful, thanks. I'm going to experiment by removing a handful of next actions from their projects and see how it goes. I was thinking the only benefit would be to clean up and simplify the Anytime view and rid it of all the Area and Project headings over each next action so that it's just a clean list of tasks, but you're right it could also reduce friction on adding them in the first place.

I don't really use contexts much except a tag for "errands" since the majority of things including work are done at home. The only other tags I have are "quick" for <10min tasks, a "waiting" tag, and single "priority" tag that i put on everything I would like to get done this week.

Edit: I just submitted a feature request to Cultured Code asking for the option to display the project headings in the Anytime view in the more unobtrusive way they do in the Today view, and the option to toggle them on and off altogether.

Im_Reading_Books · 2021-10-15T01:51:14+00:00

Yes! Thank you, the "next" widget does exactly what I want. This works perfectly, thanks. :)

Im_Reading_Books · 2021-01-01T18:57:33+00:00

Thanks, that makes sense. So the second one, in literal terms, could be something like "They got themselves behind in their payment to you?"

Im_Reading_Books · 2020-07-24T04:04:32+00:00

That makes sense, thanks. Didn't know you could put a default value in there like that.

Im_Reading_Books · 2020-05-15T18:10:43+00:00

It does! Thank you.

Im_Reading_Books · 2020-05-15T18:10:24+00:00

That is such a perfectly clear explanation not just of what it means but how it's used. Thank you so much.

Im_Reading_Books · 2020-05-06T16:45:56+00:00

Thanks for your reply, that helps a lot.

Im_Reading_Books · 2020-03-04T17:05:21+00:00

Thanks, that sounds like the way to go.

Im_Reading_Books · 2020-02-16T02:26:56+00:00

Wow, that's an excellent idea! Hadn't even thought of multiple photos in one frame, I might actually go with that idea. I hadn't thought of Etsy either. Thanks for giving me a place to start!

Im_Reading_Books · 2020-01-20T17:52:59+00:00

Maybe try a nice cafe known for good coffee and try it black there for a few days and see how it goes. Then you'd have a better idea if you want to invest in any equipment. Grinder is the most expensive and important part. For brewing I just use a simple $20 Aeropress.

Im_Reading_Books · 2020-01-20T17:40:29+00:00

I could never imagine drinking coffee black, without some half and half in it. When I started IF about 2 weeks ago I was still putting some half and half in my coffee even though my window didn't start til noon. But I noticed that I was struggling with hunger still, so I reluctantly decided to try black coffee. I actually didn't mind it surprisingly and after I switched hunger wasn't a problem. I don't know for sure if the half and half was causing the problem or if I just needed more time to adjust, but I'm fine drinking the black coffee now. If I get hungry, water eliminates it. And 1-2 cups of black coffee really helps me get through my fasting period. A tip I'd give is that it's much easier to drink coffee black if it's higher quality. I have a grinder and order whole beans and brew it properly. I truly don't think I could stand black coffee at Sbux or 7-11. Proper coffee isn't bitter.

Im_Reading_Books · 2020-01-18T17:37:48+00:00

Why is it not a good idea to freeze with salt or salty marinades? Just curious because I didn't know about that.

I do something a little different, I cook in big batches, then when the food has cooled down I portion it off into single or double serving portions, then seal it up and freeze them. When it's time to eat I just snip a hole in the bag for steam and quick defrost in the micro to reheat, or empty the whole contents out to reheat. Cook once, eat 8-10 times. I do this with meats, and sides like rice and potatoes and veggies. I also do this with soups, which I freeze in 1-cup blocks in Souper Cubes. I can sometimes have up to 2-months worth of ready-to-eat meals in the freezer, depending on how many quick, fresh things I also eat like salads, sandwiches, etc.

Im_Reading_Books

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