Ollama brings local text-to-speech to Macs with German support

Ollama version 0.40.11 introduces local text-to-speech on Macs with Apple Silicon, using Gradium's Phonon models to support five languages including German, with output piped directly from chat responses. The Phonon models include dedicated 40M versions for German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, plus a multilingual option, offering dozens of selectable voices. However, only the English model uses the permissive Apache 2.0 license; other languages fall under CC BY-NC 4.0, restricting commercial use. Developers can access the feature via an OpenAI-compatible endpoint, with playback starting as text is generated. Ollama claims 35% faster performance than Gradium's runtime on an M5 Max, though comparisons use different precision formats. Windows and Linux support is planned but undated.