Mark A. Kellner

KELLNER: Voice system searches as user speaks to iPhone

Somewhere, maybe, James Doohan is smiling.

November 24, 2008

KELLNER: High efficiency with MacBook

Is it morally wrong to spend $1,299 on a new MacBook from Apple Inc. when you can buy a decent notebook computer for half that price or even a recent white-plastic-encased MacBook for $999? The way some initial reviewers have been talking -- including two District-based scribes -- it's almost classist in some way to spend the extra bucks.

November 19, 2008

KELLNER: BlackBerry’s Bold pricey but platform, keys striking

I'm not dissuaded from the Bold, either, even if its list price is steep and even if, after discounts, its price is on a par with that of an 8-gigabyte iPhone.

November 17, 2008

KELLNER: Don’t get hooked by ‘phishing’ schemes

It looked innocent enough. Heck, it even arrived on my iPhone. "It" was an e-mail purporting to be from Apple Inc.'s MobileMe service, the online e-mail, file-storage, photo-sharing, Web-hosting wonder formerly known as .Mac. And, I'll admit, I've come to place more than a little trust in Apple.

November 10, 2008

KELLNER: G1 mobilizes competition for iPhone in cell tech

If you're wondering whether you should buy the new T-Mobile G1, the hand-held phone/e-mail device running the "Android" operating system, or pay $20 more for a basic Apple iPhone, here's a definitive answer:

November 3, 2008

KELLNER: Make the most of your tunes

Digital music is getting better and better. I can't imagine a better time in which to live.

October 29, 2008

KELLNER: Dell Vostro a notebook for efficient work, travel

For about $1,000 - before the $50 discount offered online - Dell Inc. will send you a Vostro 1310 notebook. It runs Microsoft Windows Vista, has a 160-gigabyte hard drive that's supposed to resist damage in a fall, a DVD-burning optical drive and 2 gigabytes of memory, though it's now shipping with 3 GB.

October 27, 2008

KELLNER: Bible, study references available to Mac users

If you're a Mac user with a hankering for good Bible study software, Accordance 8 from OakTree Software might well be your cup of tea. Starting at $59 for a basic starter configuration and going up to $299 for a version with many more reference works, you can find a lot of good study resources to help unlock the Bible's meaning and message.

October 20, 2008

KELLNER: Musings on mobile availability in Manila

Mabuhay, or welcome, is the word one hears all over this bustling city, where gasoline sells for around $2.25 per gallon, and the SM Department Store is offering 10 percent off on a "Barong Filipino," the national dress shirt and one much more amenable to the high humidity here than even a linen suit.

October 13, 2008

Database expands reach of Interpol

A distance of 2,900 miles — and two time zones — separate Vaduz, Liechtenstein, and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

October 1, 2008

KELLNER: Computer-free digital radio

With apologies to Pete Townshend and the Who - not to mention Laura Branigan and Tenacious D - the squeezebox issue first raised in 1976 has seen a polarity reversal.

October 1, 2008

KELLNER: Scan in business cards, build a database

It may be a sign of mania, but I've been on a couple of "jags" lately. One is country music (that Ashton Shepherd sure has a nice voice, and what about Darius Rucker?), and the other is getting my stuff together. Truth be told, I'm doing better with country than with organizing.

September 29, 2008

KELLNER: Mac users can keep receipts Neat, mostly

There may be a few dour souls who actually enjoy gathering up the receipts from their trips, pasting or taping them to paper, and assembling the package for the legions in accounting. I'm not one of them.

September 22, 2008

KELLNER: Portable HP ‘just right’ for travels, use at home

It's another one of those incomprehensible names - Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv5t - but the performance is nearly poetic.

September 15, 2008

KELLNER: Elements 7 worth the money

It'll cost you $100, at retail, to buy Photoshop Elements 7 for Windows, the latest consumer-oriented photo manager/editor/organizer from Adobe. Dare I suggest that it'll cost you far more - in time, aggravation and who knows what else - if you don't.

September 10, 2008

KELLNER: Chrome browser is fast, free

Brother, this thing is fast. Faster than anything I can remember seeing. And, it's free, although right now for Windows only.

September 8, 2008

KELLNER: Are you ready to ooVoo?

It was in 1964, the year he was born, Philippe Schwartz told me the other day. AT&T, which once was a big deal in regular telephony, had demonstrated a Picturephone at the New York World's Fair.

September 3, 2008

ON COMPUTERS: PlanPlus Online organizes enthusiasm

PlanPlus Online (www.planplusonline.com), which is the digital embodiment of the Franklin Planner made famous a number of years back, now supports mobile devices, and quite nicely.

September 1, 2008

KELLNER: Vista gives TouchSmart fits and starts

Few things can be more disappointing than the expectation that something will be far better than it turns out. I'm afraid to say this is my experience with the Hewlett-Packard TouchSmart IQ506t, which, for just under $1,600, is positioned as an all-in-one computer for the home user.

August 27, 2008

KELLNER: Multiple applications enhance iPhone 3G

Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3G has done for mobile communication what Michael Phelps has done for swimming - impressed a style so deeply on global consciousness that it will be difficult to imagine other options, at least for a while.

August 25, 2008