Tellie: the Mac voice teleprompter that follows your points, not just your place. (update since July)

Back in July this sub made Tellie the #1 post that day. Thank you. Here's what I've built since.

# Problem

You're recording a video or presenting on Zoom, and you have three jobs at once: look at the lens, remember your points, and watch the clock. A fixed-speed teleprompter adds a fourth job, keeping up with the scroll.

Tellie understands. It matches the words you say against your script, on-device, so it keeps your place when you pause, ad-lib, go back or jump ahead. It lives in the MacBook notch right under the camera (or floats anywhere), and it's invisible to Zoom, screen recorders and screenshots. 40+ languages, all on-device, no account.

Working actors use it, including Sprague Theobald (Law & Order, Only Murders in the Building), who uses Tellie for audition prep.

**New since July: Tellie understands your points, not just your place**

* **Key points.** Think of it as a checklist that listens. Mark the points you have to make. Say one in your own words and Tellie still checks it off, so you know it landed.
* **Time**. Give your script a time budget (or let it figure that out based on your speaking rate) and Tellie lets you know what to cover while there's still room to fit in what matters.
* **Take Coach**. After each take, a short read on what landed and one thing to try next time, completely on-device, nothing leaves your Mac". Optional, one switch.
* **Companion**. Your iPhone or iPad becomes a second screen beside the lens, in a camera rig, or as a remote in your hand.
* **Presenter Magic** (Presenter Mode in July). Present in Keynote and your speaker notes appear in the notch, invisible to your audience and your recording.

**Coming next: Nudge** (in testing for 1.7, not in the download yet)

Nudge started as a request from a working actor: if you go quiet mid-line and Tellie can tell you're stuck, ***it speaks your next words in your ear via your AirPods***. Or squeeze the AirPods stem and you get your line right away. It stops the moment you start talking again, and it only speaks into headphones, so nobody else hears it. Hardware in-ear AirPrompter systems start at $10,995; this uses the AirPods you already have. It will be part of Pro at no extra cost. Hear is a sneak peak:

[Tellie Nudge coming in v1.7](https://preview.redd.it/041komfmxoth1.png?width=1664&format=png&auto=webp&s=fc71c575da62b32237481fb74e8b57f896f2f9e7)

# Comparison

The category moved since July. Back then the line was pacing (scroll when you hear sound) versus tracking (know which word you're on). What I'm working on now goes beyond keeping your place: *helping you cover your points* which makes it great for interviews, sales, teaching, meeting and more. The two I'd compare:

* NotchPrompter (free and open source via GitHub; also sold on the Mac App Store): voice-activated scrolling that starts when you speak and pauses when you stop, hidden from screen sharing and recording. It supports Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. If you want a free voice-activated prompter, it's a genuinely good choice.
* CueNotch ($29.99 lifetime or $7.99/week in the U.S. App Store; free tier is 100-word scripts, three activations a day): it says it "moves the script as you speak" and offers AI rehearsal feedback and a presentation timer. It supports Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

**Where Tellie is ahead**: it credits your points when you say them your way and helps make sure you fit everything in time. It also coaches you after the take, puts the script on your phone or iPad, and pushes text from any app with one shortcut (AI agents can send to it too, through a URL scheme and an MCP server). Coaching isn't unique to Tellie; CueNotch offers it too but Tellie is a tiny 4MB download with zero LLM.

Where they're ahead: both are on the App Store and support Intel Macs (Tellie is Apple Silicon only), and NotchPrompter is free. If I've got either of them wrong, tell me and I'll fix it.

# Pricing

Tellie Free: $0 forever. A full teleprompter (scroll, speed,

keys, any display, Pages, Word, PDF, Markdown and text), invisible to Zoom, auto-updates.

Tellie Pro: $29 once, no subscription. Voice Follow in 40+ languages, key points and timing, Take Coach, Companion and Presenter Magic. Up to 3 Macs, 14-day refund. Every install starts with 10 days of Pro, no card, no sign-up. Nudge joins Pro when it ships later this month.

Download: [https://tellieapp.com](https://tellieapp.com)

**Disclosure** *(per the sub's transparency rules, so you know who's behind this):*

I'm Steve Chazin, a real person with 30 years in tech, including Apple, Cisco and Salesforce. LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/chazin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chazin). I write "AI for the Rest of Us" at stevechazin.com. I worked at Apple for nearly a decade, and Steve Jobs personally asked me to come back. So I tried to make Tellie magical and feel like part of your Mac.

Tellie is made by my company, Skytech; reach me at [steve@skytech.io](mailto:steve@skytech.io).

[Privacy Policy](https://tellieapp.com/privacy) & [Terms](https://tellieapp.com/terms)

Tellie is a notarized direct download with Sparkle updates (not on the App Store because sandboxing would break the send-from-any-app shortcut). Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or later.

I ship updates most weeks, and a lot of what's new came from people who wrote in.

**Feedback** I'd love today: if you're saying your lines (actors, speakers, anyone with a pitch) and you blank mid-line, would you want Nudge to speak the next few words automatically, or only when you squeeze the AirPods stem?

Thanks!

\- Steve

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I kept saying “I’ll remember this when I’m back at my Mac.” I never did.

I built an app because I kept forgetting things the moment I got back to my Mac

This started with a really simple problem.

I’d be away from my Mac, remember something I needed to do when I got back, and think “I’ll definitely remember that.”

Then I’d open my Mac, see emails, browser tabs, messages… and completely forget.

Normal reminders never really solved it for me because I didn’t want to be reminded at 4:00 PM. I wanted to be reminded when I was actually back at my Mac.

So I built WakeMinder.

You can send a reminder from your iPhone or Apple Watch to your Mac, and it shows up when your Mac wakes up.

It doesn’t have to be just text either. You can send links, screenshots, images, PDFs and files. Links can even open automatically when the Mac wakes.

There are also floating reminders that can stay on top of your windows until you’re done with them.

And with the latest update, it now works the other way around too.

You can send something from your Mac to your iPhone and have it show up when you pick up your phone.

So the idea has become less about “reminders” and more like:

**“Show me this when I’m actually on the device where I need it.”**

**I’m the developer**, so obviously I’m biased, but I built it mainly because I genuinely wanted this for myself.

For anyone wondering about pricing, I’ve tried to keep it pretty inexpensive:

* $1.99/month
* $9.99/year
* $12.99 lifetime, currently 35% off

**App Store pricing can vary slightly depending on your country.**

WakeMinder is available on the App Store for Mac, iPhone, and Apple Watch.

App Store: [https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6744974871?pt=127772248&ct=redca&mt=8](https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6744974871?pt=127772248&ct=redca&mt=8)

I’m still improving WakeMinder and would actually like to hear how other people handle this.

Do you ever have things you only want to remember when you get back to a specific device?

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Hello!

I wrote about this in the thread on the clipboard manager, but I decided to start a separate discussion, if I may.

There’s been so much talk about this app lately that it feels like there might be a catch. The last time there was this much hype was around Raycast—an app that now regularly draws complaints following its platform shift and monetization changes. Won’t the same thing happen down the line with this wonderful new all-in-one app, once people have built their workflows heavily around it?

For what it’s worth, we’ve already seen this happen with Alt-Tab, which started monetizing after years of being free. Yes, in that thread—from which the following excerpts are taken—the developer wrote that the app would remain free, but still.

Below are quotes from users whose comments resonate with me and reflect yet another aspect of my thoughts and feelings described in the thread "Dedicated apps vs “Swiss Army Knife” apps":

"the thing i'd add that hasn't come up: the failure modes are different sizes. when a swiss army knife app gets abandoned, or one module quietly rots after an os update, you lose ten things at once and you're rebuilding your whole setup from scratch. when a dedicated app dies you lose one and swap it in an afternoon." - user QuietPerennial

"the deciding factor for me isn’t RAM, it’s permission and failure scope. a bundle combining screenshots, input tweaks, cleanup and updates may need several powerful permissions, so every update touches one larger trusted surface. i’d consolidate low-permission conveniences, but keep anything needing Screen Recording, Accessibility or destructive file access separate unless the integration adds real value." - user clamshell\_dev

"...So my actual advice: pick the one or two things you care about most, and keep dedicated apps for those. Use the bundle for the long tail you would never install five apps for." - iordv (Droppy's developer)

So, based on all of this, I have a few questions:

1. If I already have Supercharge, Alfred, Cleanshot X, Shottr, Dropover, Rectangle Pro, Antinote, Drafts, Stats, and Linear Mouse, should I install Vorssaint?
2. How secure is Vorssaint (it seems to require way too many permissions)?

Thank you!

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Every app thread on r/macapps lately
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